GREY HEADED LAPWING-LOW NEWTON BY THE SEA-NORTHUMBERLAND-01/05/2023

News broke this morning that a grey-headed lapwing had been found at Newton by-the-sea in Northumberland. Luckily, I was north of Warrington when the news broke, and after a two and a half hour frantic drive and a quick lift down the road from the carpark by my good friend Dan Pointon on site, I was on the bird. What a stunning bird! It looked so out of place, feeding alone in a sheep field!

This east Asian wader represents the first British record and only the fourth for the Western Palearctic,following Turkey in 2018, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands in 2019, and Slovenia in 2021. The species has been expanding its wintering range both west and south in recent years, and other vagrants in recent years have reached Russia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, and Sri Lanka, along with an additional record for the 'Greater WP' at Salalah, Oman, in January 2012.

A few eyebrows were raised over the bird's provenance, which was mine to be honest, but rest assured this species isn't popular with aviculturists, and the species is a long-distance migrant with an increasingly westerly range, so we will wait and see.

Birders on site

A cracking bird anyway, and good to see some familiar faces who I hadn't seen in years! A two-tick weekend, I don't say that very often😎

FORSTER'S TERN-BROWNSEA ISLAND-29TH APRIL 2023

Having missed the Essex bird at Felixstowe by a matter of seconds in Nov 2016, the wait for this tart tick was surely due to end. A first-winter Forster's tern had paid a brief visit to Lytchett Bay, Dorset, on the 23rd of April before being relocated in the tern roost at Brownsea Island, NT, the same evening via the online Avocet Hide webcam, no less! It was almost certainly the bird from Sutton Bingham Reservoir, Somerset, from a few weeks back that spent the afternoon there before flying high south. The bird was regularly being seen at Lytchett Bay in the mornings, so an early raid was planned.

On arrival there was no sign of the bird, and the whole morning was spent around Poole Harbour constantly looking for it, but there was no sign. I arranged a boat trip over to Brownsea Island for the afternoon and couldn't believe the lack of birders around for a Saturday; clearly I was the only one that needed it! I had never visited Brownsea Island before, and it was a pleasant journey over there with only one other birder present.

Poole Harbour

Arriving on Browsea Island

Arriving on Brownsea, I headed straight for the tern hide in anticipation that the bird would fly in during my three-hour stay as it hadn't been reported all day. After a twenty-minute wait in the hide, the Forster's tern flew in and just sat there preening with the Sandwich tern's. I couldn't believe it! The bird showed well for a good ten minutes and then flew out again to Poole Harbour—at last I had seen it!

Forster's tern is finally on the list!

A great twitch and a lovely place to spend a day birding!