Steller's Eider, Orkney - 17th to 19th November 2019

I have moved very slowly for the big birds of the last few months. Sooner or later this is going to bite me, but once again things worked out and I'm grateful for my good fortune whilst it lasts. Must remember that when it's time to pay the piper.

Anyway, back to the point. News of an immature Steller's Eider, found by local birders Don and Sandra Otter, on the Orkney island of Westray on 29th October came as a bolt out of the blue (don't they always?). My initial reaction was to groan; it's a long way for a dull bird, but there was never any doubt I would go. Despite a history of long-stayers, there hasn't been a UK or Ireland record since a 3 day bird in Moray in 2000 when I was abroad. A lot of my generation had seen this species despite it's extreme rarity, but I had waited 19 years since the last one and the appearance of the Orkney bird definitely made me twitchy. As usual, when news broke I was otherwise engaged, in fact I hadn't even seen the Cornish pipit at this point. A few die-hard souls made the trip up north immediately, including mates Malc C and Al Orton, only for it to result in a disastrous dip. Enforced patience would turn out to be a virtue.

Then there was no news for a few days, not helped by the finders being away for a week, but the majority of birders thought it likely the bird was still there somewhere; there's an awful lot of shoreline on Orkney for it to hide along. We may have all thought it, but only the poster-boy of British twitching Dan Pointon had the drive to go all the way up there and look for it (having left Orkney for the Cornish pipit, returning straight to Orkney, finding a Tengmalm's Owl on the way too). So when Dan re-found the eider on 6th November it wasn't particularly surprising, but it was a n absolute triumph for his tenacity. Fair play to the lad. The bird was still on Westray, on the shoreline in the north of the island, where it remained until the next day. Before promptly disappearing again. 

Thankfully David Roche, warden of adjacent Papa Westray (of 2015 Chestnut Bunting fame), was actively searching and came up trumps. In fact the bird had chosen the exact same favoured bay as the last 70s/80s long-staying Orkney Steller's had frequented. And there it has remained, off on and, until at least early December as I write this.

The bird was a drab 1st winter drake, but there have been quite a few very long stayers. Like everyone else, I'll be delighted if it lingers until it becomes a pristine drake and forces another trip north. That, however, is for another time. Right now the tick-hungry lister in me had been hungrily stirred into action.

Balancing commitments whilst finding a quick and easy way to visit Papa Westray was looking like a bit of a challenge, but sometimes opportunities just present themselves. Some months ago Andy had invited me to join him for a Dundee United game on 16th November (vs. Queen of the South), aka a football based piss-up. Full hospitality, no expense spared, what's not to love (well aside from Scottish football...). As it happens, I was then also asked to work in Forres, near Inverness, from Wednesday 20th for a few days. There was a very fortuitous window of opportunity emerging - could I squeeze in an eider assault between Dundee and Forres? I began to look at options, just in case. It just needed the bird to linger, which of course it duly did. The day approached and plans were finalised, I was all set to go. As the bird was a really long way away, and rather dull in nature, Andy of course decided to join me too. He only does distant and drab...

Cutting to the chase, we had an excellent afternoon at the footy (3-0 win for Dundee Utd and a surprisingly good game), followed by a good session with Andy's dad Mick, son Liam and the brilliant character that is Ken Shaw. Excellent company all round, and more than a few beers were consumed. 

None too shabby. Who'd have thought Scottish football could actually be an enjoyable experience!

Sunday 17th November

Next morning, with surprisngly clear heads, Andy and I made our way north, headed for the Aberdeen to Kirkwall ferry. We had plenty of time and it was a gloriously sunny and calm day. Dan (who else?) had found a candidate Black Scoter a few days previous, so it made sense to break the journey up and do some spotting there even if seeing the scoter was a long-shot. I'd never been there before, but Lunan Bay in Angus is breath-taking. There were rafts of sea duck quite close in, mostly Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Ducks, with plenty of Red-throated Divers and a few auks, but no sign of Dan's bird. We decided to move position as there were quite a few birds south of us and into the light. From here there was initially not much new; we kept humming and harring over common scoters which caught the light at distance, but more in hope then expectation. But eventually I picked up what was very obviously the bird in question, identifiable immediately despite it being at some range. Almost immediately, and rather fortuitously, it flew straight at us and just kept coming. In the end I watched it at perhaps 150m range in excellent light, just a shame I didn't have my camera adapter (bloody amateur). An AMERICAN BLACK SCOTER, no doubt of the ID on these views and a great start to the trip. I had really wanted to see this bird today as my views of the North Wales bird in 2001 (I think) were pretty poor, so an upgrade to boot.  

