The afternoon of 13 July started with a report coming through of a Spur-winged Lapwing at Cavenham Heath in Suffolk. The news was unconfirmed, but the report that it was displaying to nearby Northern Lapwings was enough to get the heart racing.
I was still smarting from not being able to go for the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater on Papa Westray, Orkney, which had been found the day before. Unfortunately, work commitments meant I couldn’t make the journey north, with the following day already tied up. It was one of those moments where birding takes second place to reality, but that didn’t make it any easier!
So instead, I headed over to Suffolk to try my luck with the Spur-winged Lapwing. On arrival, I met up with Steve Gantlett and Neil Bostock, but there was no sign of the bird. We searched and waited, but as the afternoon wore on there was still nothing.
I stayed until dusk with Steve, hoping that at any moment the bird would appear, but it just wasn’t meant to be. As the light faded, the thoughts of Papa Westray were still nagging away at me.
Bloody work! Any other day and I would have been heading north.
The next morning, I woke up and, as expected, the photos eventually started appearing across social media. My good friend Sam Viles had done what every birder hopes to do; he had moved quickly and connected with the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater.
Fair play to him!
That was the real kick in the teeth. A bird I desperately wanted to see had slipped through my fingers, and then another incredible thing happened.
Over the weekend, news broke of a first-summer Long-tailed Shrike in a remote area of Gloucestershire. Even more frustratingly, the bird had apparently been present since 8 July, and it was a different individual from the one at Crail, Fife, which I had seen the previous week.
Not only that, it was only around twenty minutes from where I had been staying while working for the last couple of months.
Unbelievable!
You put in the miles, chase birds all over the country, and then another one appears almost on your doorstep. That’s birding for you!
Anyway, moan over. That’s exactly why we twitch. The highs, the lows, the missed chances, and those unforgettable moments when everything finally comes together.
Then came Monday morning.
My mate Steve Tomlinson arrived at work with a big smile on his face and that look birders know all too well.
“You coming to see another one this afternoon?”
After finishing work, we jumped in the car and made the short drive to Eastleach Martin. The result? Absolutely fantastic views of the Long-tailed Shrike.
From the frustration of missing the bee-eater to the sheer joy of watching another Long-tailed Shrike just down the road, it summed up everything that makes birding so addictive.
You take the knocks, you suffer the misses, but then you get moments like this.
And that’s why I keep going.