I spent all of Sunday at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Puffin Festival, an annual event held at North Landing, Flamborough, where we show people Puffins and other seabirds, talk to them about the threats they face and about our work to help them. It's a feel-good event, with lots of people seeing and learning about these amazing birds for the first time. I was on guided walk duty and took 60 people, old and young, along the cliffs on three guided walks. The thrill of seeing people's faces light up as they clap their eyes on a Puffin for the first time never grows old. I drove back to York beaming as much as those happy punters. Until half past ten that is, when news of a (North American) Song Sparrow came to light! It had been photographed but not identified at Thornwick, literally half a mile from where I'd spent the day. Unbelievable. If only it had been identified earlier, I could have nipped over there within minutes, or even better dropped into North Landing rather than Thornwick... Gutted is an understatement.
The last mainland Song Sparrow in Britain was way back in 1994, in Liverpool, when I was almost as far away as you could get, at Uni in Norwich, so I didn't see it. The Thornwick bird, if accepted, would be only the second record for Yorkshire, with the first, the second for Britain, being back in 1964, at Spurn.
I had no chance of twitching it on Monday, and my first window of opportunity would be on Wednesday evening. My heart sank as I couldn't imagine the bird would linger that long. And, my hunch seemed correct when the early rising Flamborough birders failed to find the bird first thing Monday morning. It looked like we were all in the same boat of being massively gripped and at least what would have been a tense couple of days would now be more bearable. The report on the Flamborough Bird Obs website conveyed how disappointed everybody must have felt, despite this being an incredible first for the headland.
Then, to my astonishment, Phil Cunningham refound the bird in the same spot yesterday (Tuesday) morning - great work, Phil! I realised it would still be an anxious wait for Wednesday evening for me, but at least there might be a chance. I resigned myself to a day of meetings until the second good bit of news of the day arrived, when my afternoon meeting got cancelled unexpectedly; my afternoon suddenly became available! Twitch on.
Positive news from Thornwick was all I needed to carry me swiftly over the Wolds to the Great White Cape, and down the bumpy track to Thornwick. Andy G was just leaving as I arrived and he gave me some quick advice on where to look. It was good to see him smiling after a successful twitch.
As I parked on the grassy strip next to Thornwick cafe, I could see a line of fellow birders on the far side of the gulley scoping the area and was soon among the throng, looking intently into the nettles. I hastened round under glorious blue skies.
Within minutes, the birder next to me announced he had the bird and after a few tense moments, and with some generous help from a couple of neighbouring birders, I got on the right spot on the gulley side, where I could see a stripy head bobbing about in the shadows. The sparrow was deep in the nettles, and tricky to see. With patience, I added a gingery back, some complicated bits of head pattern, and some streaky underparts; bit by bit, I was assembling a Song Sparrow.
Shortly, it gave itself up and hopped out into the open on to an umbellifer stem, to the delight of all present, showing off its black-streaked white underparts, which coalesced into a central spot, and a stripy grey and chestnut head.
What a cracker - definitely like a cross between a Dunnock and a bunting, as described by the finders of the first British record on Fair Isle, decades ago. After a minute or so, it hopped back into the nettles to continue gleaning insects from the leaves. Over the next half an hour, it showed well every five minutes or so, but sadly didn't sing while I was there. I was delighted; what a relief to see this bird!
Having got great views, it was time to get back; I had to cook tea for the kids and take Sol and his mates to Air Cadets, so off I went beaming again as I left Flamborough for the second time this week.
And in a final twist to the tale, the bird has not been seen today, Wednesday, so if I hadn't been able to go yesterday afternoon I would have dipped.
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