Lunan Bay, Angus. Beaut.

Hand held photos, the best I could manage

We made our way north happy and boarded the MV Hjaltland mid afternoon for the 6 hour crossing to Orkney. Being middle aged soft arses we spent the night in the Kirkwall Hotel, with a couple of beers in the bar before retiring ready for the next day's birding assault.

Monday 18th November

As well as the target clam-hunting quacker, Orkney had been harbouring a Blue Rock Thrush for the last couple of weeks, in a quarry on the tiny island of Lamb Holm. This is conveniently connected by a road bridge/barrier and happens to be close to the airport from where we were scheduled to fly. We had about an 1.5hour window first thing, so we were up and on on it. Despite the perfect conditons the bird refused to play ball and we left empty handed. Never mind, if all went to plan we would have another opportunity. 

We were on the 10.30 flight to Papa Westray. It's fair to say Andy is a reluctant aviator, so he was less than extactic about our means of transport over the Papa, particularly when we found out the flight went via North Ronaldsay and so was 35 minutes and not 10. For me it was a stunning flight over Sanday and calling in on North Ron, so at least one of us enjoyed it! 

Spectacular Sanday

We touched down on Papa Westray on schedule at 11.05, to be met by Andrew Kinghorn who had just left the eider and so was off on an earlier flight. Things were looking positive as we walked the half mile or so up the island to the coast just north of the St Bonniface's Church. No-one else was there, but Andy quickly located the 1st w drake STELLER'S EIDER just offshore, keeping close company with a female Common Eider. Colourful it wasn't, but still a rather lovely and charismatic sea duck - very 'un-eider' like in structure. It stayed mostly about 50m offshore, occasionally diving. After maybe 30 minutes both eiders began to drift south, disappearing round the coast near the church. We searched for a while but had begun to freeze, so decided we'd best figure out how to get off the island as I'd made no arrangements in case we needed to stay.

Steller's mandarin Eider with Common Eider companion, by Sandra Otter

© Peter Stronach. Ugly duckling for now, but destined for beauty. Hope he stays long enough to become a pilgrimage.

The Steller's favoured yet totally unremarkable bay

Happy ugly ducklings, but the chances of spectacular metamorphism appear to be dwindling rapidly. 

 

Tystie. Best dog ever.

It seemed sensible to head to the hostel and shop to figure out our options. There were no ferries and no more flights, so it was looking like a stay. Coincidentally the island warden David Roche was in there, plus Don and Sandra Otter (the original finders). Quite remarkably, Don knew who I was and remembered me from working in the Stamford Arms pub in Altrincham 30 years ago!! Absolutely incredible memory and coincidence. He went on to explain they had been rangers in Dunham Park and used to come in the pub where we'd talk birds; once prompted I remembered, but would never have figured it. All three were incredibly hospitable over tea, and the Otters offered us a way off the island too - there was a school boat back to Westray at 4.30, and a ferry back to Kirkwall in the early evening. Result. We duly went across to Westray, where Don and Sandra (and their brilliant dog Tystie) kindly gave us a lift the 8 miles down the island. On the way we stopped to see the very impressive skull of a Northern Bottlenose Whale on a beach - what an amazing thing that was. We chatted for a while before boarding the 6.00 ferry  to Kirkwall, followed by a curry and another night in the Kirkwall Hotel. A really great day, exactly how twitching should be.

Tuesday 19th November

We had all day today, with the intended plan of getting the ferry off Orkney this evening and heading south towards Inverness. Thoughts had turned back to the Blue Rock Thrush, which frustratingly showed just after we left yesterday and remained on show all day. Surely today it would play ball. Nope. A mere 6 hours spent around the quarry and surrounding area without a sniff, despite it being present until dusk the previous evening. How annoying, but best not let that dampen the trip.

