Only Here For The Skua! 24th November 2019

One of my favourite birds that I saw last year was a fabulous Pomarine Skua that had taken to loafing around on a beach at South Gare near Redcar. That "Pom" was only the second I'd seen and even though for most of the time it had just "sat" on the beach and we only witnessed a couple of flypasts and nothing of the piratical behaviour that Skuas are renowned for, the bird filled one of those treasured memory slots in my head as well as most of a memory card on my camera. To read about what it takes to overload my senses see my write up of that encounter here, Pomarine Memory.

Pomarine Skua, South Gare, 11/09/2018

I had hoped all year to see another Pomarine Skua to add to the Old Caley Year List but somehow, despite many trips to the coast, they had all managed to avoid me up until the end of October. The lack of a Pom left a gaping hole in that year list and I was thinking that the chance to see one this year had gone. You don't get many Skuas of any description in Oxfordshire and, as far as I know, Pomarine Skuas are unheard of in this part of the country. 

Pomarine Skuas are very much birds of the sea and are almost always seen flying past the coast, usually in the East of the UK. Occasionally one settles into a coastal area such as the one at South Gare last August and September. Midway through November one was reported at the famous Seal breeding sanctuary at Donna Nook in North Lincolnshire. The Skua was reported to be feeding on Seal placentas. Yuk! For the next week or so the Skua was reported as still being present on the beach and the many decent photos emerging of it, proved that it must be showing pretty well. Our first opportunity to try to add the species to the year list then was the following weekend.

I actually, almost, enjoy driving on Sunday mornings. It's the only time that the roads in this country are quiet. Apart from a couple of trips for football and a detour once to twitch and life tick an American Robin, still the only one I've ever seen, at Grimsby also on the way to football in Scarborough, the North-eastern corner of North Lincolnshire is entirely unknown to me. It's about three hours from home and we were scheduled to arrive around ten o'clock when I assumed it would still be relatively quiet since most folk don't get out and about until later. Imagine our surprise and horror then when it became obvious that an awful lot of people were heading the same way as us once we neared our destination and we found ourselves at the back of a sizeable queue of traffic once we entered North Summercoates village. The last mile or so was more akin to trying to get into one of those major tourist traps that entice half the country to visit. I asked a steward, who was directing the traffic towards a muddy field for parking, that I was looking for the Wildlife Trusts own car park but was politely informed that it was closed at weekends and that I'd need to impart with a fiver to park in the field instead. I never like paying for parking and a little part of me wanted to turn around and drive grumpily away but apparently 20% of the fee goes to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust which lessened the blow a little. That fact however raised a few questions in my head. Firstly who gets the other 80%? The farmer, just for providing a muddy field for parking, good little earner if you ask me, or the Ministry of Defence since Donna Nook is used as a Weapons Research Area, ie a bombing range (hopefully they'd refrain today). Secondly I felt that the Wildlife Trust was actually missing out big time by not charging a small entry fee, they were effectively running a popular zoo after all and there was clearly money to be made. Having finally parked the car we were both grateful that we'd got wellies in the car since the field was quickly becoming a quagmire, later in the week it had to be closed since it deteriorated further and actually disappeared under water. 

We made our way through the dunes to the sanctuary and were, to say the least, shocked once again. There were people everywhere! I never realised that a Pomarine Skua would be so popular! This was some twitch, as big a turn out that I'd ever seen on the many that I've been on. But of course the hundreds of families and couples that were stood alongside the low fence that offered protection to the mudflats and the attraction, were here to see the Seals and not a bird.

Regaining my composure I found a raised mound away from the fence, you couldn't get near it anyway, and scanned the expanse of mud and short grass for the Pomarine Skua. I found the gruesome sight of a Great Black-backed Gull eating an unfortunate and recently deceased Seal pup. Even more grisly was seeing a couple of Turnstones and a Redshank sharing in the feast. I must confess to having little interest in watching big fat creatures floundering around in the mud, even the supposedly cute little pups don't stir much emotion in me. Seals are made for the sea and look much better in water where their awkwardness on land is replaced with supreme grace and agility.

