Girdleness

Saturday 02 November 2024

Today, I was testing out my possible new scope since, I had forgotten my tripod at home when we were on holiday in France in mid-October. We therefore decided to properly test it while birding at my local patch, Girdleness. After our karate session on Saturday morning, we left to test out my scope. I saw a couple of Purple Sandpipers on the south pier and my first for the autumn: a Fieldfare in Greyhope bay. My mother and I walked towards the fog horn, hoping to test the scope’s seawatching capabilities. I set up the scope behind the “old coo” fog horn, sheltered from the wind. I noticed two dark brown/black ducks on the water. I ignored them at first, thinking “probably eiders… no point checking”. After doing some seawatching for about 0.000001 seconds, I got bored and thought, “for goodness’s sake, I’ll look at the eiders,” and there it was: my lifer Surf Scoter. After thinking I was dreaming, which is when I find loads of rare birds, I realised I was still awake. I jumped up and down like a mad man, screaming and shouting I asked my mum to call my dad, who had access to the ABZ rare birds WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Within a few minutes, the message was out: “Surf Scoter Girdleness in front of old coo fog horn. Adult male with female eider. Found by Edgar” followed by a photo and the caption “Here now”, a few minutes later. Andrew Whitehouse arrived a few minutes after, from the battery, followed by several other people. Keith Yates also got the bird after we had left.

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