Nighthawk. 14th October 2019

I spent the week on Scilly with half an eye (ok more than half) on the lingering and incredibly showy Common Nighthawk near Ballymena in County Antrim. The photos were gripping as the bird performed ludicrously well on it's daytime roosts and around dusk. I very much hoped it would linger, but they rarely do and it didn't initially seem likely. Ah well, this was the 'commonest' North American land bird I have yet to see on this side of the Atlantic, so there would be another sooner or later I told myself as I tried to put it from my mind. News of it's presence initially came to birders attention on Monday 7th, but it later transpired it had probably been present for a couple of weeks before that. Hopes were raised a little, but still.

But it did stay, and was showing yet again as we drove back home from Scilly on Monday 14th. Naturally I had been hatching plans for this eventuality and I went to work on the morning of Tuesday 15th and awaited news. This was slow coming, so I booked a 13:45 Easyjet flight from Liverpool to Belfast for the afternoon and my first visit to Northern Ireland. Mid-morning news of it's continued presence was a relief, although it had simply made a fly through and changed it's roost habits for the first time. Would it ever return? Was that it moving off finally? I was committed now and certainly not going to see it without even trying, yet I boarded the flight with some trepidation. I collected a hire car and set off on the 25 minute drive. I was about halfway there and received news to say it was present again and hawking. My foot became heavier for the last 15 minutes. Please let it linger...

On arrival I donned wellies and strode off into the riverside field where I could see a couple of birders looking at nothing, before realising that the COMMON NIGHTHAWK was in fact hawking quite high in front of me. Instant success. Wow! It performed superbly for the next 5 minutes or so before dropping down into a distant ash tree.

As I walked closer towards the roost tree Phil Woollen messaged me to say he'd just found a male Siberian Rubythroat on Fetlar! Delighted for the Fetlar lads I was supposed to be with, it doesn't get much better than that.

 

Lee Fuller's stunning shot, taken whilst I was there, but by someone who knows what to do with a camera.

And another of Lee's, take in the morning whilst the sun was still out. Splendid beast.

The nighthawk was on view in the ash tree at around 100m. And there is stayed for the next couple of hours so I settled in to wait and caught up with a few birders including John Rayner, one of Cheshire's finest. They had to leave to catch a boat, so from around 5.30 I waited alone and watched. At about 5.45 it suddenly awoke and dropped from it's roost perch, heading straight over my head and towards the river.

I was in the perfect spot, and for the next 30 minutes or so it put on a show I will long remember, constantly hawking and regularly passing low overhead. The views were breathtaking, and exactly how you hope to see a nighthawk. As darkness slowly descended it dropped to feed low over the narrow river, so I re-positioned myself to the banks and the show continued in a different vain is it moved back and forth along the river, frequently passing within a few feet of me. I'd say this was up there with the best of my twitching encounters of all time. An absolutely thrilling bird.

The return flight was relaxed and I arrived home around 11:15. A perfect twitch (and 545 now by the way).

Almost old school Scilly (7-14 October 2019)

But not quite.

I was initially booked to go to a Fetlar with Phil W, Jase Atkinson and Mark P this October; a consequence of the terrible fire that destroyed the Fair Isle Bird Observatory earlier in the year. However, events at home left me feeling less enthusiastic about the boot camp birding that is autumn on Shetland. So when Andy Carroll offered a room on St Agnes plans were changed and I prepared for a more gentle (but likely birdless week) on the beautiful isle, in the good company of friends, the regulars and some of the ex Cape May folk.

I barely looked at the forecast in the preceding days, but others did the buzz on social media was endlessly optimistic about the charts. Things were looking good for the south west, in fact very good. Perhaps I'd made a good decision, was a Yank year coming? Early signs were certainly promising with the French Atlantic coast scoring Ovenbird and Blackburnian warbler (both national firsts). Red- eyed vireos appeared in Ireland, then best of all Scilly scored a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. A Baltimore Oriole appeared in Ireland too. 

So we headed off to Cornwall on Sunday 6th October. News of a red-eyed vireo at Porthgwarra was promising, but by the time we arrived it was late and there was predictably no sign. News of a Nighthawk in Northern Ireland was a little sickening (a glaring list omission for me and a great bird), but I put that to one side. The Yanks were certainly coming thick and fast now, it was game on. 

And so it proved to be - everywhere except St Agnes.

It was Karen's first trip to Scilly, and I had waxed lyrical about the beauty of the isles and the typically tropical weather. Frustratingly that wasn't the case this week, and we ended up on the Scillonian rather than the plane. Always a joy, but still the journey was fine and we made it in good time to St Agnes and met up with Andy and Caroline for an opening pint.

There were many good birds on other islands - Black & White Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, more vireos (and a Blue Rock Thrush). Surely Agnes was next. Well, erm, no. Agnes was painfully birdless. Nothing of any real note was found whilst I was there, or indeed this autumn. So my St Agnes highlights were limited to -

Blue-winged Teal. One on the Big Pool shortly after I arrived. It seemed a good omen, but next day it moved to St. Mary’s so perhaps it was more prophetic! My second of the year (after the Glasgow bird in the summer).

Photo by Loz @beachybirder

 

Subalpine Warbler. A rather drab immature in the Tamarisks at Cove Vean tea rooms on my final evening. Early attempts to turn it into something rarer were quickly thwarted once photos were obtained. Nice to see watch it sharing a hedgerow with a couple of Firecrests, my only ones of the week.

Subalpine Warbler (@magnusphotog)

After that pickings were very slim indeed. No Yellow-browed Warblers, not even a Black Redstart! And definitely no American landbirds.

The weather was pretty grim throughout. Whilst that should have been good for birds (and was elsewhere), for some reason everything missed Aggie. Graham called this his 'nightmare scenario'; great conditions for bringing rare birds, rare birds all around you, but nothing where you are.

So I twice resorted to trips to St Mary’s in an attempt to see some decent birds. Even this was hard going and most eluded me (especially that bloody cuckoo), but in the end I managed to see the Old Town Red-eyed Vireo and nearby juvenile Red-backed Shrike. Both are always great to see, and it's my first UK vireo in a very long time so it could also have been much worse.

As always with Aggie it's a punt, and it's just as much about the company and the holiday as it is about the birds (ish!). Andy and Caroline was excellent company as ever, and there were plenty of positives despite the dearth of avian entertainment.

Red-eyed Vireo. In a good Yank landbird autumn I was glad to see at least one of them!

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike

The journey home was relaxed and thankfully the planes flew. I really do hare that bloody boat.

So a mixed trip, but I'll always be back.