White-tailed Lapwing, Vanellus leucurus Blacktoft Sands RSPB, August - October 2021
Just across the River Trent from Alkborough, Lincolnshire, but still refusing to make the short hop over.
The weather forecast for Thursday 26th was a stronger north to North-easterly blowing right down the North Sea with cloud in the morning; interesting seabirds occur off the Yorkshire coast with regularity but Lincolnshire's gently sloping beaches need some more weather to produce any chance of a notable seabird; maybe this was worth a look? by 08:00 I was in position with Roger and John already there; it rained all the way down through the Wolds and by the time I hit the coast at Huttoft it was distinctly windy and must surely be bringing down some goodies? an hour later and with only a handful of Arctic Skuas, several 100 Sandwich Terns and two Purple Sandpipers to show it seemed like we needed to punish ourselves and look at Birdguides to see what we weer missing in Yorkshire and Norfolk but No Signal was the response so we continued the agony - about 30 minutes later John's phone suddenly located some 4G and a check of Birdguides mentioned a White-tailed Lapwing at Blacktoft!!!! -- I double checked that this was not a wind up - just across the Trent from Alkborough where wader numbers had been building all week and the site looked really good - surely this mega would only stop at Blacktoft for a short spell before seeing the error of its ways and relocate to Alkborough? Abandoning the seawatch was not a problem but where to go? although separated by less than 300m of water driving from one site to the other involves a 21 mile journey via Keadby Bridge, the nearest Trent crossing. If I drove to Blacktoft and it flew to Alkborough, Lincolnshire of course and a prospective new county bird, I would have to do a quick return which could potentially see me missing it at both spots! News from Blacktoft was that it looked settled so the decision was made to head there then having passed sunny Scunny news that it had flown off - Oh No which way now? Then it was back but distant from Marshland hide. OK so carry on toe Blacktoft and mop it up at Alkborough later. Arrived and located a parking space and after a few minutes was in Marshland hide and having good scope views but too distant for any decent photos. By lunch time I was just about to leave when it flew and was relocated from Townend hide - a quick jog and it was amazingly the closest bird - fired up the R6 and just as I got in the hide if flew, fired off a few shots while avoiding people's heads and trying to stop falling over and it thankfully landed again. Panic over and static shots obtained but the killer shots are the flight ones and the chances were that all the ones I took were going to be rubbish - eventually dared to look and found that not only were most sharp but the bird's pose was also good with a visible eye; job done now for Alkborough. Three days later it remains at Blacktoft so a tame Peregrine probably needed to usher it eastwards ---
My previous encounters with this long legged wader are distinctly few; one at Eilat, Israel, on March 21st 1980 was followed by a different bird there on March 31st then one at Eilat again on March 31st and April 1st and 3rd 1984 while my only British encounter was long range pretty unacceptable view of a bird at Leighton Moss on June 16th 2007
White-tailed Lapwing, formerly White-tailed Plover is a truly rare bird in Britain with just five previous birds prior to 2021 when one occurred in Kent on June 2nd - the first was in 1975 with subsequent birds in 1979, 1984, 2007 and 2010
Up date after a two month stay I went back for further views of this bird and after a very dull and wet morning with distant views and the bird looking distinctly unhappy it moved close to Townend hide and the sun broke through in the afternoon allowing me to get some better on the deck images.
