MEGA ALERT: The PACIFIC SWIFT in Suffolk

It was a lovely, fresh summer morning in North Warwickshire and my intention was to potter around the garden tending to my rose bushes and reseeding the lawn. Don't laugh, I am getting on a bit you know? Anyway, the peace and tranquility was shattered as I glanced down at my phone. There was a PACIFIC SWIFT in Suffolk! I needed to move quickly and a series of Facebook postings and text messages were distributed in order to summon a crew for the trip east. As seems to be the case these days though, there was a pretty apathetic reaction to the bird from some quarters. Other folks I know were pissed up on cheap wine, were working hard, were physically disabled or were head-banging away to Iron Maiden at the Download Music Festival.

Eventually though I tracked down a couple of birders with balls big enough to twitch this usually, highly mobile Apus from far and distant lands. Step forward Jules Allen and Dave Hutton. We departed around 12.30pm to make the straightforward journey down the A14, carefully braking at strategic points occasionally as I approached speed cameras and potential unmarked Police cars. Talking of the fuzz, as we got to the village of Trimley St Mary our path was blocked by the law. Access to the lane was being refused due to safety reasons. I abandoned the car on the main road and we commenced the three mile hike down to Trimley Marshes nature reserve. As we made our way down at pace there were several familiar faces waddling back in the opposite direction, all understandably equipped with 'lazy lob ons' after seeing the bird perform well for the past hour or two.

The closer we got to the River Orwell though the nastier the weather was beginning to look.  The sight of several dispersing Common Swifts was also making me quite nervous. As we clambered up the bank to gain a better vantage point we were advised by those present that the rarity had gained height and disappeared a few minutes before we arrived. Then the birding Gods turned on us completely as a rain storm closed in. Despite the downpour we sat it out and continued to scan the area. As cold water trickled down the back of my jean and filled my jacket pockets all I could see was the odd House Martin and Barn Swallow swirling amongst 500 or so Common Swifts in the distance.        

Trimley Marshes with Felixstowe Docks in the background.
Photo by Adam Archer

After about twenty minutes the rain finally eased off and more damp birders we recognised started to arrive. One of those was Staffordshire birder Steve Nuttall, or as we call him around my neck of the woods 'Golden Balls'. I just knew that the presence of Steve would lure the bird back into view, if he fell into a barrel of thumbs he would come up sucking a tit. To prove my theory correct around ten minutes later a shout went up further along the line of birders. Someone had relocated the rarity feeding distantly over the nearby fields. We all ran westwards along the sea wall to the where it had last been seen. There then followed a few minutes of panic as once again it disappeared. Everyone stood in silence to recommence the search. As I scanned the nearest lagoon a bird whizzed past my field of view, it was no House Martin but I glimpsed a definite white rump. The bird banked left and then right again. It was the PACIFIC SWIFT. I shouted out directions as best as I could and eventually every birder one by one managed to get a fix on the target. 

PACIFIC SWIFT - Trimley Marshes, Suffolk
Photo by Steve Nuttall

The bird then started to fly closer and closer until eventually it passed within about ten feet of where I was standing. To enjoy such views of such a tricky and highly mobile rarity from the far east was a real privilege and everyone on site felt exactly the same way. Shouts of joy and relief reverberated amongst the crowd that was more akin to a terrace full of football fans than a collection of rain soaked bird watchers. I have not experienced such an electric atmosphere at a twitch since 2005 when the infamous BELTED KINGFISHER shocked everyone by turning up in Staffordshire. The bird continued to perform well on and off for the next forty five minutes as we all enjoyed the show and celebrated the occasion with our mates. 

PACIFIC SWIFT - Trimley Marshes, Suffolk
Photo by Steve Nuttall

The bird then disappeared and as it did so a huge mass of Common Swifts then began to swarm together. They could obviously sense another change in the weather. There then followed a rubble of thunder and as we looked westwards a huge wall of rain could be seen heading directly towards us from further along the River Orwell. It was now every man for himself and I quickly clambered down the bank and to the shelter of a nearby hide. I was literally the last birder to make it inside before the most violent of rain storms hit and the hide filled to capacity. As I stood shivering inside, shoulder to shoulder with my fellow twitchers the water was hitting the side of the structure with such force it was pouring through the wooden panels. 

PACIFIC SWIFT - Trimley Marshes, Suffolk
Photo by Steve Nuttall

After a further fifteen minutes of dithering and with a real risk of hypothermia developing, the monsoon subsided enough for us to make our escape. It was tempting to hang around in the hope that the prize swift returned but with drenched jeans, soaked undergarments and with a case of foot rot setting in we decided to make the long trek back up to the car. About half way back the rain eventually stopped, the clouds parted and out came the sun, drying us off a little in the process. After a celebratory meal of fish and chips I then drove back up to the Midlands, uncomfortable and bare-footed but with a broad grim on my cheeky, little face.

PACIFIC SWIFT in Britain  

This is a species of the Eastern Palearctic region. The nominate race pacificus is a long distance migrant and breeds in the north from Siberia east to Kamchatka and Japan and then southwards to Central Annam, Vietnam and to Thailand and Burma. This population migrates south to winter in Malaysia, the Sundas, New Guinea and Australia.

There have been just six accepted records of this species in Britain as follows:

2011 - Spurn, East Yorkshire - 9th July
2008 - Kilnsea/Spurn, East Yorkshire - 22nd & 26th June
2005 - Spurn, East Yorkshire - 1st July
1995 - Daventry Reservoir, Northamptonshire - 16th July
1993 - Cley, Norfolk - 30th May
1981 - Sea Area Humber - 19th June

The first record involved a bird that was picked up on an North Sea gas platform about 45km ENE of Happisburgh, Norfolk. It was released at Beccles, Suffolk on the 19th June and then spotted in Shadingfield, Suffolk on the 20th June.

