Back at it..................

I suppose all birders have a period where life gets in the way of birding. 2013 has probably been that year for me. Work, a new found love for motorbikes and the kids, of course, all added to a complete lack of enthusiasm for birds and birding. My RBA pager packing up was the last straw. The bins and camera have been gathering dust and even an outing to tick Two-barred Crossbill in Yorkshire didn't exactly fire up my desire to watch birds. However, that trip did give us a laugh when my best buddy Adam Hutt and friend (and very talented artist) Jack Ashton-Booth broke down on the way home, Adam's trusty Peugeot 306 finally giving up the ghost after nearly 230,000 miles!! I fortunately chose to get a lift home in Richard Scott's Suzuki Wagon R, which may not be the ideal birders mobile, but still got us home to Doncaster in one piece.

Anyway, I digress. I decided that Scilly this October would be the start of getting my birding libido back. Roll on the 26th October!! But, having received my old, new pager back (RBA couldn't replace the X10, so I got the old version, which is ten times better and the battery lasts ten times as long!!) it soon became apparent that the 26th October would have to wait. Strong Easterlies blew and Fair Isle got hammered with rarities. Stuff then started to appear in Cornwall. So today I decided to take the girls out 'birding' to Gwithian. Although the only highlight was Wheatears (6) it was good to be back at it. And so to Hayle to add Black-winged Stilt to my estuary list! The bird was asleep when I arrived at the causeway but showed really well with closer views from The Old Quay House car park and was a lifer for Erin!. Brian Mellow and Royston Wilkins were on the bridge and rightly commented "Bloody Hell, stranger!!" Brian put me on to an interesting Plover, which showed characteristics of American or Pacific. The supercillium didn't seem right for American but the primary projection pointed towards one of the two species. Unfortunately the bird was distant and constantly disappeared into a creek out of view. I also didn't have time to spend with it as the girls were waiting for me in the car!! One that got away. Unless its still there tomorrow?

 

Thanks to Ash Hugo for the photo, note to self, always carry your camera!!