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The Chase by 'The Local Twitcher.'

It was September 7^th at about 11.30 am on one of my days off when, suddenly, my Bird Pager started its musical signal. The message was "three l-t skuas passing through the Swale and seen from Shellness, Sheppey." Having seen the night before that the wind would be on-shore that day I figured that the chances were good for further skua movements in the area so into the car went the 'scope, my binoculars are there all the time, and away I went. It was always a long shot but with nothing better to aim for it was worth a try due to the close proximity.

By 12.10 pm I was well committed to the Shellness plan being near the Eastchurch roundabout. Once again the musical chimes informed me that another message was in being and it was a local one, i.e. Kent, Sussex or Surrey. A good bird has been found 2.5 miles east of Reculver Towers. Unlike the long-tailed skuas this bird was not just flying through but liable to stay for, maybe, several days and it was an ortolan bunting from Europe. Each year only two or three reach Kent so I was not happy that I was totally committed to a different direction but such is the life of a local twitcher (in my case Kent only).

On arrival at Shellness I discovered that the wind was now south west and off-shore. Since a sea-watch would probably be a waste of time I decided to have a quick look at the wader roost as it was nearly high tide. There I counted seven different waders including a grey plover in his handsome grey, black and white summer dress plus a couple of little terns. It was now about 3.15 pm and decision time again. With no update on the Reculver bird there seemed no point in rushing down there even though I had now made up my mind to give it a try.

Instead, I decided that, since I was already on the island I would take a slight detour to Capel Fleet and Harty Ferry as there was always a good chance of hen harrier or montagu's harrier, both of which I still needed for the year-list. It was a very good decision too since I spotted a female harrier at Capel Fleet. After checking my rear view mirror I stopped the car in what can only be described as an emergency stop. The bird was almost on me as I threw my driving glasses onto the seat and grabbed my binoculars when I noticed a car coming in the opposite direction! Realising that I've left the car-door open and knowing the road is very narrow I jumped back into the car and closed the door. The upside of this was the friendly smile and 'thank you' wave from the other driver. The downside was not being able to properly identified the bird and discovering that I was sitting on something rather uncomfortable! This turned out to be the bent and broken remains of my driving glasses. The result was no bird, no glasses and still no news of the ortolan bunting. It looked like being a blank day.

By 5.15 pm it was time to leave if I wanted to look for the ortolan before the light failed, which I did. The run down to Reculver was incident free but, as my map was over 10 years old and the area was new to me, I needed redirecting by some locals. I found the right road and proceeded via a farm track onto the marsh and, ultimately, to a small car park. Just as I arrived in the car park a message on my pager said that the ortolan bunting had been seen at 4.50 pm. My adrenaline started to pump as I parked up, now very hopeful and another birder turned up. He was a local who had been recording details of all birds in the marsh, his patch, over a ten year period. As we hurried up the path to what was called the Finch Field he told me that he had always managed to miss, usually by half-an-hour, any rare birds in the area during that time!. This was not what I wanted to hear. When we arrived at the field where the bunting was last seen there were two other birders there. They informed us that the ortolan had been amongst a flock of feeding house sparrows and greenfinches but it had not been seen since half the flock had flown away 10 minutes before we arrived. My companion from the car park mumbled something like "I told you so." Obviously he was a pessimist or, perhaps, just trying to prepare for a disappointment. Whatever, the four of us scanned the remaining flock for about an hour to no avail. We then split up to search the surrounding fields for the missing half of the flock but found nothing.

With only half hour of good light left we reluctantly gave up and headed back to the car park. The others, who were about 200 yards in front of me, suddenly stopped and looked through their binoculars and telescopes. One of them then motioned me forward frantically raising a finger to his lips. And I advanced as quickly and as quietly as I could.

These were experienced birders so I knew that if I got to them in time the elusive bird would be at the other end of their telescopes and that's exactly the way it was. A quick squint through the nearest 'scope showed a solitary bird sitting on the top of a tall bush. Having made sure that I had seen the bird I positioned my own 'scope for a better look. The bird obliged for maybe three or four minutes before flying to the west, never to be seen again in Kent.

So the day was saved and I had just seen my 167^th species for the year and my 195th species on the Kent list. It was a very satisfactory conclusion.

Geoff Watt.