Success!
After a few excursions to strategic watchpoints...well a couple of half hearted efforts lol! I finally connected this evening at Faxfleet. I had some luck, both good and bad. The bad was that I'd just got back home from taking Louise on a recce to Beverley regarding her driving instruction when the pager sounded. Back towards Hull then.
I drove again to St Andrews retail park and had a look at the map (old school). I also rang RBA who gave me directions to Aldborough Flats. Why? Well, that was were it was being viewed from...trouble was it's in Lincs!
Question is...can you tick a bird that is in Yorks when you're viewing it from another County?! I heard differing opinions on this later.
I set off from Hull intending to go over the bridge to AF. As I was approaching the bridge another message informing me the bird had flown west towards Blacktoft Sands. Plan B...but what was it? Back to the OS Car Atlas 1997. I could see a minor road ran along the north side of the Humber west from Faxfleet. I didn't know the area well but it was either here or try Blacktoft. Fortunately I decided on the former.
I had no idea what to expect on arrival but my hopes rose when I saw a decent number of cars parked. This was my first real walk without my crutches. Fortunately it was only some 400 yds and I didn't fall. I joined the small group of hopefuls which included some big County listers. Not surprising as this species has been hard to catch up with in the County.
So, we had the unusual scenario of knowing a bird was present in the County but we couldn't see it. We could see the Lincs birders looking at it though!! Some of the chaps were in contact which raised hopes and we were to be informed when the bird took off. A couple of hours passed and the group number increased slowly. I stood with John Hewitt, Richard Willison, Steve Lawton and Carl Dutton. Then around 6.50pm we got the call..."it's flying". Where? We soon picked it up fortunately flying north over the reedbed INTO Yorkshire. It was fairly distant but I could clearly see the large red bill and distinctive jizz of a large tern.
Brilliant...and what a relief!
So...opinions on tickability? Probably best to be IN the county WITH the bird. I can see the argument though for viewing a bird in the County from across the border. After all the bird is IN the County and you've seen it!?
As usual I will abide by the rules. Maybe this needs some clarification?
Anyway, this time it doesn't matter, although I would have had this dilemma if I'd gone to Aldborough flats!!!
Yorkshire Bird 381
No comments:
Post a Comment