BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS TWITCH (30th June to 2nd July 2006)
Ian Barnard picked me up at 12:30am from Rusper. Then Ian drove to Catford to meet up with John edgen for 1:30am.
Then we took John’s car for the trip to Kinlochbervie. John drove to the M6, then Ian/I drove to Inverness. John then drove for the remainder of trip. First stop was Ullapool. This part of the journey consisted of many hair pin bends that John drove mainly in the on coming traffic lane at speeds I would only achieve in my Mondeo if I drove my car off of Beachy Head.
We arrived at Ullapool (2.95 of us alive) at 2pm. I was luckily wearing brown pants before the trip… so additions to my pants during the journey were not noted by the staff in the local Fish & Chip Shop. I had Haddock & chips. The Haddock was an enormous slab of gorgeous fish covered in crispy golden batter. And the chips these were more tasty (ok equivalent) than a group of big busted blondes on a nudist beach.
We were due to meet the other six nutty twitchers at around 8pm at Kinlochbervie. So we had a few hours to kill (or pedestrians to kill as John was driving), we decided to have a look for the Bridled Tern around the NW Scottish highlands. No luck with the Tern, but we did see the following:- Black-throated Diver, Shag, 3 Wheatears, Hooded Crow, Eider, Arctic Tern etc etc etc. We got to the port at 6:30pm which coincided with the arrival of the skipper, so I had a sneak preview of the boat.
The boat was 60 foot long fishing trawler. I had to climb down the steps from the key to the boat. Once aboard I went straight to the lower deck and noticed a TV, Kettle, Fridge, Stove, dining table etc.
I was really impressed how much could be crammed into a small space. Then we went down a further set of steps to the sleeping area. This area contained sleeping compartments for at least 9 people. To access the sleeping compartments you had to climb through small opening in the wall, which resembled a Coffin for a fat person. Each bunk had a foam matrice and foam pillow.
Shortly after 7pm Simon King, Chunky King & Trevor Every turned up from Hampshire. At 7:30pm the final 3 arrived:-Geoff Clewes, Matt Mulvey and Douggie Bar.
We loaded the vessel with scopes/picnics/handbags like a human conveyor belt, with people at various positions throughout the boat.
The boat left promptly at 8pm and no one had yet been sick. Sick? No chance! This group was hardened twitchers with cast iron stomachs.
We soon encountered 1 Bonxie (15 according to Chunky), Manx Shearwater, Storm Petrel, Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, Black Guillemot, Kittiwake, Fulmar, White-tailed Tropicbird, GBB Gulls, etc
WT Tropicbird…Would have been nice though, but apparently we get Bul*shit Petrels in Sussex??!! These birds all appeared within the first 1.5hours of the outbound journey. Birders began to drift away, some to watch the Italy v Ukraine match. I did watch the last 15 minutes then went to bed.
I personally found it impossible to sleep. I was shaken but not stirred like a James Bond Vodka Martini, for the next 5.5 hours.
At 3:30am many birders got up, I staggered from side to side and one step forward and eventually got to the viewing deck, but collided with lots of objects/birders on the journey. Sula Sgeir was in sight!.It looked liked the Island that Odysseus meet the Sirens. It was a tall rock 70metres high which seems to be around 1 mile long, covered in early morning mist. Looking at it gave a cold shiver down my back.
Our boat got closer and closer to the Island and we soon saw white specs on the cliff, which were tens of thousand of Gannets. I was the first to find the Albatross, it was sitting approximately 4pm from a vertical cairn on top of the rock. This was the highest ledge on the rock, which had fewer gannets than other ledges.
I watched the Albatross for the full 1.5 hours we were at the rock. The boat swayed constantly side to side the whole time we were out there, this prevented me from getting good telescope views. The swell was 2 to 4 metres. Viewing with binoculars was the best option. Views improved of the Albatross as the boat was constanly edging closer and closer to the rock. We got the boat to 100metre from the rock at one point. During my binocular views I noticed the birds long bill, eyebrow and long black wings (it fully extended its wing during our stay). The bird seemed to move through 360 degrees, as it got comfortable either sitting or standing.
The week prior to our boat a luxury yaxht was chartered by a party of 9. Which cost £450 each and gave more distant views, but 3 course dinner and a disco. But on our boat we had free Coffee and puke on tap from Mr. Mulvey.
In the end 3 of us were sick:- Matt Mulvey, Duggie Bar & Garry Bagnell. Yes folks I was sick on the return journey. Fortunately I did not have to admire my puke for long as it was washed overboard by 6" of sea water every time the boat dipped. Trevor gave me two sea sickness tablets and with them I retreated to my bed. I went to sleep from 5:30am to 12:30pm, the boat docked at 1pm and many of us were very glad to reach dry land.
We gave our Camera’s to the skipper to get a group photograph, but for some reason neither camera managed to get a picture.
