What Goes Around Comes Around

Or does it? There have recently been several articles in birding magazines and posts reminding birders of what they have missed by being born too late. The number of species on your British List is largely dependent on money and how far you're prepared to travel, but the quality of species is dependent on when you started twitching (if indeed you do). I started birding in 1980, a late starter compared to some, but didn't start twitching until late 1984. I was very lucky to have seen the Little Curlew (nee Whimbrel) at Blakeney the following year. The "Big Picture" in Birdwatch magazine invokes similar memories for the writer and myself, in that neither of us quite knew what exactly we were looking at, it didn't appear in any field guides of European species at the time. I had been to see it on the strength of a phone call to Nancy's (more nostalgia), whereas Simon had been on a family holiday in Norfolk (thankfully his parents were birders). 

However, as I began to become more involved in the birding scene I discovered several species that I had narrowly missed. A Cream-coloured Courser had been well twitched just in Essex in 1984, and a Long-toed Stint in 1982, when I was birding but not in the loop. My first year on Scilly was 1986, so I missed the "big year" that was 1985. I have never seen Black-billed Cuckoo, nor Magnolia Warbler from 1981, but they have been seen in the UK since and I'm no longer bothered. However, being a wader enthusiast, the Stint and the Courser hurt, as did Hudsonian Godwit which had been seen in 1981 and 1983. Worse, I think I drove past the Countess Wear, Exeter bird as I had friends in the area and visited in the winter of 1981. Eventually all three species were seen again, the first being the Godwit in 1988 but it was a one day bird only seen by a couple of observers. So the first I "gripped back" was the Courser in 2004 on Scilly, and other twitchable birds have been seen since. Hudsonian Godwit has become  more regular, but from 1983 to 2015 there wasn't a sniff, although birds may have been overlooked. Others may be returnees, records from New Zealand confirm this pattern. 

Long-toed Stint remained a hard bird to catch up with, the first in 1970 was retrospectively identified many years later, but eventually I got a call from Mike to tell me I was going to Yorkshire the next day. From his tone I guessed it would be for a wader, it wasn't the only other one on the British list I need (Caspian Plover), but something I wanted even more, Long-toed Stint. Ten years previously I hadn't gone for a bird that was eventually accepted since there was much debate as to its identity, and it was so distant I wasn't really interested. 

The only British wader not to have occurred since 1985, followed by Grey-tailed Tattler in 1994 is, of course, the Little Curlew, and I am so pleased that it was one of my early twitches. I have seen them since abroad but the chance of another UK record seems slim, as numbers of all Curlews are falling worldwide. Which brings me to the point of this blog-what won't come around again? Leaving aside the category B species, although Pallas's Gull will surely re-occur one day, I think Macqueen's Bustard (or whatever it's called in politically-correct-speak) is extremely unlikely, and Pallas's Sandgrouse also, although numbers remain high in parts of the world.  The two Murrelets, Ancient and Long-billed, are very unlikely, although as with Tufted Puffin and most seabirds, anything is possible. I am personally very lucky to have seen most of the world's seabirds, since they are rarely twitchable, the Murrelets being an exception. I have both on my UK list, but still haven't seen Ancient abroad, Ann is the opposite as she saw a flock of six from a ferry when I was on the other side of the ship!

I think everything else is very possible, I cannot understand why Red-breasted Nuthatch has never re-visited us, Iceland has had two and Germany one quite recently. Yellow-throated Vireo has twice been suspected on Scilly, and confirmed on the Azores, but the 1990 Kenidjack bird remains a blocker. Wallcreeper was seen this year but not relocated, as wasn't the 1985 bird accepted on the Isle of Wight so 1977 remains the last twitchable bird. Pine Grosbeak  is becoming less likely, but three non-twitchable birds have turned up since the obliging bird on Mainland Shetland in 1992. Golden-winged Warbler (and Blue in Ireland) are perhaps the least likely as populations are falling. But don't ever give up hope, there wll always be something you missed, and new "blockers" are turning up all the time. Grey-headed Lapwing may well be one, but here's a thought. My first rarity photo, of a Sora at Pagham Harbour in 1985, was the first live bird on the mainland since 1888! And the infamous 1999 Booted Eagle finally made it to Category A!