Hudsonian Godwit - Meare Heath, Somerset!

Hoping to catch up with the Blue-winged Teal at Donna Nook for Zac and Alex, I was awake bright and early on the Saturday morning, ready to make the 3 hour journey over to Lincolnshire with them. However, checking my phone after breakfast, I was stunned to see a MEGA alert at 7:30am telling me there was a Hudsonian Godwit present down at Meare Heath in Somerset!!! What on earth?!! All thoughts of the teal were hastily forgotten, and by 9am just after the report was confirmed again on Birdguides we were on our way down the M6 hoping to connect with this special American mega!

Making good time and luckily not becoming ensnared in any of the previous night’s congestion, we arrived on site just after 12, buoyed by the stream of reports coming through twitter and on RBA to reassure us of the birds presence and thankful that there were enough car parking spaces in the newly built car park to hold the masses that would be arriving throughout the day. Special thanks to Alex who got us there in good time, complete with dodgy overtaking moves along the way!

Arriving at the small flash just a short walk down the path from the car park, the birds location was soon betrayed by the absolutely HUGE line of birders assembled along the path watching it – one of the biggest twitches I’ve been at to date – perhaps only behind the Short-toed Eagle in Dorset on the first morning and the Little Bustard at Fraisthorpe on New Year’s Day.  

The crowds stretched all down the path...

....and down the other side!

We joined the 400 or so others and soon locked on to the bird, looking extremely settled and roosting happily with the Black-tailed Godwits just over the bank. It was immediately recognisable though the scope – much darker than the accompanying Godwits with a more dusky coloured plumage due to the heavy barring -  a lot more distinctive than I’d anticipated and easily distinguishable! Occasionally it awoke, showing the long two toned bill briefly, before tucking it away underneath the wing again. It was EXTREMELY fortunate that this hadn’t turned up where viewing was only from a hide – I can only imagine the sheer chaos and pandemonium a scenario like that would have caused!

Eventually, our rare visitor awoke, and wading through the flock the differences in comparison to the Black-tailed Godwits were even more striking. The fractionally smaller body and longer bill were evident, the latter of which was distinctly orange toned, completely different to the pinkish wash of the Black-tailed Godwits. 

Every now and again the Hudsonian would flap and flick it’s wings revealing the jet black colouration underneath– the key identifying feature – and the crowd reacted with admiring “ooohs” every time! An aberrant Black-tailed Godwit with a particularly well marked white head got pulses racing back in 2012 at the local Frodsham Marsh, although after some speculation, the white underwing covets seen the next day completely ruled out Hudsonian even though the head and bill looked spot on – proving just how vital getting good views of the underwings is in nailing this species.

Alex's video grab of the black underwings!

The barring on the plumage was really apparent

The Hudsonian departed from the reserve shortly after 4pm with a third of the flock of Godwits, and flying off high to the west there was no sign since that day – a great surprise for the weekend. This mega American wader was definitely NOT on my radar and was most certainly not a bird that I was expecting to see any time soon – it just goes to show in the world of birding that all it takes is one bird to unexpectedly unblock a species not seen in Britain for nearly 30 years. Thankfully the stars aligned this weekend to provide the perfect twitch – if it had turned up on a weekday then it would have been an entirely different scenario for many filled with stress and panic! The bird had actually previously been spotted the evening before roosting with the Godwit flock, but it wasn’t until early the next morning that the observer clinched the ID and alerted the masses!

The darker colouration stood out even from a distance

There have only been two previous records of Hudsonian Godwit accepted in the UK, usually found in Central America on migration and only occasionally making it over this side of the Atlantic.  With the most recent being a flyover record in Aberdeenshire back in 1988, the only other bird was a well twitched individual that was first found at Blacktoft Sands in Yorkshire in the autumn of 1981, before being relocated down in Devon where it subsequently spent the winter. Remarkably, the same individual was seen again back at Blacktoft a year later in the spring of 1983! With this in mind, there is every chance that the Godwit could get refound elsewhere in the country.

