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Video courtesy of Mick C
On Saturday my black-belt birding neighbour, Mick, sent me a text saying that one of his Yorkshire mates had found a rare vagrant Franklin’s gull from North America on the Dales. On Sunday morning I checked RBA and it was still there so, over breakfast, I muttered my common refrain to my lovely wife Carolyn, “the bird is still there”. Her immediate response, bless her, was “do you want to go and see it then?” I did not have Franklin's gull on my UK bird list so I needed no further encouragement whatsoever. We arranged that I would be back in time for Carolyn’s legendary Sunday roast dinner at 19:30 and I sent a text to Mick telling him my twitch was on and did he have any location tips? I was outside packing the car ten minutes later when Mick appeared in his Sunday best PJs and asked me if I fancied some company.
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| Mick in his Sunday best PJs |
A short while later, and with Mick now fully dressed I hasten to add, we set off on our twitch with Mick kindly offering to sit in the back diagonally away from me. This was my first accompanied twitch since the rise of Covid, we have been a little nervous about some vulnerable family members, but It was really great to have good friendly company and someone to chat to. We easily wiled away the 3 hour plus journey chatting about birds and life in general and we arrived on site around 11:00 am.
Franklin’s gull rates as a two star rarity in my birding bible, The Colin’s Bird Guide, their definition of two star being one or two UK records a year. The bird was named after the Artic explorer Sir John Franklin, who led an 1823 expedition in which the first specimen of Franklin's gull was taken. They nests by the thousands in North American marshes and winter along the coasts of Chile and Peru. To put its european rarity status into stark relief, I read that over one million have been somehow counted in a single day at their wintering sites.
The Yorkshire bird had been alternating between a small Tarn on the Dales above Bradford and ploughed fields nearby. When we arrived at the Tarn we met some of Mick’s Yorkshire birding buddies who told us that the gull have left the Tarn some two hours previously and headed off in the direction of the ploughed fields. Reports soon came through of it located in a flock of mainly Black-headed gulls so we drove the short distance along narrow lanes to where a few other birders were scoping a field. The views were obscured by drystone walling but we were told that the gull had been seen briefly in a gap before it moved out of sight. In a short while, and for no apparent reason, the flock of gulls took flight and landed in an adjacent ploughed field in full view and we are able to get our scopes on the object of our desires.
Mick quite aptly described the Franklin’s as a birders bird, i.e. it was never going to win any beauty prizes! It had moulted pretty much completely into winter plumage with a washed out grey residual of its smart black summer cap and a red and black bill. It was too far away for anything other than record shots even with my monster 800mm lens but Mick managed to get some good digiscope records of it.
After a while we decided to return to the Tarn in the hope that the Franklin’s would follow us and offer better views. Mick renewed acquittances with his Yorkshire birding buddies catching up on the latest gossip. At one point they were discussing their Yorkshire lists and I was struck by the stark companions to those of Oxfordshire’s finest. Comments such as “I’m on 386 now” tell you all you need to know about birding in Oxford where our life long birding finest have lists around 260. My birding friend Jeremy once described being a birder in Oxfordshire as being akin to having surfing as a hobby– quite so!
After an hour or so it was time to say our goodbyes and depart for my dinner date. We subsequently heard that the Franklin's returned to the Tarn but not until several hours after our departure. We again spent the long journey home in pleasant conversation and arrived at 19:30, just in time for my, well deserved if I might say so, roast dinner!
With the Franklin’s now firmly ticked my UK gull list, with one notable exception, has all the common and one and two star Collin’s rarities and only lacks a few 3 star megas ( defined as one or two UK records per decade) such as Pallas’ Gull. The one somewhat strange exception is the North American Ring-Billed Gull. Colins rates this as an “annual vagrant in some numbers”. I've seen literally hundreds of these in North America and have hence found it hard to motivate myself to drive any distance in the UK to twitch one. Hopefully, I will either pick up one while twitching something else or one will pop into Farmoor!
I have done two other birding trips since my last blog. On Friday I went to Oare Marshes in Kent, a reserve I have been to a number of times in the past. A North American Bonaparte’s gull has been resident on the shore there at this time of year since being recorded as a first winter bird some eight years ago. I located it on the beach fairly easily giving me my 200th bird of this years reduced Uk list. It was quite distant so here is a photo of one taken at Farmoor a few years ago.
Another year tick came in the form of two smart Little Stint which were on the flood. The third bird I was hoping to see was an American Golden Plover which had been socialising with the local Eurasian Golden Plover flock. If truth be told I timed my trip all wrong as it was low tide when I arrived and most waders were spread widely on the beach but the Golden Plovers slowly gathered on the flood marsh as the afternoon wore on. At times there were ten other birders scoping the growing Plover flock for the American intruder. At one point several birders claimed to be on it but I wasn’t wholly convinced when I scoped the bird myself. I took a very long range record shot and showed it to Mick when I got home. As the bird was always facing us it was not possible to get a back view where several of its diagnostic features reside. Mick’s view was that while it have several features of the American it also had some it shared with the Eurasian so it was not possible to make a definite identification. I wonder how many recent reports of the bird from the site were similarly suspect? Other birds on note at Oare included Hobby, Bearded Tit, Knott in some numbers and Ruff.
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| Possible American Golden Plover in centre |
My other birding trip since my last blog was another morning on the ridgeway. A lot quieter than the previous two weeks with just two Wheatears of note.
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| Wheatear |
Currently permanently resident on my virtual turntable are the three albums that hard rocker Slash has made in collaboration with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators. I was aware of Slash from when he was lead guitarist with Guns and Roses but not his subsequent work. Friday night in our house is curry night. Carolyn magics up delicious home made curry while Dan, my stepson, and I offer sterling support by sitting in the kitchen with her and drinking gin and tonic! We take it in turns to play our Friday night “disco” music on Alexa and Dan would often choose Anastasia by Slash and Miles Kennedy - how did I miss this before!! The combination of Slash’s evocative hard rock guitar and Miles Kennedy’s incredible vocal range make for, in my mind at least, a very powerful combination. Click here to see if you agree with me!
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
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