Tuesday 27 October 2009 - EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER in County Durham - A British First - 24/10/2009
Saturday 24th October 2009
EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER - A New Species for Britain
It all started way back on the Thursday night when I received a late night text from Steve Richards. It simply read 'WOW, what a record!' but what the hell was he talking about? I ran to the car to retrieve my pager and found to my horror that a long hoped for EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER had been identified from a photograph of a 'Yellow-browed Warbler' taken that very afternoon in South Shields. My heart sank as there was no way I would be able to arrange Friday off work at such short notice. Steve was even more gutted than I though as he'd been at a conference up in County Durham whilst the bird was 'filling its face' in an old quarry less than ten miles away. Maybe his run of good fortune (rent ticks of Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, Royal Tern and Fan-tailed Warbler) is finally hitting its 'best before date'?
After a pretty sleepless Thursday night, Friday morning arrived and I reluctantly fought my way through the traffic and into work. As I slumped into my chair, I checked through my new pager messages and much to my surprise the bird was still present. Whilst fellow ASBO's Steve Nuttall and Ian Moore stood admiring the little, eastern gem there was I, stuck in the office unable to concentrate on my job properly. I half heartedly rang and texted around a few mates in order to gauge interest in a desparate Saturday morning trip. A motley crew was soon formed with Steve Richards, Tom Perrins and Stevie Dunn all keen on giving it a go. With a horrible wet, weather front moving north and due to hit the north east of England around mid morning we had a narrow window of just a few hours to connect with the rarity....if the bird was still present of course. My pesimism increased however as a quick scan of the weather charts clearly showed a period of clear skies for the north-east region between 7.00pm and 2.00am. Surely the bird would make a move overnight, especially as the site is not really known for its long-staying vagrants. I was not confident at all but with a first for Britain just a three hour drive away we had no choice but to try. Who dares wins.... well sometimes!
We left Warwickshire at 5.00am and picked up Stevie Dunn from Derbyshire just a hour later. The mood in the car was jovial despite me attempting to calm everyone down with the hard, cold facts and the 'odds against' factors every now and then. As all fellow twitchers will know, there is a horrible period we all face when making our way to see a rarity. As dawn approaches you are willing your pager or mobile phone to beep away with positive news. As it gets lighter and there is still no news the more despondent you become. As all keen birders know 'No news is BAD news'.
The mood in the car was now tense, the laughter had dried up and everyone was extremely quiet. With the stress levels rising a quick call was made to Mark Payne who I knew was on site already. The good news was that yesterday's Yellow-browed Warbler was still present as it could be heard calling occasionally from the small patch of sycamore, ash and elder. Would this mean that its much rarer cousin had decided to remain on site for another day too? The bad news however was that a small unidentified passerine had flew out of the quarry at dawn and headed off into the distance. A few minutes later that dreaded 'no sign of' pager message appeared as terrible confirmation. We plodded onwards regardless, all of us absolutely gutted that we had probably missed out on what may be a 'once in a lifetime' event.
The night before I had set up my new RBA pager to receive all messages for the 'north east area' and with about ten miles to go a new 'local' message appeared. I lifted the device from the dashboard of the car and began to read it.... I read it again just to make sure I was not hallucinating. "IT'S STILL THERE!" I bellowed. The rest of the crew grabbed their pagers for confirmation and all hell broke loose as I nearly crashed into the central reservation. The pandemonium subsided however as we all realised that we hadn't even seen the bird yet. The last few miles were understandably a blur.
No, it's not a scene from the remake of ZULU, it's the EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER twitch.
Thanks to the old TomTom we soon arrived at the correct site, grabbed our optical equipment and made a run for it. We opted for the bottom of the old quarry as opposed to the exposed clifftop and after a nervous fifteen minute wait a bird suddenly appeared.... was that it? The view was all too brief but I was sure I'd just caught a quick glimpse of the target rarity. A few moments later the same bird appeared again perched up in a sycamore tree.... Britain's first ever EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER! All four of us then enjoyed the Vireo like visitor from the far east on and off for the next two hours or so with the bird showing exceptionally well in the nearest elders at times. It was smiles and firm handshakes all round as we savoured every second. As a bonus the Yellow-browed Warbler also showed well occasionally and was also quite vocal.
Britain's first ever EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER - Trow Quarry, South Shields, County Durham - October 2009
Photograph by Sir Dougie Holden MBE, OBE
Newspaper clippings from The Mirror (above) and The Sun (below)
Check out this link EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER - First for Britain in order to relive that special moment.
Check out this link EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER - Local TV News Clip in order to induce a horrible cringing sensation.
With the predicted rain closing in we decided to call it a day and head back to the car. At this point I nearly died for the second time within the past few hours, not in a car wreck this time though. With the well trodden track into the quarry looking a bit suspect, Stevie Dunn and I decided to make our way up through the long grass instead with Steve Richards bringing up the rear. Tom Perrins however knew better and opted for the shorter yet slightly more treacherous route. As we approached the summit I noticed Stevie giggling away and pointing in Pezza's direction. All I could see was Tom lying flat on his face in the mud, desperately using his tripod as a makeshift 'mud pick' in an attempt to get him back on his feet. The scene was reminiscent of a baby Rhino getting stuck in an African watering hole. I honestly thought a call to Her Majesty's Coastguard was required at one stage. I hadn't laughed so much in ages .... well since Snapper's 'bummer on the loose!' joke whilst heading up the A1 earlier in the morning.
We then headed south to Cleveland where another rarity or two were lurking. At Port Clarence Pool north of the River Tees we connected with a couple of rarities from the other side of the planet than the two Warblers up in Couty Durham. This time the Country of origin was North America as opposed to China when a smart male BLUE-WINGED TEAL and an enigmatic Pectoral Sandpiper were quickly located. Other species of note included 2 Black-tailed Godwits, a Ruff and the odd Dunlin and Common Redshank as well as good numbers of Northern Lapwing, European Golden Plover and Eurasian Curlew.
We then made our way over the foggy North Yorkshire moors and down towards Bempton RSPB reserve. Despite the heavy rain, squabbling pensioners and the odd mardy photographer we were soon watching a gorgeous 1st winter (or female) RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL feeding at the base of a small patch of bushes near the visitor centre. The icing on the cake of a truly superb day of fantastic birds.
Many thanks to Dougie Holden the original photographer of the bird and for Whitburn Mark for the re-identification of the bird. Without these guys none of the above would have been possible.
A clipping from The Guardian
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