MEGA ALERT: The DUSKY THRUSH in Kent

It was late Friday night and I was tucked up in bed fantasising about what we might encounter on our hastily arranged trip to the Western Isles the following day. The thought of Pomarine Skuas started to get things stirring between the sheets, where 'spooning' rather than 'spoons' are usually at the forefront of my filthy little mind. All of a sudden though I was brought back down to earth. Eminating through the darkness came a haunting wail, the dreaded sound of MEGA alert! Petrified about what I might witness flashing up on my pager I decided against trotting downstairs to retrieve my pager. It was probably a bird I did not 'need' anyway. I muffled the irritating din with a pillow over my head and continued to doze...... until I received a text from Snapper Richards 'Are you awake? If so, check your pager!' he demanded. I flung back the quilt and darted downstairs as fast as my trembling little legs could carry me.

You are joking? There was only a DUSKY THRUSH over in Kent and amazingly this had been its third day on site! A quick glance through my library confirmed that this would be the first twitchable individual since a first winter male appeared in Hartlepool during December 1959. Teen heart throb Adam Faith was number one in the UK single charts back then but did this particular 'Adam' have 'faith' in the bird still being present the following day? I called Snapper back. We needed to move in a few hours if we were to get on site as close to sunrise as we could. The problem was all of our usual crew were either drunk, tucked up in bed asleep, could not be arsed to answer their phone or away in some far off distant land. I was beginning to panic bearing in mind I had a ten hour drive looming and a ferry to catch on Sunday morning. There was no way I had the stamina as driver for an eight hour round trip to Margate and back followed by a marathon trek north to the Isle of Skye.

Another irritating case of Thrush!

Fortunately Martin Smyth sprang to the rescue with a lift. After picking up a rather tipsy Snapper Richards from Cannock we headed over to Coventry where we caught a lift with top 2013 year lister John Jennings and his pal Dennis Woodward. It was now 3.00am and I was pretty much shattered. The previous day had been a stressful affair after clocking up a ten hour stint in the office and I had only managed to obtain less than a hour of that unsettling pre-twitch sleep. I felt pretty damn rough and to make matters worse I was convinced the bird would depart throughout the night. The atmosphere in the car was tense during our journey south-east.

At just after 6.00am we pulled up outside Margate Cemetery and at this stage there had been no sign of the bird. As we retrieved our kit from the boot of the car though, a rather flustered Andy Holden darted past us looking like 'Where's Wally' on his sports day. He was heard to shout "It's been seen!". We legged it through the graveyard hurdling tombstones as we went. The first friendly face we encountered was that of Alan Clewes. Luckily he had his scope trained on the DUSKY THRUSH as it perched up as bold as brass in the tree tops. We took turns to have a quick peek at the rare oriental temptress. The pressure was off and the second phase of adrenalin began to kick in. It was now time to savour the moment.

DUSKY THRUSH (first winter female)
Margate Cemetery, Kent - May 2013
Photo by Adam Archer

The scene that surrounded us was reminiscent of a geeky, 'care in the community' equivalent of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video as one travel weary, birding zombie after another shuffled and groaned, quietly from grave to grave as the bird flew from tree to tree. Despite being pretty mobile the bird treated all that were present to some decent views in the early morning murk. Occasionally it was mobbed by one of the resident Ring-necked Parakeets and was flushed a short distance. At other times a few excited birders edged too close but everyone was relatively well behaved during our time on site. The thrush continued to remain pretty loyal to its favoured corner of the cemetery. It would disappear for a while but it was not too long before it popped up out in the open in order to satisfy its admirers.

Alan Clewes is shocked to the core by the presence of the Dusky Thrush!

As the morning progressed more and more late comers started to arrive, each with their own excuse for not being there earlier. They were like a bunch of apologetic teenagers who had failed to do their homework. Some like me were obliviously tucked up in bed when the news filtered through, others were down the pub (always dangerous at this time of the year) whilst the other odd twitcher amongst them was just plain dumb. Whatever their tale though, everyone who made an effort to make it to Margate this day would have scored eventually. Unfortunately there was no sign of the bird the following day.

DUSKY THRUSH (1st winter female) - Margate, Kent.
Photo by Josh Jones

The Dusky Thrush breeds further north than its close relative the Naumann's Thrush from north-central Siberia east to Kamchatka. It spends the winter from Japan south to Taiwan and to Southern China to Myanmar. If accepted this will be just the tenth record for Britain. The initial sighting was way back in 1905 when one was shot at Gunthorpe in Nottinghamshire. The most recent was a stunning male that was identified from photographs that were taken in a snowy garden in Leigh, Greater Manchester on the 8th December 2010. One of the records of a bird on Shetland in 1975 is rumoured to show signs of it being a Dusky x Naumann's Thrush intergrade however this is yet to be confirmed. There is also some talk of the Kent bird showing a few features to suggest this however the consensus of opinion is that it looks good for a second calendar year Dusky Thrush.

The ruins of St Mary's Church at Reculver, Kent.
Photo by Adam Archer

After spending a few hours with the DUSKY THRUSH we then made our way up to the north Kent coast to Reculver. There had been a male Red-backed Shrike in the area the previous day however we were too preoccupied by another bird to search for it too hard. A splendid female Montagu's Harrier came into view as we approached the oyster farm and for about twenty minutes we enjoyed some of the best views any of us have had of this species in Britain. After a hearty breakfast in the nearby cafe we then made our way back to the West Midlands. It had been one hell of a Saturday morning!