Eastern Kingbird, Barra

There I was on Thursday 29 September 2016, just settling down to an evening seawatch at Burnham-on-Sea, when I got a phone call from Dave Gibbs: ‘Any plans?’ Quick check of the pager – eek! Eastern Kingbird on Barra! A flurry of phone calls later and Paul Chapman, Dave and I were booked on scheduled flights from Glasgow to Benbecula in the morning. Direct flights to Barra appeared to book up very quickly (unsurprisingly) but we later found out there were empty seats on the morning Barra flight! Must have been a technical issue with the Flybe website as we weren't the only ones to try and fail to book.

Off out to my weekly skittles match (where I skittled through and left early – they’re used to it happening occasionally), then up to Paul’s for midnight, arriving at Glasgow airport around 7am. Veterans all of two dips on islands off Ireland in recent years, we were mightily relieved (and not a little surprised) when we found out this one had actually stuck into a second day, but several things could still go wrong, so it was going to be a stressful day. Little did we know then how stressful for some …

‘Hurry up and wait’ was the order of the day: a tedious couple of hours at the airport, a mercifully quick flight then taxi down to Eriskay ferry terminal, then another hour-plus wait for the 1pm ferry with about 20 other birders, with Barra seemingly within touching distance. A good selection of divers, Tysties etc. off the ferry kept us occupied for a while, but then we were left fretting while the cars were let off before the foot passengers. As arranged, an old Somerset birding friend, Bruce Taylor, now resident on Barra, met us at the ferry terminal and drove us up to Eoligarry. Happily we all got on it within a few minutes, and had plenty of good views over the next 45 minutes or so.

I had just been enjoying my best views in its favoured garden opposite the cemetery, while chatting to Barra regulars Ian Ricketts (now a Barra resident – ‘Mammoth’ in his youth, though the hair is shorter and greyer now) and Angie from Norfolk, when it disappeared behind the house. Next I knew was Paul coming to tell us that it had unexpectedly flown off high and a long, long way northeast, lost to view as a speck. Then came the real tale of woe: a crew shuttled on a private plane from Oban arrived in two lifts from the airport – Steve Webb and Simon King made it in time to see the bird, but the other three were just a few minutes later and saw a disappearing speck or nothing at all. You have to feel for them – all twitchers know it can happen, and we all just hope fervently that it doesn’t happen to us (but it has or it will sometime).

Angie very kindly gave us a lift back to the ferry at Ardmore – handy timing for both the 3.45 pm ferry and a further lift off Dan Pointon and John Pegden. Back on South Uist, we stopped at the great little plantation at North Loch Eynort and found a Yellow-browed Warbler, and had a quick look round The Range, then Dan and John dropped us off at the Orasay Inn. Comfortable and great food – recommended.

Saturday after breakfast (haven’t had kippers for years – lush) was a quick check of the gardens nearest to the Orasay, then a taxi to Benbecula airport. As with the Black-billed Cuckoo twitch in the spring, the flight was delayed by nearly two hours – same delay, different excuse, a bit Reggie Perrin if you ask me. Still, the rest of the journey was uneventful (apart from the bad back I had been nursing throughout getting worse), with me arriving home at around 11pm, very happy.