Garry Bagnell's Birding World

Also known as Pied Flycatcher Twitch.

The combination of MEGA alert + lack of ticks in 2008 + verbal confirmation that the ringer was 100% happy with birds I.D. prompted me into advertising a day trip to Fife on the pager.

Eventually got the car full, and left Rusper at 19:40. First stop was John Benham in Leatherhead, then onto Bob Chalkley in Dunstable and then “Puffin Billy” from M6 junction 3.

“Puffin Billy, who the bloody hell is he?” I hear you shout. His Real name is Bob Brooker. I arranged to pick up Puffin’ B from the northbound entrance of the M6, but he was waiting on the southbound exit. When he realised where I was waiting he walked the length of a motorway roundabout to meet me. On arriving at my car he collapsed into a heap. He was sweating, puffin and panting for nearly an hour into the trip. I thought I might have had to make a detour to the nearest hospital for some mouth to mouth resuscitation

When he got his breath back, I tried to have a conversation with him. But, unfortunately he was deaf in one ear, so every time I spoke to him I had to shout in order to be heard.. I decided, early on that talking to Puffin’ was not going to be easy and could give me laryngitis problems in later life, so I refrained and chatted to Bob instead. John, (who was sitting next to Puffin’s good ear) was able to chat to him all the way up to Scotland. I was really missing out as Puffin’is an interesting character that has experienced a lot of life.

I think I heard Puffin’ say to John he was a Lorry driver come Policeman come Morris dancer and he recently crashed his car, whilst trying to avoid hitting a drunken pedestrian (who sadly died instantly in the crash). Puffin’ sadly lost his knees, hips, hearing, job & his driving licence.

On driving to Fife Ness, I remember going past the village of Crail and ending up at St. Andrews, somehow we completely miss the signs for Fife Ness. We turned the car round and drove back to Crail and eventually found Fife Ness. This was more luck than judgement, as Fife Ness had no roads signs whatsoever.

The pink coastguard cottage and the path leading to the ringing area was equally as hard to find. At 6:45 we find the site and start searching for the Collared Flycatcher.

Already at the site are a couple of Scottish lads, who give us directions to a Flycatcher they see near the golf course. I go to investigate and hear this strange sound coming from the woods, Puffin’ was apparently pishing. To me it sounded like he was singing to the birds.

Before I know it, Puffin’ is ringing me to say he has got the bird. At this stage I am on the Golf Course with the two Scottish lads trying to see their Flycatcher. We all immediately bolt off in Puffin’s direction as fast as we can run, on route we nearly knock down a large stone wall inorder to  get to where Puffin' is standing. On arrival I quickly see his quarry, which I unfortunately identify as a bulk standard Spotted Flycatcher.

At 9:00 John wants to go back to my car for his packed lunch. I hand him the keys and 2 minutes later he is running back to me to inform me that he has just seen a Flycatcher with a wide white wing bar. I informed RBA and then went searching, the ringer now present "Mark Oxygene" quickly lures it into a mist net. Bags the flycatcher and takes it back to the ringing hut. I get a few phonecalls from some pannicking twitchers about the Flycatcher, namely Dan Pointon, John Bell & Michael Frosdick.

Mark had rung the bird the previous day, but he was extremely unsure to it's identity. Infact he was surprised the Bird was Mega'd when its identity was never confirmed by him.

Mark measured all the primaries, checked nape feathers with a gentle blow, rump, tail feathers whilst consulting a Birding World article on separation of Pied, Collared & semi-collared Flycatcher. He eventually decided the bird had a mixture of features good for Pied and few good for Collared, but the lack of white anchors in the nape feathers siganalled "Pied". We stayed til 10:30 and Mark very kindly let us take photographs of the flycatcher in his hand. Mark was an absolutely charming chap that originated from Kent. He felt very sorry for alerting birders to this bird.

The number of attendees at the twitch was only 10. So clearly only the very desparate bothered, so no real damage was done. The 10 people consisted of 3 local Scottish and the 7 English twitchers (Mike & Jane Malpass, John Carter(on route to Shetland) and my crew).

I feel birders have got more chance riding a Bicycle up a bendy hill without using their hands is EASIER than being able to identify a Collared/Semi-Collared Fly in the Autumn in Britain. The potential hybridisation etc of these species makes purely field identificaton impossible.

However it was a pleasant journey home... I  stopped at 1pm at Cairn Loge in Douglas. I had a  very nice Lasagne and a cup of Coffee for £8.50. and Puffin' done some Morris Dancing.

Got home at 21:50, with a £58.50 less in the bank.