Finders-in-the-field: Brunnich's Guillemot, Anstruther, Fife, 25 Sep 2016
Alan Lauder & Ken Shaw
The Isle of May is important to us, a place that is part of the ornithological history of Scotland but more importantly part of our own history of bird finding with many friends over many years. Our week this year was eagerly anticipated as ever but dampened a little by a weather forecast showing little hope of east winds and migrants.
Stuck off island due to high seas on the Saturday we were rescheduled for Sunday and at 0900h we found ourselves awaiting the boatman and our 0915 loading time for departure to the island from Anstruther harbour in east Fife. At about 0905h Alan pointed out an auk in the harbour, a bit unusual, and Ken lifted his bins. Both expected it to be little more than a storm blown guillemot as there were many passing offshore. There was a little silence, we know that silence, the same quiet moment that realisation has dawned over plenty of the scarcer birds we've found together. We exchange views that it looked interesting and as we started to realise the potential Ken asked Keith Morton to grab his camera and take "as many shots as possible". Without hesitation Keith was on it as was Mark Osborne and their shots proved vital. We all continued to watch and discuss the bird, the rest of the team, Julian and Jeremy Osborne and Chris Rollie, all now on it too.
We had 5 more minutes, Roy the boatman had arrived and was getting the boat ready, Jem and Jules got started on loading and Keith, Ken and Al stayed on the bird for as long as possible, pulled away a few minutes later to help load to get on our way. Roy was on a schedule! A rough crossing prevented any discussion on the RIB crossing but immediately on arrival on the island we kicked into action. We had to figure out how to deal with a clearly challenging ID while considering the likely desire of many folk to see a mainland Brunnich's Guillemot. Clearly we needed help and were no longer with the bird and now on a remote island with limited internet and communications
Bird finding is so much about the team and we needed those we could rely on most to help us. David Steel the Isle of May Warden is a great pal and was vital, helping us access images on the web and using his own experience of auks to contribute to the discussion. David Clugston and John Nadin, Fife birders and great friends started to look at getting to the bird to give us independent feedback. David based in Anstruther was on it very quickly. Then we needed heavy weight ID help, Alan called on Killian Mullarney and was quickly able to send a few images to him.
Killian's special interest in Brunnich's, as finder of Ireland's first and illustrator of the auks for the Collins guide, meant we knew we were going to the right place. He quickly phoned back with a very positive "100% Brunnich's" response, enthused about how interesting the bird was, comparing notes on ageing and structure and essentially enabled us to find the confidence to put the news out. That's the kind of expertise that is always welcome!
We continued our own discussions on the bird, reveling in the ID challenge it presented. The news went out and much discussion has ensued from many of those who have seen the bird. Instructive and mostly helpful discussion is always welcome and many have spent hopefully enjoyable times pouring over it. Hopefully the bird has brought a lot of enjoyment to many. Sadly it doesn't look too well we can hope it makes some recovery and heads on its way. More positively the local fish and chip shop has been even busier than usual apparently!
Calling. pic.twitter.com/IbrfFrURAW
— Jason Birch (@Birchjason71) September 26, 2016
We saw the bird for about 15 minutes, we'd have liked a bit longer but now we write this from the Isle of May Bird Observatory, unfortunately in West winds but making the most of a handful of migrants on and around the island and in the company of great friends.
Alan Lauder & Ken Shaw
27 September 2016
Brunnich's Guillemot records in Britain and Ireland
Write for Rare Bird Alert
Do you have a birding story you would like to share? From foreign birding trips to your local patch, finders accounts and more, we would love to hear from you.
All our articles are free for anyone to view and we include them in our weekly newsletter which goes out to thousands of birders every Wednesday. We also share them on our Twitter and Facebook pages, making sure your article will get read by as many people as possible.
If you would like to write an article please for us please get in touch with your ideas, thank you.
The RBA team
