Finding a rare bird is what drives many patch birders,
and the hope of finding something good, although rarely realised, is always in the back of my mind
whenever I visit Collingham. My visit yesterday was actually my first in two
weeks – with the clocks going back, evening visits after work are no longer
possible, and with my parents coming to stay last weekend my birding
options were limited to a quick look at the Glossy Ibis with them. So really I was just going
to see what had changed in that time, and I wasn't expecting to see much of
note; it’s mid November after all - wader passage is long finished, and wildfowl numbers have been unspectacular
recently. Certainly, thoughts of a rare passerine didn't cross my mind...
I arrived on site at about 10am, and began by scanning
Ferry Lane Lake. There wasn't much present, so I had a look through the Linnets
and Meadow Pipits that were moving around on the gravel. Scanning along a line
of Linnets sat up on a low gravel bund, the final bird instantly caught my eye.
It was sat front on, was small (not much bigger than the nearest Linnet), and
looked like... a wheatear. Worryingly, it had a very plainly marked head, and
had a brown, slightly ochreous, band across its upper breast. It bobbed a couple of times,
pumping its tail, and then flicked over the back of the bund, flashing a
wheatear-patterned tail. My heart rate quickened – I’d only seen it for a few
seconds, but this looked good!
It popped up further along the bund 10 minutes or so
later, and gave an equally brief, front-on view, but it still looked good. However, it
was then another 30-40 minutes or so before it showed again, this time much
further left along the bund, and stood sideways on it looked quite long-tailed
and showed a brownish-grey mantle. I began to panic – this was either a Black-eared or a Pied Wheatear; I knew the latter was much more likely
at this time of year, but also that the two can be very tricky to separate. Foolishly,
instead of getting a photo when I had this opportunity, I decided I needed
back-up and started making calls, getting hold of Carl Cornish (who’d just
arrived in Sherwood for a relaxed morning’s birding). He came straight back
over to Collingham, but the bird had vanished just after I finished my call to
him. When he arrived we spent over two hours looking for it, but by now I had to go to
Leicester to play hockey (and I was already very late). I was so angry with
myself on the drive down – my views had amounted to not much more than a few seconds; and why hadn't I taken a photo when I had the chance?
I thought that was that – one that got away. Thank
goodness then, that John Ellis had seen a missed call from me and had called back,
and had then gone to look for the bird in the afternoon; checking my phone in
the changing rooms after hockey (we won 5-0), I was elated to see that he had
relocated the bird, and that Carl had managed to get some phone-scoped pics, one of which he'd texted through in a message which said 'looks like a pied to me'. Arriving home, I phoned Carl and John to get their thoughts; Carl had sent the pics to Paul
French and Tony Critchley, and I subsequently emailed them to Charlie Moores at Bird
Information. Consensus from these quarters was it looked good for a Pied... And with news beginning
to leak out on Facebook, I decided to put the bird out via Bird Information, with warnings about not entering the
quarry. But by now it was dark.
I didn't sleep well during the night – would the bird still be
there? Was it going to turn out to be just a dodgy Northern? (Surely not – I had
to keep checking Carl’s pics). Arriving on site at 6:45am, there were
already several people present. It was freezing cold, and it had been a clear
night – I was nervous. Gradually the sun rose, and light crept across the
quarry floor. And then relief; someone located it on the bund, in exactly the
same place where I had last seen it yesterday. Silence descended over the
crowd. It was clearly enjoying warming up in the sun, and showed well – why hadn't it behaved like this yesterday?! It then became more active, moving along the bund and
then more widely, whilst several gaggles of Notts birders discussed the bird’s
identity (making me feel less bad about not having been able to nail the ID
myself yesterday). Over the next couple of hours, it showed extremely well
on occasion, even moving along the bank at the front of the pit, right in
front of the crowd. In the strong morning light it didn't look quite as dark as
perhaps I would've expected, but its upperparts were quite cold toned and showed subtle pale fringes when at close range, a feature which I hadn't been able to see yesterday. A Pied Wheatear it was!
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