Little Stint & Long-Tailed Skua!

On 22nd, news of another stint hit the bird headlines, and I had just enough time on the day it was reported to try my luck. The tide was due in late, and the light was fading too, but I decided to give it a shot. It wasn’t easy: this was a summer-plumaged bird and would be crouched amongst the 200+ other waders on the rocky shoreline. But after a good deal of searching, I did eventually find it: a beautiful Little Stint. Sadly, the light had gone by the time it woke up and made itself more visible, but I did manage to get some pleasing images by bumping up the ISO.

On the 23rd, I tried again and failed, but I did find a nice Little Gull, which hung around for a while. On 24th, the weather changed at last, the sun disappeared and the prevailing south-westerlies and showers returned. Whilst the prolonged spell of glorious weather had been very pleasant, it hadn’t been conducive to skua-watching, and now at last I had my first big opportunity, coinciding with half-term. So, it was back to the usual spot. I arrived at the layby at about 7.30am to check the wader flock by the railings and then moved on to the carpark just west of the village. Here, I was surprised and frustrated in equal measure as a stunning Arctic Skua drifted past, close in over the beach, heading towards the point I should have gone to first! If only I had made my way straight there! Hey ho… Anyway, I then walked down to the point, and had a decent couple of hours here. I racked up a good few May seabirds including c. 10 Gannets, c. 6 Red-throated Divers (in one flock) and c.8 Manx Shearwaters. There were also plenty of Oystercatchers going past, the odd duck, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Curlew and Whimbrel. But best of all was a distant skua cruising around the mouth of the estuary with some gulls. I had an inkling as to what it might be, and the more I watched it, the more I became convinced, ticking off its diagnostic features along the way: a ‘skinny’ tern-like jizz combined with an obviously long, pointed tail, a lack of clear-cut ‘dark-undertail vs. white belly’ (instead a gradual fade from white breast to dusky undertail), no markings on the breast, greyish rather than black upperparts, and as it came into the estuary heading east, I could also see its distinctive black cap and white collar. This was undoubtedly an adult Long-tailed Skua – my first for years!