The reserve itself was a great place to spend the afternoon, with a calling Wood Warbler near the car park and brief views of a skulky Garden Warbler in the Hawthorns lining the path – its location given away by the beautiful melodious song coming from between the leaves. A Bittern booming in the reeds behind us provided the perfect soundtrack, and the soaring Marsh Harriers, Hobbies and chattering Cetti’s Warblers were my first of the year. We also caught sight of two Cranes circling high overhead -  a reminder of the success of the Great Crane Reintroduction Project in the levels, as well as numerous flyover Great White Egrets – surely a sign of breeding on the reserve again this year. With the breeding Little Bitterns at Ham Wall, it will be great to return to this fantastic little reserve again in the summer months.

Cornish Road Trip Part 2

After heading to Davidstow Airfield in the morning to track down the American Golden Plover that had taken up residence there (it was clearly in no hurry to move on from its new found home, having been present for over a week), it was rather frustrating that we couldn’t relocate it next to its usual haunt of the small pool next to the windsock. After driving around for about an hour checking the surrounding grassy fields, with no sign of the bird anywhere, we were just about to give up (another lifer seemingly slipping out of our grasp) when Alex made an absolutely cracking find, spotting the bird right next to the car hidden in the centre of the runway! It had evidently proven hard to spot for everyone, as 4 other cars had driven past it already whilst we were there, the bird blending perfectly in to the concrete surroundings and completely undeterred by the trail of cars moving slowly down the runway in search of it. We quickly alerted the other cars looking, and stopped to admire this beautiful looking American wader.

Though rather bleak looking and containing few pools, Davidstow Airfield has surprisingly attracted its fair share of American waders over the past 5 years, with White-rumped, Baird’s and Semipalmated Sandpipers, as well as several Buff-breasted Sandpipers all recorded amongst the abandoned and eerie runways.

We sat and watched the AGP for a good while, the bird positioned right outside my passenger door allowing for some excellent photo opportunities and showing fantastically well at such a close range. This allowed us to really take note of the golden and silver speckles on the plumage and admire it as it happily foraged for worms in a small patch of grass.

As a juvenile, it was distinguishable from our resident Golden Plovers by the prominent white supercillium and overall greyer and duller colouration – illustrated perfectly at such a close proximity.

 After getting our fill of the plover, we then headed back up north to Somerset to try and catch up with the reliable juvenile Pallid Harrier that had taken up residence at the newly created Steart WWT reserve. Upon arrival, we were told we had just missed it showing well by 5 minutes (shouldn’t have stopped at that service station en-route!) so we stuck it out by the hide waiting for it to reappear, entertained by one of two Great White Egrets present mooching around in front of us.

After half an hour or so, the cries went up, and it had indeed taken off from the marsh and was gliding smoothly across the reeds. Whilst distant, the orange colouration could just be made out (my favourite plumage type for Pallid Harriers) and we watched the bird for around 5 minutes before it was lost to view in the marsh again. Deciding that the other path offered much closer views, we headed off that way, and whilst sat scanning our surroundings, amazingly, by sheer chance, both me and Alex had our scopes independently on the exact patch of reeds to coincide with the moment the bird took off again – providing close prolonged views and allowing us to see the distinctive features a lot better.

The saltmarsh the harrier was favouring.

Pallid Harriers have much slimmer and narrower wings than Hen Harriers, and the juveniles can be told apart by the unmarked bare orange undersides lacking any of the streaking that is usually found on Hen Harriers. The distinct pale collar on the neck and solid dark boa pattern also separates them from the extremely similar Montagu’s Harrier, and this coupled with the contrast between the solid dark secondaries and pale primaries are the best ways to tell the two species apart.

After deciding to head back down south that evening to Hampshire for the Siberian Stonechat that was showing at Titchfield Haven, we made the 2 and a half hour journey to our next stopover in Southampton to rest up and enjoy a delicious meal of crispy lamb and chilli fried chicken (some of the best food I’ve had out in ages so most definitely worth a mention) and the prefect remedy for getting stuck in the tedious and unexplainable hour long delay we encountered near Wiltshire!