When news of this bird broke on 16 October 2004, no-one really seemed to know what to do with it. The pager services didn’t mega it: the conventional wisdom at the time (now completely shattered as a concept) was that no bird that only bred east of Lake Baikal could ever turn up here as a genuine vagrant. With no previous Western Pal records, it did not feature in any list of potential vagrants: indeed, like many British birders who hadn’t birded in the Far East, I’d never even heard of it! It just wasn’t on anybody’s radar. Even the Fair Isle Obs team, well-versed of course in eastern vagrants, didn’t know what it was at first, and it spent most of the 15th as a funny-looking Little Bunting, before features were seen that really didn’t match, and they spent the evening poring over books before they found the right identification.
So nobody
jumped at first – the effort and cost of getting to Fair Isle for a seemingly unlikely
vagrant was a major deterrent factor, along with having to take time off work to
twitch it in the week. Much discussion went on for a day or so, while the bird
(thankfully) continued to reside in its chosen oat crop at Skadan at the south
end of the island.
Finally the
dam broke and various crews twitched it successfully on the 18th. A message
appeared on the Birdnet pager that evening offering places on a private flight
going on news the next day from Yorkshire. I phoned Paul Flint and confirmed
that a space was still available, then spent the next hour umming and aahing.
When I phone Flinty back and the space was still free, I decided to bite the
bullet.
Dawn on the
19th found me in Yorkshire with the rest of the crew of five (Flinty, Matt
Mulvey, myself, and I forget who else, sorry). The bird was there, so off we
set. Then we got news of the likely wind speed and direction on arrival: both
Sumburgh and Kirkwall were giving readings that indicated 20-knot crosswinds –
we couldn’t land on Fair Isle in those! Matt was all for turning round, and the
pilot was understandably anxious, so we circled over Montrose Basin for a few
minutes, but I argued (successfully) that we should at least go and see what
the conditions were actually like – it would, of course, be the pilot’s call as
to whether we even attempted a landing.
With
trepidation we arrived over Fair Isle, and luck was with us – the crosswinds
were nowhere near as bad there as they were being recorded either side of us.
Even so, it was tricky, and the pilot tried and failed on one approach before
reversing the approach and coming in from the other end. A bouncy landing, but
we got down OK. A private flight from Blackpool was waiting to see how we did
before attempting a landing, but they got down too.
Once there,
getting to the bird and seeing it was a relative doddle, though it was sticking
to the crop in the windy conditions, so getting a good view was a bit more of a
challenge. Gradually, though, we saw the chestnut ear coverts, and the gorget
of streaks on the breast and the lovely orange band below them (quite
Bluethroat-like in a way, I thought). A lovely little bird, and I duly added to
the proferred ‘tick tin’ (though Matt, still doubtful of ever ticking the bird,
only chucked in a few coppers – I suspect it was him that was noted as only
contributing 9p in the Birding World write-up).
We had time
now to bird a little, and a Waxwing, an actual Bluethroat, and a Northern Bullfinch
made for a nice little back-up cast before a thankfully uneventful flight back
to Yorkshire.
The last of
the big boys (including Paul C) connected on 20th, its last day. Another one on
Shetland in 2012 offered another chance, but a mainland one would be vey
popular indeed.
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