Saturday 21st started well with an Arctic Warbler in the municipal garden opposite the town hall on Hartlepool headland soon after dawn. Then it was down to Spurn. No sign of the previous day’s Great Snipe, though several scarce migrants were found during the day. Not much would show though, and Paul had a dinner engagement that evening back in Bristol, so mid-afternoon we decided to leave. Around 5 pm, we were as far back as Nottingham when the blow fell – Lanceolated Warbler trapped at Spurn! James had seen the Lancey at Sheringham in 1993, but Paul and I still needed it. U-ey! It was duly shown to a large and appreciative crowd soon after being trapped, then released into the saltmarsh near the Canal Scrape. When we arrived back there we found that it had not been seen since release, mostly because the wardens had placed that area out of bounds (understandably, sure, but that didn’t help us). By dusk we had decided to stay over, but being in a packed Crown and Anchor pub that evening was pretty unpleasant, given that we were the only birders in there who hadn’t seen Lancey that day.
We parked up in the Canal Scrape car park, and Paul and James whacked the backs of the front seats down and quickly fell asleep. This left me, in the back seat, with a problem. I tried sleeping there, but space was <ahem> limited, and after a relatively short time my legs started cramping up. The alternative was the pillbox by the car park, sleeping on the concrete floor with an old plastic lemonade bottle as a pillow. This was more comfortable (yes, really) but it wasn’t too long before it was also rather cold, and I woke up again, shivering. So then it was back to the car to warm up for as long as I could take the cramped conditions, and back out to the pill box to grab some sleep. And repeat. Not my most enjoyable night, it has to be said.
We dipped again next morning, of course, but stayed around for the day as there were still good birds around – Icterine Warbler, Ortolan, Bluethroat, Short-eared Owl, etc. made for a pretty good day (and some very welcome year ticks in my big year), though the Lancey dip cast a long shadow. Then, again at around 5 pm, wallop! Another Lancey, this time at Rimac in Lincolnshire. Not that far as the crow flies, but a long way round by road. We knew instantly that we didn’t have time to get there in daylight, but we just had to give it a go, if only to be able to say we tried. Predictably we ran out of light before we got anywhere near, then went to Mablethorpe for fish and chips. Mablethorpe might be a nice town for all I know, but it looked like a neon-lit, low-budget sh*thole. Or maybe it was our mood at the time.
When we arrived at the car park at Rimac to grab some sleep, I was again in the back seat, so was left with the same problem as the night before. Happily there were Portaloos in the car park, so I bedded down in the Ladies (less smelly and with a much drier floor than the Gents, unsurprisingly) and actually had a decent night’s sleep, considering.
On the Monday morning we duly dipped Lancey yet again, then retreated to a Little Chef somewhere and, with typical birder gallows humour, started compiling our dips lists. (To qualify for dips list, it has to be a bird that you have attempted to twitch, got to the site with a realistic hope/expectation that the bird may still be present, not seen, and still need. Try working your own out: it’s fun, in an odd sort of a way.) Quite an impressive set of birds between us, though I was staggered at how many Woodchat Shrikes James had managed to go for and not see.
While there we got news about a Blyth’s Reed Warbler in the Church Ravine at Filey – a tick for James and I but not Paul. So off we went. Given our track record that weekend I wasn’t hopeful, but in fact I saw the bird briefly but well just after we arrived. James missed it then though, so we hung around for another six hours for him to see it. Even then he wasn’t happy with the views he got, and about a week later did a solo twitch to North Ron for one (they were a lot rarer then – don’t think anyone would do that now).
At last we headed back down south, still all in the same clothes that we had left in on Friday night – we hummed big time! I arrived home at about 2 am on the Tuesday, knackered, and just to add insult to injury I was within 200 yards of home when I got pulled by the police. ‘Have you been drinking tonight, sir?’ After that weekend, I bloody wish!
No comments:
Post a Comment