Seen One Before so a Relaxed twitch! 4th September 2021

After playing it cool for almost two weeks, I finally buckled and headed north to Blacktoft Sands in the East Yorkshire swamplands. Yorkshire is so big that it encompasses virtually every habitat type available in the UK so it  seems more than a bit weird to be birding in a fenland environment that would be far greater suited to Cambridgeshire or Lincolnshire than in a county that is much more synonymous with moors and dales. The reason for the visit to the RSPB reserve was primarily to see a very rare wading bird, a White-tailed Lapwing (or Plover for any old school birders). There were two reasons for my tardiness, firstly the twitch was extremely well attended, since there had only been seven previous records of the bird and they had largely been difficult to get, which had meant that the hides that the bird had been showing from had to be wardened and people were only allowed a set amount of time to view the bird because of the long queues that had built up once the hides were filled to capacity. Secondly Mrs Caley and I had been fortunate to see a White-tailed Lapwing at Caerlaverock WWT back in 2007 which had culminated a terrific days birding, en route to a holiday to Scotland, during which we had seen our first ever Black-necked Grebes and a family of Eagle Owls. In 2007 though, I didn't have a camera, and it would be cool to get some documental record of the species, so now the initial fervour for the Lapwing had fizzled out somewhat, we made our move.

We were so relaxed about it all that we didn't even leave home that early and would arrive at Blacktoft Sands mid-morning. However my calm state didn't last for too long because halfway through the journey Mrs Caley looked at the bird news and told me that the Black-browed Albatross had flown back into the cliffs at Bempton which is around an hour and a half drive north of Blacktoft. If you read my blog (see here) about my first encounter with the Albatross when we finally saw it at the third attempt then you understand the frustration I felt with a far too brief and wholly underwhelming long distance view of it as it disappeared out to sea. We would keep a check on the news, if the Albatross settled in then we would take the plunge and try for it again.

First though it was to Blacktoft and just after ten-thirty we pulled into a surprisingly busy carpark. However, as I had predicted, a lot of folk were already leaving having had their own fix of the White-tailed Lapwing which we knew by frequent reports was still on site and showing well. We quickly made our way to the double-tier Xerox hide where the Lapwing had been showing and found a couple of places on the lower level. I spent ten minutes searching around the scrape and saw lots of nice birds, Ruff, Green Sandpipers, a Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank included but couldn't find the target bird. Again though I wasn't too worried because I knew that the rarer bird was there somewhere, a very helpful chap had told me that it had been showing beautifully just before we arrived. Some movement in the reeds on the opposite side of the channel, where we were informed the Lapwing had been, caught my eye. Not the Lapwing since these were small birds clinging onto the reed stems but a family party of Bearded Tits, our first of the year. We usually travel to Somerset each September (see here for decent photos) to see Beardies up close, but for now these distant birds would do.

Bearded Tits

I continued watching the partially obscured, by tall reedy grasses, channel where up to five Ruff and a couple of Green Sandpipers were feeding. A long-legged and slightly odd looking bird wandered out into mid-channel and the twitch was fulfilled. The White-tailed Lapwing must have been feeding along the closest edge of the channel and couldn't be seen from our vantage point. Now it had moved into the channel and could be viewed through gaps in the vegetation. The Lapwing looks a bit weird to my mind because of those long stilt-like legs which make it resemble one of those jacked-up custom kit cars where the chassis floats high above the ground. The White-tailed Lapwing stopped and preened for a while and showed why it had been given the White-tailed moniker.

White-tailed Lapwing

White-tailed Lapwing (right) & Ruff (left)

Now the White-tailed Lapwing was out in the open it continued to feed along the muddy edge of the channel, daintily picking away at the surface of the water for insect food. It tended to keep its legs partially submerged in the water presumably because that meant that it didn't have to bend down so far to pick up its food!

People came and went over the next hour while we sat and enjoyed watching the Lapwing feed along the channel. Our view of the Caerlaverock bird all of those years ago had been brief and was taken in the gloom of evening owing to us not arriving until late. Mrs Caley was nursing a bad back on that day too and I almost had to carry her to the bird and back which almost did my own back in by the time we'd finished.

The White-tailed Lapwing had disappeared to our right again and a check of the bird news told us that the Albatross was still sat on the cliffs at Bempton so we decided that we may as well go for it. Before leaving we watched a young Water Rail seemingly have a great deal of fun perching and flapping around on a bent reed stem much to the amusement of a Common Snipe nearby.

Common Snipe & Water Rail

Blacktoft hasn't always been the best friend of mine, we dipped both Little Crake and Spotted Crake there two years ago, but we have conversely also seen a Buff-breasted Sandpiper (our first at the time) and a Montagu's Harrier on the reserve. It deserves a more detailed look around but that Albatross was beckoning so we didn't check out any of the other hides on this visit. We were back in the car and driving northwards just two hours after arriving.