Hudsonian Godwit

Many of these twitching tales involve epic journeys to far-away places, but this one was much closer to home. It still wasn’t quite straightforward though…

On the evening of Monday 20 April 2015 I was standing looking over the wader scrape on Meare Heath, part of Shapwick Heath NNR, with fellow Somerset birder and long-time friend Tom Raven. As is so often the case there was a decent-sized flock of Black-tailed Godwits on there, and we joked about how wonderful it would be if one of them had black underwing coverts. The standard kind of pipe-dream that keeps so many birders going and checking the same places again and again, often for little reward, and certainly without any realistic expectation of the pipe-dream coming true ever, never mind within a few days.

Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall are kind of Tom’s patch most years, and definitely so that year as he was competing in Patchwork Challenge. So he was visiting at least some part of them almost daily. Back at Meare Heath on the Friday evening, in poor weather, he saw an odd-looking godwit but couldn’t nail it. Rather than raise a panic that night over what might be nothing, he decided to go out there again early on the Saturday morning to confirm or refute his initial suspicions.

I had also made an early start, but in my case at Brean Down, out on the coast, where I was due to lead the annual Somerset Ornithological Society field meeting there, looking for spring migrants. The weather conditions overnight did not look conducive for a fall, but there’s usually something to see at least in late April, and some 20 or so birdwatchers were just gathering in the car park ready for me to show them around when the pager went off: ‘Mega. Somerset, Hudsonian Godwit, Meare Heath.’ Oh, s**t!

I’ve led that walk for several years now, and normally I really enjoy it. In fact I should be leading it again this very day, but, well, we all know why that ain’t happening. You always know there is a risk that a bird will break at this time of year, but a real mega, a huge need, in my own county – that I didn’t expect! It’s fair to say that the prospect of spending the next four hours or so trying to dig out a few common migrants in unpromising conditions had just lost what little appeal it had. Happily I had a co-leader that year, the redoubtable Brian Hill, who both does not care about lists much and had seen the ‘Hudwit’ at Countess Wear in Exeter back in 1981. Seeing the state of me over the news, he took pity and very kindly offered to lead the walk on his own. I grabbed his offer with both hands, profuse thanks, and promises of Doom Bars in payment, then left.

Hudsonian Godwit, Meare Heath (Photo: James Packer)

This all still took a little time to organise, and while it’s only about half an hour from Brean to Ashcott Corner and the reserve car parks, I was by no means first there. Paul C had beaten me to it from Clevedon, after some hasty directions to get him through Ashcott village, a confusing maze if you don’t know it. So had Cliff Smith from Frome, and of course plenty of other local birders who were on or near the Levels that morning anyway. But thankfully the bird was still present and showing well, and what a cracker it was! I spent several hours watching it, alternating between talking to local birders and greeting many other birders I knew arriving from further and further afield. Numbers built up rapidly, of course, so it was a bloody good thing the RSPB had not long opened their new large car park on Ham Wall side. No issues on site, though - the situation was ideal for a big twitch, with birders lined up along the main track overlooking the scrape.

Among all of this a Wood Warbler was found just off the (much smaller) Natural England car park on Shapwick side, down the Discovery Trail – an easy bird on breeding sites further west in the county, but rare on the Levels, so plenty of us locals gathered to see that too. Comedy moments ensued when arriving twitchers started heading towards us there, thinking it was the way to the godwit, and we had to explain and point them in the right direction.

I left mid-afternoon to bird elsewhere around the Levels, and so missed the moment, just after 4 pm when the godwit flock flew off west, taking the Hudsonian with them, to the anguish of those still on their way. I spent the next couple of hours scouring the area for godwits, as did a few others, but with no joy – telling desperate birders that we didn’t know where the flock went when not at Meare Heath was met with some incredulity, but it’s not something local birders had ever worried much about before, and there is a lot of suitable habitat out on the Levels. The later arrivals had to go home again empty-handed, devastated to have missed such a mega. (One I know had misread the original message as Hudsonian Whimbrel and not reacted – it wasn’t until his wife asked him about three hours later where he’d seen Hudsonian Godwit that he realised his mistake, and then missed it by under an hour.)

Hudsonian Godwit, Meare Heath (Photo: James Packer)

With no sign over the next few days, it looked like that was it, but happily not. The Hudwit returned to the scrape the following Wednesday and remained largely faithful to it for a week or so, even occasionally roosting there, allowing everyone a second chance to connect. For many who came to see the godwit it was their first visit to the Avalon Marshes, so it was great, too, to hear so many wonderful first impressions – it’s a very special area that’s far too easy for us locals to take for granted.

And Tom in Patchwork Challenge? With a find that good (and others that year, e.g. Dusky Warbler) he smashed it.