The godwit of Eden
Simon Pinder and Keith Simpson recount the story behind the identification and relocation of a second for Scotland on the Eden Estuary.
IT was proving a rather uneventful 9 November until Tommy Ross posted a message on the Fife Bird News WhatsApp mid-evening, questioning the identity of a photo on the Fife
Bird Club (FBC) website; “That is an interesting looking Bar-tailed Godwit that Keith Simpson has put up. Very black patch on the under wing, similar to Hudsonian. Does anyone have a view on the photo?” What followed was disbelief as the now famous flight shot of Hudsonian Godwit downloaded to my laptop.
No one knew where the photo was taken, but the Eden Centre seemed the most likely spot. Later on in the evening
Sam Taylor pointed out that the picture was taken on 3 November and uploaded on 7th. Would the bird still be present? Possibly – if the Black-tailed Godwit flock was still around then why not?
Photographer Keith Simpson takes up the story: “I started 3 November with a visit to Morton Lochs, but It wasn’t long until the sun came out and the light started improving, so I decided to pop down to Guardbridge on the Eden Estuary.
When I arrived the light was good but the only birds flying past were a couple of Great Cormorants. A short while later I noticed a small group of Common Redshanks on the opposite side of the river, which took off towards me, before turning into the light and landing. I managed to take a
couple of pictures of this group, which was shortly joined by a few more redshank flocks. When I got home I processed the pictures and posted them on my Flickr site, with a short cursory glance at my redshank pictures, which
I’d decided I would process later instead.
Starting to process these images on 7 November, I saw what I thought was a Bar-tailed Godwit in the centre of one of the Common Redshank flocks. I posted it both onto my Flickr account and the FBC website with the label ‘Bar-tailed Godwit & Redshanks’. On 9 November I noticed some discussion on WhatsApp suggesting that it was a Hudsonian. Seeing these messages, I checked to see if I had another picture to post, which I found and posted on the club’s website. This photo had an out-offocus Bar-tailed Godwit above the Hudsonian, which I think helped with the identification.”
Next morning I arrived at the Eden Centre at 7:30 am and met up with John Bell, who had been scanning the waders gathering on the rising tide since first light. Over the next hour or so we were joined by Ken Shaw, John Nadin, Dick Byrne and Chris McGuigan. Social distancing meant John and I were positioned to the south side of the closed hide and the others to north.
Although the light was poor under heavy dull grey skies, the visibility was about 500 m. Not bad considering the previous day, haar (a type of cold sea fog)
had reduced the view to less than 50 m at times. Among the Pink-footed Geese and waders gathered around the edge of mud flat, six Black-tailed Godwits were initially visible preening and feeding on the exposed mud.
As the tide rose higher, Blacktailed Godwits gathered in a group opposite the hide. It wasn’t a particularly high tide that morning, so they weren’t driven off by the rising waters. Eventually a group of 42 godwits settled down; roosting, preening and a few feeding.
Large numbers of Pink-feet noisily departed and this spooked the godwit flock, causing them to fly in a tight circle, completing the loop a couple of times. I noticed a godwit in the flock with the black underwing coverts we were all looking for. On its second pass I could see the white on the upperwing was reduced to a narrow short wing-bar. John Bell got onto the bird just before the flock landed back on the shore and settled back down to roost.
It proved difficult to discern, as most of the godwits were facing away from us with their bills tucked up. The differences were subtle compared to Blacktailed Godwits, but this one was very slightly smaller, owing to its slightly shorter upper leg length, which was best noted when stood on even ground. The upperparts were a little browner overall, probably due to the contrasting dark centres to the mantle feathers, but the dull light hid this from us at the time. On the few brief occasions it looked up or ran short distances, the supercilium was seen to be very white and broad before the eye. The bill a little upcurved, and the breast and belly warm buff. In short, it looked like a Black-tailed at roost and a Bar-tailed Godwit when walking about.
As time ticks on, doubts set in and churn in the mind. We needed to see it in flight again to lay those fears to rest. Although I’m an active birder, I’m a relative newcomer to Fife and I was well aware that claiming such a rare bird had just made two or three passes in front of a line-up of very experienced and knowledgeable Fife birders without them picking it up must have at the very least been frustrating for those present.
After a painfully long wait, the flock took off and circled higher. This time all observers saw the diagnostic black underwing coverts. The flock flew further east down the estuary, where it was refound by Rob Armstrong. It was celebrated rather pitifully; an elbow bump with John Bell and socially distanced chat with all. ■