Highland is very much devoid of birders, so it was hardly a shock that no one had assembled at our chosen dawn destination of Helmsdale Harbour. Why we chose here... well, the bird was seen at last knockings the previous evening; it was tracking north so it must have roosted between Brora and Helmsdale, a distance of only eight miles as the needletail flies. To me, it seemed the most logical 'Highland' site.
On the river mouth wall adjacent to the harbour, we settled into our position. Visible migration was well underway with Woodpigeons, Chaffinches and Jackdaws the largest flocks heading south, and a Dipper also flew upriver... things were looking up. But, as I was observing above the town and above me, Emily wisely was scanning the sea, when, looking at roughly 2 o'clock position, she latched on to the holy grail. Although she knew, rather than shouting the species, she exclaimed she had a dark fast-flying bird with rapid wingbeats. Panic ensued although it took little time to find, and when I did, I then shouted, "it's the f*****g WHITE-THROATED NEEDLETAIL!! A dozen or so rapid but powerful wingbeats, followed by a lengthy and equally powerful glide revealed the classic flight of a needletail, a family we had become used to last November when observing both Purple and Brown-backed Needletails in The Philippines.
Initially at an approximate distance of 200 metres, the bird coasted towards us as we watched in complete disbelief, more so as we had found it in less than ten minutes of searching! It stubbornly remained at a height of ca. 30 metres above sea level, but coming closer all the time, when, just as it was about to head out of view going north, it banked revealing its paler upperparts and flew head on towards us. Try as we might, no camera would manage to focus on the bird due to the light and technological challenges, so we scrapped the camera and just enjoyed it as it angled off south, now only at approx. 100 metres until it eventually went out of sight close to Portgower - a total time between eight and nine minutes.
We immediately put the news out but frustratingly, no further sighting of the bird was had from the scant number of observers searching for it. We remained in situ for another hour with no joy and therefore carried on our wanderings to see what else we could un-earth. Portgower was the main bit as a short seawatch produced a scrumptious flock of six Pomarine Skuas, plus many Arctic Skuas. We then worked a few sites finding nothing, before arriving at Brora and meeting the finder of the 'Highland' needletail, Fraser Todd.
On our way home, a brief stop in Tain revealed the Little Egret which has been present since the weekend, add to this the Great White Egret and Pochard seen on Sunday, it's been a brilliant few days!
A huge thanks to Fraser Todd for initially finding the bird, Emily for re-locating it and my inner-self for deciding Helmsdale would be the place to try for this avian enigma!
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| The looks of success |
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| The Needletail went out of view around the distant headland |
