Little Blue Heron & Scarlet Tanager Twitch. Friday 10th October to Saturday 11th October 2008
At 8:34am on Sunday 5th October, RBA mega alerted Little Blue Heron in Galway. At this time of day it would not be possible to see the bird same day by catching the Fishguard-Rosslare ferry. So the only option was to fly. Ryan Air don’t advertise their flights online for same day travel, you have to ring a premium rate number (£1 a minute) to make a booking.
I gave Ryan Air a ring and they wanted about £380 day return. Considering the Heron was now there for its 12th day, I thought going same day would be a waste of money. Incidentally, other Airlines were also charging similar prices. I decided to book a flight for Saturday 11th October. This was with Ryan Air, flying Stansted at 08:15, arriving at Shannon at 09:40. Departing Shannon at 21:25 and then back to Stansted at 22:45. Giving me almost 12 hours to drive from Shannon (Clare) to Letterfrack (Galway), then see the Heron and get back to Shannon. AA route master calculated it to take 5 hours driving in total.
I couldn’t get any days off work for the next 5 days. So every day the ritual was to check the pager for Heron news. Once the bird was on the pager, I could let out a deep breath of fresh air.
Many twitchers went on Monday 6th and easily connected with the Heron.
The next day Tuesday 7th at 5:48pm another Mega Alert went off on the pager. This time a Scarlet Tanager in Cork.
On Wednesday 8th, I was hoping the Tanager was not going to be seen again, but it was. Now I was feeling pretty p*ssed off, as I held no hope for the Tanager staying to Saturday. Later that day at 11:57 another Mega alert goes off. This time a first for Britain "Empidonax Flycatcher".
Now there are 3 new birds in the British Isles for me and the earliest day I can twitch is Saturday. Which is still 2+ days away. Whoppedo.
I nearly got my hammer out and just about stopped myself from smashing the pager to smitherines.
Why did I stop myself? The pager this week is seriously ruining my life. When I feel down, I try to remember the good old times. Like the weekend I shagged two blonde sisters. (Don’t worry I was single then) .
Then Thursday arrives. The pager tells me some good news & bad news. Good news is the Heron & Tanager are still in Ireland…and the bad news is that the Flycatcher is still in Cornwall. OK I need to think of some good experiences…..got one…chatted up a stunner in my single days at Branigans, Crawley. On the way back to her house she swore at a Policeman…..this was not a good move…..as she then got arrested…..and my effort for the evening was wasted as she was carted off to the local police station. Anyway does it matter if 700 people see a first for Britain, while I am stuck at work. Of course it doesn’t, at least all the money raised for the Flycatcher on site will be going to good cause….Well as long as the person collecting the money hands it in…..of course he will its Lee Evan’s for god sake. When I booked the Ryan Air flights on Sunday, the cost was £64. If the Tanager does stay to Saturday, it will not be possible to see both birds in 12 hours. I will need at least 15 hours in Ireland, plus time to find & satisfy myself (I am sure you know what I mean). I checked on the Ryan Air website to see if the cost of my Saturday flights had changed...they had...they were now being priced at £114 return Anyway, I noticed a flight leaving Stansted at 10pm and getting to Shannon around 10pm Friday night. It was priced at £70 one way. To me it was a no brainer, I had to book it, if I wanted to see both birds on the same visit. The drive from Shannon to Garinish Point in Cork will take about 4 hours, with first light at 8am. So I should arrive at 3am, should get 5 hours kip. I would have to leave the Tanager by 10am, for the 10.5 hours needed to drive to Heron and then onto Shannon Airport for a 20:30 check in. On Friday morning it felt like a huge weight had been lifted. The Flycatcher had departed Cornwall, but both the Irish birds were still present. I left work on Frday 10th at the usual time of 17:00 and headed towards Stansted Airport with John Lees. On route we made a small detour to pick up Vince Halley-Frame and his beautiful burberry baseball cap (see photos). We arrived at Stansted just before 19:00. Parked in the Mid-term Car Park (15.50 per day) and got on the courtesy bus to the terminal building. Ryan Air seems to be very good at charging for what they call extras. Such extras include putting a suitcase in the Aircraft’s hold (£24.00 return), another £16.00 for checking you in both ways(only if you failed to do it online) and one day in the not to distant future I hear you can pay £25 for a female hostess to buckle you in and get a quick flash of her tits etc. Our group of 3 sat down for a sumptuous meal airside. I had a cheese burger and chips and a latte for £11. Just after eating our meals Tony Vials from Northamptonshire turned up. Then all four of us settled down in the departure lounge to wait for our boarding gate number. I had only met Vince once before and it didn’t take long to realise Vince was a ladies man. His eyes instantly locked onto a couple of giggling college girls sitting opposite us wearing mini skirts, leather boots, stockings & suspenders……at least Vince has got a couple of nice feathered birds he can lock his eyes onto when he gets to Ireland. In the departure lounge was another group of three birders, including Howard Joliffe & Simon Buckingham. They had the same plans as us, they were going for the Tanager for fist light and then onto the Heron and back for the 21:25 flight from Shannon to Stansted. The gate number was shown and we boarded and departed. On arrival in Shannon, I walked over to the Hertz desk and decided to splash out and hire a Land Rover (£60 a day with the enhanced insurance). We left Shannon just after 23:00. Tony navigated to Garinish Point. On route Tony luckily noticed a sheep sitting in the middle of the road, I instantly swerved, whilst waking up John & Vince and narrowly avoiding hitting the sheep. We arrived at Garinish Point unscathed at 3:30. I tried to sleep, but someone couldn’t stop farting in the car (mainly me)…and Vince was snoring so loud I am surprised he didn’t flush the Tanager. We all got out of the car around 7:30 and walked to House with the For Sale Sign in it’s garden. Here we met Mark Carmody http://flickr.com/photos/drcarmo/ (Top guy), who explained the Tanager routine to us all. At 08:00 Mark located the Tanager in a small tree opposite the house. We all watched the Tanager on/off for the next hour. By the time we was about to leave the site, many other Irish birders had arrived, and a group of 3 birders from SW including Ernie Davis. Stuart Elsom was also present and he joined forces with Howard’s team. We left the site at 10:00 and then made our way back to Shannon Airport to pick up Ashley Howe (12:45) and then onto Letterfrack (15:20). The Heron was on show immediately. It was allowing us to phoograph it at point blank range. After about 30 minutes it decided to fly off to another bay, where the views could only be described as crap. The team posed for a few group photographs and we then made our way back to Shannon Airport. Vince & I had a celebratory beer and then bumped into Ian Kendal & Phil Ball (who went and saw Tanager only). I also spotted James Hunter and his team Vaughan ? and Paul Holmes who just went for the Heron. I almost fainted whilst queing for the plane, as no other than a bunch of celebrities were present. The one and only "PUNKBIRDERS!!!!!!!" http://www.freewebs.com/punkbirder/ Great trip, great company and cost me £189.27 plus food. PS: I must ask Vince when his birthday is so I can buy him a new hat.
Scarlet Tanager @ Garinish Point
Little Blue Heron @ Letterfrack
John Lees, Garry Bagnell, Tony Vials & Vince Halley-Frame
Punkbirders @ Shannon Airport
