A mad overnight drive down to Kent from York, with me navigating and consuming several cans of cheap bitter. Dunc did a great job putting up with my 'hilarious' map skills and frequent requests for loo stops. We found the site easily and to our surprise, despite arriving at 4.30am there were already a number of cars there, containing snoring birders. It was still dark and with clear skies, allowing great views of the Halle Bop comet overhead in the morning sky. We decided to get some kip during which time we heard the object of our trip singing, a non-impressive series of repetitive quacks. As dawn broke a crowd of birders had gathered alongt he causeway across the reservoir and as I couldn't sleep due to excitement, I kept an eye on them for any behaviour that suggested they could see the crake. At about 5.30am, they began looking intently down their scopes, so I woke Dunc and we both tumbled out of the car, rather bleary eyed. To our delight, the cracking Little Crake was walking along the lake edge in the dawn sun no more than 14 metres from the car! Cracking views were had before the bird disappeared under the near bank. Further and more prolonged views were had a little later though in poorer light further along the lake shore. A most successful start to the day!
At 7am we headed towards South Norwood Lake on the southern edge of London where a Pied-billed Grebe had been holding territory for a couple of weeks.
We found the grebe easily and watched this smart Yank at close range, displaying and calling as well as some casual nest building. In cracking summer plumage, this was a really enjoyable tick having dipped the species twice before in recent years. Having scored two lifers in Kent by 8am, we decided we'd had enough of the softy south and wanted to get on the road back to Yorkshire.
Hull had two more American vagrants on offer, so that would be our next destination. First up, a female Bufflehead, a small American diving duck at Bransholme Sewage Works. This bird was of uncertain origin, sporting a metal ring on one leg. However, it behaved like a wild bird and there was another more 'authentic' Yank duck just down the road, so it was worth seeing 'just in case'! The bird was found easily floating about with the local wildfowl in this most unglamorous of locations in the middle of a rough part of Hull. Definitely not as stunning as the handsome drake I had seen at Nottingham in 1994, but very cute with a cool head pattern.
Further east we went to Hornsea Mere, a much more attractive location. We were shown a duck by a hide full of twitchers which seemed to us to be 'just' a Tufted Duck, albeit with a white patch round the base of the bill. We exclaimed our disapproval and headed round to another hide where we quicky found the real Lesser Scaup. This subtle bird is only the second British record of a female type Lesser Scaup in the UK and a good Yorkshire tick for us both. So not a bad end to a fantastic Day!
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