Congratulations on finding the bird & especially on knowing what it was when you found it. I fear that had it come to my patch it would have remained an anonymous aberrant Wheatear!!
Hi everyone,
Had a trip down to the Fife Ness area today in the hope of some late autumn migrants. Managed the long-staying Yellow-browed Warbler at Denburn Wood and a Blackcap, Chiffchaff and a couple of Brambling.
Later I trawled around the Ness area without finding too much else, except a nice view of a Merlin. I wandered round to the car park at Kilminning and noticed quite a few Skylarks and finches coming up off the stubble on the old airfield next to the car park and decided to have a quick scan. A few hundred metres away I noticed a 'chat' of some sort hopping about on some old tyres (the airfield gets used as a race track). It looked like a Wheatear but when it flew it didn't seem to have such a prominent flash of white on the rump and tail as you usually get. Thinking *late autumn - Wheatear - 3 Desert Wheatears in England yesterday* to myself I wandered out to the airfield to have a closer look. Not surprisingly it had disappeared from where it was so I was thinking I might be contributing to Jane's 'one that got away thread' but then I saw the Wheatear again a bit further along the old runway. And then it came closer. And it seemed to have an all dark tail and a buffy coloured rump. When it got to about 20 metres away I knew I was looking at Fife's first Desert Wheatear - a female.
I put the news out onto Birdline Scotland and thought there'd be hordes buzzing around in no time but I suppose it being a weekday I had the bird to myself for maybe an hour, during which time I got some notes down. Eventually three others turned up and managed to get views of varying quality before it disappeared as dusk began to fall and I decided to head for home. Happily, according to Birdguides, it turned up again before nightfall so hopefully others will have had some good views. It was really quite a bold bird when it wanted to be so maybe there'll be some good photos on the web if it stays about.
The wierd thing about all this was that despite the fact that this is the first for Fife and the first I've ever seen I was sort of vaguely looking for one. With the ones in England yesterday and perfect weather conditions at the right time of year I thought that there were bound to be more about and Fife Ness is as reasonable a place as any. I'd actually had a good look along the shoreline earlier in the day at least partly with Desert Wheatear in mind. Sometimes our wildest hunches about what might turn up really can come true.
SPOOKY. Wish & it will be true........... If that had happened at this end of Fife (Culross) you would have been burnt at the stake!
Congratulations on finding the bird & especially on knowing what it was when you found it. I fear that had it come to my patch it would have remained an anonymous aberrant Wheatear!!
Hi Steve,
It doesn't always happen like this by the way! Still you never know - the first ever British record of Desert Wheatear was (incredibly) at Alloa so I should have a good look round your way if I were you. Failing that, this bird will hopefully stick around so you can brush up on their ID.