Played for and got

Another day, another attempt at seawatching from Fife Ness. I had not realised it at the time of planning all my autumn trips but it happened to be the Fife Bird Club's annual 'Big Day' at Fife Ness. Perfect. But what would the weather do? What indeed.

It turned out to be rather benign. As usual I might add. You just can't plan for these things, and even if I could I expect something would happen to prevent me seeing any sea birds. An impenentrable haar the most likely. Whatever. I didn't care, I was going to go anyway, even though it meant getting up at silly o'clock. The ancestral seat is in mid-Fife, and Fife Ness whilst not actually that far away, seems to take forever to get to so I don't go anywhere near as frequently as I would like.

I arrived at Fife Ness just after six in the morning. My luck was in and not only could I park down by the shore, there was also one seat left in the hide. Even luckier than that, the creme de la creme of Fife (and Stirling!) sea-watchers were in the hide. I took my place amongst this stellar crowd and started to get my eye in. Manx Shearwaters were passing frequently, almost all north, with the odd Sooty Shearwater. For a relatively frequently-encountered seabird it still blows my mind where these come from.

The first indication of quality came just pretty quickly, with Jared picking up a Balearic Shearwater slowly tracking north. Despite my best efforts to distract him he was still able to give directions and I managed to get on it at the first turbine. Pretty distant all things considered, and I hope to see a closer one at some point. Skuas were fairly numerous, keeping us all interested - you can't beat a good Skua.

We peaked just before 8am. A bird came in really from the south, really quite close. So close that it passed the hide before we really knew what was happening. Initially called as a Long-tailed Skua on colouration, that changed quite rapidly as the realisation of what was passsing began to take shape. Not for me of course, I was very much a passenger still. Jared corrected himself, still not really quite confident in the words he was blurting out.

Bridled Tern. 

Cue pandemonium. Screams of "is anyone still on it???!!". I was, it was heading north rapidly, I tried to give directions but probably just flapped uselessly. We exploded out of the hide as one, running north, shouting to the other assembled seawatchers as we did. Not sure if anyone outside the hide had been on the initial pick-up, but they ran too, around the pillbox to scan the bay to the north. And there it was, flying around in big circles, dipping occasionally to feed. Back to the hide to fetch scopes, it was still utter chaos with Ken trying to shout directions, put out Whatsapp messages ("BRIRDLEVN TERN FN HANGINFG ABOUT" will go down in history), and phone every birder in Fife simultaneously. Gradually common sense returned and a few of us returned to the hide to get the scopes and start watching the bird properly. Colin came out, features started to get discussed, all the while directions stil being given. Amazingly the bird continued to fly around just offshore, not as close as the initial sighting, but the scope views were excellent. As it drifted a little further out it caught a small fish and appeared to then drop onto the sea. I might have been the only one still on it at this stage as most people were distracted by phones, messages, the first tentative photos and identification features, but I was amazed to find that it had landed on a buoy. 

It was very distant, but soon most people's scopes were back on it and a nice line of optics awaited the first arrivals. Malc fetched a few from Crail who had been en route even before this monumental event had occured, and gradually the numbers swelled. I don't know how many eventually saw it but had you been in Fife and moved even moderately quickly you would have been able to get it. It changed buoys after a while but remained in the area for another three hours before heading away and north-east. A first for mainland Fife following a 2013 record on the Isle of May - the two seemed to be treated quite separately.

To say people were elated would be a huge understatement. Huge. Ken was beside himself, a 25 year wait for this moment. A master-communicator (see above!) his sole aim was getting the news out, "check the underwing" frequently instructed! The only confusion species is Sooty Tern - that's black and this was a greyish-brown. I've seen one before of course, recounted here back when this blog was moderately good, but this was in Fife and counts for so much more. Mostly it's notable for being my first ever decent seawatch here during years of trying to time my visits to coincide with something decent. In the days before I had arrived there had been twitchable Cory's Shearwater and Sabine's Gull in the Forth, and Great Shearwater past Fife Ness. This is completely normal and always happens a few days before I arrive. But this time I actually scored, and whilst it was a big Shearwater that I had really wanted, I'll take a mega Indo-pacific Tern.

People trickled back to the hide, the vigil resumed. It would be hard to top what had just happened, but this was a big day and we needed to stick at it. Manx and Sooty continued to pass, but there were long periods of nothing. Greenshank on the rocks, and a small group of Barwit passsed south. Dum-de-dum..... Puffins.......Gannets.......Common and Sandwich Terns. Should I leave? Oh, another Pomarine Skua north, one of three. Maybe I'll stay, after all it's nearly 4pm, not long to go....

"CORY'S!"

"Close in, coming north!"

A large browny-beige Shearwater hove into view at close range, gliding effortlessly on bowed wings past the hide in lovely light. A magnificent moment. As good as the Tern had been, this was what it was really all about. Played for and got. This was the one I had wanted, the one I had planned for I don't know how many times and always got my timing wrong. Other than birds seen from a boat off Madeira - see below - this was easily the best views of a Cory's Shearwater I'd ever had. Sublime, utterly magical. I have been on cloud nine ever since. 

Cory's off Madeira