Whilst sitting up on Unst in Shetland on Thursday morning, news filtered through on Twitter that a birder had taken a picture of a Hobby at Sandwich Bay in Kent. On closer observation, the bird was actually an Elenora's falcon. Could this actually be a twitchable bird?
The bird wasn't seen again that day, so I continued on with my holiday until the next morning, when it was found at Worth Marshes. I tried to get off the island but couldn't get the car off until Sunday evening from Shetland to Aberdeen! As you can imagine, the world and his father saw the bird over the next few days, and I had to painfully wait until Monday morning to see if the bird was still around, getting utterly gripped by videos and images of the bird.
Sunday evening at 19.00, I left Lerwick on Shetland on the boat, and the bird was still present and had gone to roost.
Docking at Aberdeen at 7.00am, the bird was still present, so I headed south, calling in at Tay Marshes on the way . A quick stop produced an adult Marsh Harrier and 5 Beaded tits.
Long-term monitoring of Bearded tits has revealed that the River Tay is possibly their largest stronghold in the UK, a place I will definitely visit again when I'm not in a rush! . A nice Scottish tick.
Anyway, the long journey south had now started. Over 11 hours later, I arrived on site just after 18.30.
I was put straight onto Eleonora's by a fellow birder who let me look down his scope; there it was just sitting there.
You beauty!
It wasn't long before the bird took off and flew right over us.
What a bird and an epic twitch!
These are a few photographs from the internet taken by fellow birders.
Eleonora's falcon breeds on islands in the Mediterranean, particularly off Greece (where two-thirds of the world's population breeds), but also in Cyprus, the Canary Islands, Ibiza, and off Spain, Italy, Croatia, Morocco, and Algeria. Tilos Park is the breeding area for 10% of the world population of Eleonora's falcons. Six hundred and fifty pairs of this species breed on this island, according to research conducted by the Hellenic Ornithological Society and the European Union LIFE-Nature program of Tilos. It is rare as a vagrant north of its range. It also lives on the coast of Madagascar and Mozambique.
It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Madagascar. The migration route has been recently discovered, and, contrary to previous suggestions, it has been demonstrated by satellite telemetry to be inland through the African continent. Traditionally, it has been suggested to be coastal, with birds from the western end of the Mediterranean flying to Suez before flying south down the Red Sea and across the Horn of Africa. However, recent satellite-tracked animals by Spanish and German researchers have demonstrated an inland route through the Sahara Desert and the equatorial rainforests until reaching Kenya and Mozambique. The total distance covered during the flight has reached up to 9,000 km (5,600 mi) for a single one-way trip.
This is the 9th record for Britain:
2020-Norfolk, Winterton Dunes, 2CY, 20th August
2012-Cornwall, Porthgwarra, First-summer,dark-morph,11th August
2008-Essex, Maldon, First-summer,13th September
2003-Suffolk, Reydon, adult, pale-morph, 3rd October.
1987-Norfolk, Hickling Broad, first-summer, 6th July.
1985-Outer Hebrides, Born, South Uist, Male, 14th June.
1981-East Yorkshire, Elm Tree Farm, Patrington, second-year, sadly dead, late October
1977-Lancashire-Formby Point
Other birds of note on site were 3 Hobbies and a stunning 1st summer Red-footed falcon.
What a day birding, and after a fish and chip supper in Ramsgate harbour, watching the sun go down, I arrived back in Cheshire just after 3.00am in the morning! Birding, hey, bloody brilliant!
