Its never easy trying to get people to give up a nights sleep to drive overnight on the chance of seeing a Brown Booby (a flying one) near St Ives, Cornwall. After trying a few possible participants for the journey and not getting many positive answers it seemed that a rethink was necessary. Now as it turned out no positive sightings of the Booby on Sunday seemed to justify our decision. A trip to Spurn with Dave W and Rob from Huddersfield was planned with a meeting at 6-30am. First stop had to be the hide at Kilnsea Wetlands, high tide had been at 6-30am, so at 8-30am we still had lots of birds to see from the hide. After about an hour a small flock of waders flew in and one of them was the juvenile Dotterel, it didn`t stay long but close views were had. A few Curlew Sandpipers began moving towards the hide and showed really well, yes my camera was in the car because a telescope is more use really! After a little discomfort began to come over us all, we decided to have a walk to the car for some refreshment. Just as we began to eat our sandwiches news that the White-rumped Sandpiper had flown in and was showing really well almost in front of the hide, the shower of breadcrumbs soon had us all scurrying back to the hide. Now I have seen a few White-rumped Sandpiper`s but this was the best and closest yet. 15 quiet minutes soon past as the hide began to fill up when in walked Darren W and his team from the Leeds area, good to see you all again! We had a look at Beacon Ponds then returned to the car park to ponder our next move. At this point news of a possible Eastern Black-eared Wheatear or Pied Wheatear female at Fluke Hall, Pilling in Lancashire broke!
After a small debate as to shall we or shant we go for the Wheatear concluded with a positive, so a Trans Pennine journey began. We changed drivers in Huddersfield (I have an aunty from there, have I told you?) A couple of downpours on the motorway as we passed a Manchester sign didn`t put us off and the cross England trip was completed as we arrived in sunny and breezy Pilling. Lots of parked cars and a group of around 35 birders could be seen watching the Wheatear, again we hurried along to the spot. The bird was sheltering under a large boulder but soon performed admirably chasing prey items around and perching on top of the sea wall rocks. We watched the bird for about an hour then it was joined by a couple of Northern Wheatears and a size comparison could be made. Due to the difficulty of identifying either Eastern Black-eared Wheatear or Pied Wheatear females a sample of the birds droppings has been taken for DNA analysis then, hopefully the identification can be put to rest. My own thoughts are that the bird is a Pied Wheatear, then what do I know! Certainly a bit of a different day trip out culminating in me getting a Lancashire tick.