Great Black-backed Gull

I scanned a little further away and found the Pomarine Skua, #285 for the year, resting about twenty metres away from the fence. We walked towards the spot and found maybe the other ten people present who were just as disinterested in big blubbery stranded things, that's the Seals and not me thank you very much, and instead were all concentrated on the rather handsome looking Skua. We couldn't find any room next to the fence so had to find another elevated platform in the dunes to view the bird. That meant that we were further away so it would be record shots only to begin with. It was also tricky getting a clear viewpoint through the wispy grasses that the Skua was managing to hide behind.

Pomarine Skua, Donna Nook, 24/11/2019

The Pomarine Skua soon did the right thing by standing up, stretching its wings and then flying off. It did, however, somehow manage to remain partially obscured by those same wispy grass strands although it then whirled around again and flew past at more height enabling me to at least gain some slightly better images. It was noticeable when in flight just how "tatty" the Skua looked. The two "spooned" tail feathers that Pomarine Skuas have were absent as were a couple of primaries.

We followed the line of the Skuas flight and its attendant mini-paparazzi a hundred or so metres up the path to where the bird had landed. By standing on yet another hillock I was able to see the Skua was now much closer to the path than previously and had also decided to dine out on another dollop of Seal placenta. I managed to get a line of sight through some spectators heads and get some closer views and better record shots but the grass stems were still a problem.

Mrs Caley and I found a better hump to stand on but still we had to contend with people stood by the fence who just wouldn't keep their heads still! There were also the Seals who occasionally obscured the view and photobombed several times.

Then we finally caught a break when a family moved away from the fence to go and goggle some more of the same further along the path. I managed to move quickly enough to secure a position in the gap although it took a couple of well placed elbows to make room for Mrs Caley. Now we had an unrivalled view of the Skua and watched as it heartily tucked into the afterbirth delight. I made a note to swerve on tripe and liver whenever it's presented on any future menus, unlikely maybe but you never know.

Having gorged on its meal the Pomarine Skua shuffled away from the leftovers and stood watchfully against anything that might have wanted a bite of it. It paid particular attention to a female Seal that came wobbling past. That Seal was the only one that I bothered to photograph and that was mainly because of its "peaky blinders" haircut which I thought looked a bit daft, as stupid as the ones worn by the pseudo Brummie actors.

The Skua had an injured leg which it hobbled about on and that may explain why it was lingering so long at Donna Nook although the free and constant warm meals would also be an attractive retainer. The bird had no problems flying though and it took off again, taking a fair run-up too, so the leg didn't hamper it much at all. The poor weather, which I do try hard not to mention and to be fair is par for the course this autumn, didn't help with my camera settings with low shutter speeds ensuring far from sharp flight shots.

Once the Skua had disappeared back in the direction of where we'd first seen it, we called it a day, morning anyway, and headed back to the car. If we were amazed by the amount of cars and people that arrived with us at ten o'clock, we were now absolutely flabbergasted at the queues of cars that were now waiting to park. I estimate that there must have been nearly five hundred cars in all and with each containing a family of occupants it wouldn't have been unreasonable to guess that they'd be a couple of thousand of Seal lovers at the reserve. As we passed one chap I was asked "if the seals were showing well?". "What Seals?", I replied adding, "I only came for the Skua!". I really must work on my jokes......

After stopping for a "quantity over quality" Sunday lunch carvery, a lot of which didn't look a far cry from what the Skua was feasting on, we drove to a site just south of Lincoln to catch up with another year tick. Slight, well big really, problem with this one though since the bird(s) in question were a pair of Ruddy Shelducks which are never given full provenance and acceptance by county recorders even in years such as this when lots appear in the country at the same time. Many Ruddy Shelducks are kept in captive collections and frequently escape and the species is also subject to reintroduction attempts so any seen are most likely only part wild at best. But we're year ticking and as far as I'm concerned any bird that I see that takes effort to find and see and is also "living wild and free" is good for us. Thus the two Ruddy Shelducks that we now looked at from about half a mile away near the village of Harmston was counting as bird #286 on the Old Caley year list! I will stop myself from adding the Guinea Fowl that I saw in Cornwall though.

Ruddy Shelduck, Harmston Lincs, 24/11/2019