We didn't actually see much, but it was a pleasant day's birding with lots of Long-tailed ducks, Great-northern Divers, Slavonian Grebes and Greenland White-fronted Goose the highlights. Regular scans of Scapa Flow unsurprisingly failed to reveal any Orca (others has seen them the previous week). We had a quick look for waxwings too, but again no joy.  And that was Orkney - a final ferry trip from Stromness to Scrabster on the MV Hamnavoe led us safely back to the mainland and we drove a couple of hours south before beers and bedding down for the night (in luxury, of course).

Wednesday 20th November

Our grand ideas of all day birding quickly dwindled as the last few days caught up on us. We had a look off Nairn for the long staying but very erratic King Eider without success, but did add Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Scaup to the list. After that (and a Costa) we failed to find a Green-winged Teal so headed over to Forres where c110 Waxwings entertained us for an hour or so in the company of Fieldfares and Redwings. Winter is definitely coming.

And that was that. Time to drop Andy at Inverness station and for me to head to work mode. A really enjoyable adventure with Mr C.

The next 3 days I was working exhibitions, but managed to see another group of waxwings (c15) in a tree outside the hotel one morning. On the Friday I was afforded a few hours off so headed off the Grantown where I failed to see Capercaillie (well I did catch a nano-second view), but did at least see Crested Tit. I also failed to locate a snow goose near Inverness airport as the massive goose flock was largely hidden, but it was nice to see the spectacle of Pinkfeet and amongst them three Barnacle Geese and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose before heading back to work. 

Keeping up with the paranoids 13/11/19

OK I’m one of those paranoids too. We listers all are. Missing a rare bird is bad enough, but missing one that everyone else has seen really sucks. There, I said it. I mean, I love birds, all birds, but twitching and listing is distinctly OCD with kleptomaniac tendencies. That leads to what we refer to as insurance listing - the need to go and see something controversial in case it ultimately turns out to be a genuinely rare bird and accepted by the all powerful BOU. Insurance listing is a far stretch from the adrenaline fuelled frenzy of a proper mega, but it’s an increasingly common phenomenon. We are all sheep - once interest is shown in something potentially rare that may even turn out to have been a tick then, one by one, we all crack. Better to see it, just in case, and particularly if everyone else has. Such events occur more frequently with the advent of cryptic species identified only by DNA and sonograms - forensic birding.

So on to the bird in question. A putative Paddyfield Pipit has been present in Cornwall since late October. Unsurprisingly the ID has taken a while and the bird was naturally first thought to be a Richard’s Pipit. But some features didn’t quite fit, and questions were raised. The call was not typical of Richards and once recordings were made then the ID came back as almost certainly Paddyfield. DNA samples have been taken for analysis, but should simply confirm the identity now. The bird is in advanced moult, which doesn’t help matters either. The main stumbling block though, is that this South Asian species is largely sedentary and any vagrancy almost unrecorded, and certainly nowhere near Western Europe. It simply wasn’t on the radar, the sort of species that no-one ever considered a possibility here. But is it wild, could it be an escapee or even assisted vagrant? And why is it in active moult? Who knows, and of course we never will for sure. It seems a very unlikely vagrant and the moult status is possibly of concern too. This is perhaps the ultimate insurance bird then (so far at least). If accepted as a wild bird it is a truly mega rarity despite its lack of charisma. Personally I think it is unlikely to be accepted, but then I’ve been wrong many times and I am also a sheep.

EDIT mid December - Paddyfield ID confirmed by DNA.

Some two weeks after the true hardcore twitchers had been and gone, I eventually cracked and made the long journey to Sennen with Phil W on 13th November. We arrived at 9am to find a small group of dejected birders who’d not seen the bird. We decided to move to another part of the same huge field where it had been known to frequent and Phil picked it up immediately, right in front of us. Doddle.

Photos were taken, we watched and studied the bird but had nothing to add to the ID debate, and left. Job done, policy taken. Back in the road for 10am, a quick Philps pasties in Hayle and back home for 4.30.

Our timing was fortuitous - it was nearly taken by a cat on the Friday and then not seen again. Seems likely that it is now an ex pipit!

Now hopefully for a certain eider next. Now that's a proper mega.