Poring through old notebooks from my birding teens, I discovered I had seen a Shag at Wheldrake Ings, a second-summer, back in 1989. I barely remember this long-stayer, which hung out with the Cormorants, that bred on the site at that time. Having returned to York in 2010, this was a great addition to my York bird list, and one that almost none of the more recently arrived birders on the York scene had seen. Even though the Yorkshire coast, where Shags breed, is a mere 20-ish miles from the eastern border of the York area, I didn't think I'd be losing this maritime blocker any time soon!
Shags are scarce inland, but I have seen a few over the years, mainly when I lived near Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire, where large storms sometimes displaced a bird or two upriver and inland, where they seek any body of water they can find. Sometimes, they'd hang around at Grafham for a while, finding plenty of fishy food alongside their larger Cormorant cousins, but more often, they would sadly perish.
So, yesterday, news of three or four Shags at Castle Howard was a bolt out of the blue, and generated a mix of excitement for yet another fantastic record for the York area and slight dismay that one of my few York blockers had fallen! To be honest, excitement soon buried the dismay, and I went to bed with my mind fixed on a quick pre-work dash to the Great Lake in the hope of a Shag or two (lol).
The early news was not hopeful, but shortly three Shags were confirmed as being still present. I only had a short window of opportunity before work, so legged it east into the Howardian Hills and down to the lake. To my surprise, there were no other birders on site, so I quickly jogged along the lakeside path, optics swinging dangerously, stopping to scan every so often. Reaching the end I was surprised to not to have seen any sign of them. A handful of Cormorants were hanging out on the island in the trees, so on the way back I scanned the bottom of the island and noticed first one, and then three more Shags, sitting with a couple of Cormorants. Fab!
They appeared to be three first-winters, with a fourth bird either a second-winter or an adult, with blacker plumage, though still showing white at the base of the lower mandible, mottling on the belly and some brown in the wing coverts. (Note to self, I need to check out Shag ageing when I get a minute!). The birds seemed pretty healthy, jumping in the water for a swim about, before hopping back up on to the large limbs of the trees. One of the immatures had a big red ring on its leg with what I took to be white numbers. It was right on the edge of my range, but I could just about make out the code, though later from photos, birder friends pointed out I had been reading the code the wrong way, and it was actually three letters! Later investigation, revealed this youngster to have been ringed as a chick last year on Inchkeith Island, which is in the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh, about 150 miles to the north. Another birder noticed a ring on an adult later on, so it would be interesting to know if that came from a similar place.
After enjoying this moment, I turned tail and ran back down the path, jumped in the car and headed to work. By the time I had got to my desk, news came through from Rob and Jane Chapman that there was an incredible 17 Shags now present! It was unclear whether these additional birds had dropped in as I had left, or whether they were roosting on the other side of the island out of view while I was there. This was really sensational and surpassed the combined total of the previous 13 ish records for the York area since 1965. The only previous multiple occurence was two at Wheldrake Ings in spring 1996. There have been no twitchable Shags in the York area since my return in 2010, with only one record, of a single grounded in a garden in Sutton-on-Derwent in 2019, that was successfully released at the coast following a night of TLC.
Shags, like other seabirds can suffer when rough seas and strong winds can make feeding impossible, and losing energy, they can be 'wrecked' inland. There has been a lot of bad weather in the northeast recently, so this is the likely cause, and we will wait and see what becomes of these fabulous birds. Fortunately, they have landed on a sheltered lake which is stuffed with fish, has a small population of Cormorants to hang with, and is not too far from the coast if they manage to reorientate. Indeed, at noon, ten of the birds headed off strongly high to the east, suggesting they were returning to the coast. All the birds did appear to be in good condition, so there may be another explanation for their appearance, perhaps fog disorientating the birds along the coast?
Hopefully these birds will feed well and soon find their way back to the sea, but while they are here I hope many of my birding friends will get the chance to unblock this super species for their York lists.
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