On the way home we managed to see a Ring Ouzel. Got home at 2:30am Sunday morning.
Anyone planning on going for the Albatross, you need to ask yourself two questions.
1. Are you a good sailor (my trip was done on a good day). "Yes" Carry on or "No" don’t bother.
2. Are you prepared to pay up to £1000 for the tick. Yes then go for it you mad bugger.
Finally good luck in finding a boat to take you there as many don’t want to risk it. For obvious reasons.
HERMIT THRUSH TWITCH (Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st October 2006)
Oh what a week!! Whilst at work on Thursday, the Pager Mega’s during a telephone conversation to Ian Barnard. . I see the immortal words *** MEGA-ALERT *** on the RBA pager. We both wait in silence for 15minutes before it says "MEGA HERMIT THRUSH CO. CORK".
This happens to be one of the birds I’ve seen in many of my dreams. Am I dreaming? Quite possibly!
Step One: Try to get the Car full.
Step Two: Put out an advert for flexible Twitchers on the Pager.
Step Three: Permission from the Boss for a days leave.
Step Four: Run around my office like an adrenaline junky for 5 minutes.
Step Five: Come back down to earth and speak to the internal Optomist Mr Evans. Conversation goes something like this. Lee says "You’ve got no chance in seeing it… it was only seen briefly by a few birders…it needs to develop a pattern before you can see it!"
I just said "fine, I am still going for it, do you want to come? Lee says "Possibly I need to investigate further."
After many more phonecalls etc I eventually left my house in Rusper , West Sussex at 18:50. I picked up Dave Webb (Adrian Webb’s dad) at 19:15 and then pick up Lee and Mick Frosdick at 20:15 at Junction 7 M4.
Let the show begin. Interesting conversation started with Dave Webb discussing his Allens Gallinule find on Scillies last year. Then the incredible find by his 11year old son Adrian, finding a Long-billed Dowitcher at Dungeness. The resident warden didn’t believe it at first and refused to go to the hide where it was found. The Dowitcher then flew into full view of the Warden and he added "it could be a Short-billed Dowitcher". No hint of congratulations, but the Webbs were informed (by reserve staff) of a Cream-coloured Courser in Essex (on their doorstep) and both had good views of it a few days later.
We arrived at Fishguard at around 1:00, check in time for the Rosslare ferry is 1:45, so we had plenty of time to kill. A foot pax day return to Ireland is now £19, so all being well it should be a cheap twitch.
On the Stena Ferry there are lots of places to sleep. We opted for the Bar area. I had a traditional English breakfast for £9 in the restaurant. Then I went back to the Bar area where our corner stakeout had increased in size by fellow sleepers Richard Bonser & John Stephenson.
Trying to sleep was close to impossible. Some extremely drunk 40year old Northern lass was singing badly and extremely loudly.. I shouted out "Shut it love, people are trying to sleep", but it did no good, she took no notice and carried out wailing some rubbish to impress a 60year old charmer in his shell suit sitting very close to her. This girl was quite attractive from a 200metre range, but closer inspection revealed she was just another BOBFOC. (Body off Baywatch, Face of Crimewatch). I suspected a sexual romp was on the cards, but fortunately for 57 people in the bar area they both fell asleep. Hooray peace at last.
The boat arrived an hour later than schedule. (7:10am) This more or less put us all into panic mode, as it was going to be more or less impossible to get to Baltimore to catch the scheduled Cape Clear boat that departs at 11:00am. We picked up the hire car from Budgets around 7:25am. (Note Budget representative had not arrived to open the desk on our arrival, we had to wait a good 20 minutes for her to arrive). Stress levels of Mick & LGRE started to rise.
All 3 parties departed Rosslare for the 4 hour drive to Baltimore, our car arrived first at around 11:40. Richard Bonser’s party arrived seconds later and Neil Allford arrived at 12:00. We then left Baltimore on a charter boat , arranged on route by Neil. The charter boat cost 25euros each.
The boat arrived at the Cape at 12:50. 13 of us on the boat then made our way to the Post Office garden. Well apart from LGRE who arranged for the warden to chauffeur him and 3 Irish to the bird, also Mick & Dave got lucky and hitched a lift to the bird. The walk to the Post Office is about 20minutes from the quay. It is mainly uphill and very tiring.
The Hermit Thrush was sitting on the fence on arrival. We had gorgeous scope views for 4mins and then the bird vanished. It was relocated by Neil Allford 30 mins later in a nearby field. We then watched in ore for the next 20mins.
The whole twitch was so exciting, I really must go there for a Birdwatching holiday one day. The obs costs 18euros a night and only a handful of birders are currently staying on the island. I went to the Cape last year and dipped a Yellow-rumped Warbler, but even then I was impressed with the Island.
We departed the Island at 14:20 and got back to Rosslare at 20:30, just in time for the 21:15 departure. Got home at 6:15am Saturday morning. My individual trip cost was £75+ food.
