A Nice Trip to Somerset and Potters Bar
Upland Sandpiper at Kingston Seymour, Somerset and Grey-cheeked Thrush near Cuffley, Herts
22nd November 2005
Although I’m not a year lister (not out of choice, but out of finance), some birds are just too good to miss, Upland Sandpiper and Grey-cheeked Thrush being two of them. Time was at a premium at the end of November so we thought bollocks to it and did both in a day. Despite the heavy driving schedule we were still allowed ample amounts of time with both birds, and treated to excellent views as well. Nothing much else happened really. Erm… no, that’s about it. Oh, good job we didn’t take the dog to see the Upland Sand ... even though we haven’t got a dog.
Pictures of the Upland Sand by Kit Day and Grey-cheeked Thrush by Alan Tate
Green Heron and Laughing Gull
Anglesey and Porthmadog, North Wales
15th November 2005
It's September 2001. Not really, obviously, but just humour me and pretend it is. So think back. Remember? No? Well, anyway, there was a Green Heron in Lincolnshire. It was the first since 1982. I saw it - it rocked. But it had the extremely bad manners to turn up at Messingham Sands near Scunthorpe, birthplace of Miss Cole.
“Bad manners?” I hear you say. “Come on, Tom, tell us why it’s bad manners,” I’m sure you’re all screaming at your monitors. Well just hold the fuck on, stop being so impatient and I’ll tell you why. Okay? It was bad manners because… err… I’ve forgotten. Anyway, fuck that, the fact is that I saw it but Miss Cole didn’t. And Miss Cole loves Herons/Egrets/Spoonbills/Cows/Otters etc… So when this corker (geddit? corker=County Cork=where the bird first turned up. Clever eh? No? Well fuck off then) turned up just a couple of hours away on Anglesey, it was too good not to get out of bed for.
So setting the alarm for some time that was early in the morning, we went to bed and slept, using pillows and duvets. We woke up when the alarm went off and then got up, dressed and then drove in our car to Wales. (“Tom this is really fucking boring,” I hear you cry.) I had a sudden panic when I realised that the petrol tank was low on fuel, but this was rectified by a quick trip to the petrol station where I filled up on unleaded petrol and bought some pornographic literature to pass the time later in the day.
Passing LLllaannffaaiirrffeecchhaann we decided on a quick stop at the road bridge to score Black Scoter for our pathetically small year lists. Unfortunately there were far too many Scoter offshore today, and nobody present to point the bird out for us, so we gave up after less than 5 seconds and headed to Red Dwarf Bay to see the Green Heron.
Arriving at Red Dwarf Bay we realised that it was actually called Red Wharf Bay - oh how we laughed. Oh yeah, and we saw the Heron as well. Below are some photos taken by me showing that: a) ‘Green’ Heron is a shit name; b) it was so tame that even chucking bricks at it wouldn’t make it move.
After such a laugh, we decided to consolidate our laughter with the Laugher (Laughing Gull) at Porthmadog. It was hilarious, in fact I lost a testicle from laughing so hard.
Mega pictures of the Green Heron and the Laughing Gull by Steve Round
A Swift Trip up Toon
Pallid Swift, Newbiggin, Northumberland
6th November 2005
Friday night, and we (Miss Cole, Miss Cole’s sister, Miss Cole’s sister’s bloke Craig and me) were gannin’ up the Bigg Market in Toon (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, just in case you don’t know) to visit the notorious Pig and Whistle nightclub/anthropological experiment, for a bit drink and a fight. Winner!
Saturday night, and we were off to Sunderland with mother Cole to see Carmen - an opera by Bizet about a Spanish slag that shags a load of soldiers and then gets killed for being a filthy auld whore. This particular production had two horses in it and a load of sopranos with massive tits. Winner!
Sunday, and we all headed off to Newbiggin to see a Pallid Swift that had been shooting about all over the town centre. Another Sunday jam-in on a quality Swift! To be quite honest, it’s just getting a bit boring now. I actually long for a Sunday when I don’t jam-in on a good Swift.
I’ve always been a big Swift fan and this showy bird was a real cracker. Giving stunning, prolonged and close views, it kindly allowed all the ID features to be noted in order to eliminate Common Swift, such as the fact that it said it was a Pallid Swift on the pager and the presence of a BBRC member. I hadn’t seen a Pallid Swift since 2002 in Portugal and I’d forgotten how noticeably bigger they are than Common. But, without these privileged views that we were all treated to, I still think that Pallid/Common Swift are monstrously difficult to ID and I’m very glad I saw this classic bird, because I reckon a good percentage of claimed Pallids are fuck ups.
Newbiggin is a bit of a shit hole (apologies to any Newbigginers but, come on, it is!) and it was a huge relief to find a reasonable crowd of birders to hide amongst. Especially when some radgee wife kicked off and started shouting, “Oi, all ye fuckers, look at fuckin’ me. I’m a fuckin’ bord. Have a fuckin’ good look at me.” A meal at the Radley Arms pub (highly recommended) and then 4 Waxwings at dusk in nearby Morpeth finished off a great weekend.