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| Twitchers at dawn on 1/1/2015 at Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya Rose Craig |
It was the first day of
the New Year and we were heading to east coast of Yorkshire for an extremely
rare bird, a Little Bustard, from Europe . A couple of days before, on the 29th
December, one had been seen on the south coast just in flight. It was seen by one person and although lots
of people tried, it could not be relocated.
The news was tantalizing and frustrating at the same time. Then the next day, on the 30th
December 2014, a Little Bustard was seen on the Sussex Britain France
On the very last day of
2014, New Year’s Eve, the news came out late morning that a Little Bustard had
been seen in flight on the East coast of Yorkshire
near Bridlington. This one was later
relocated and some birders managed to get there in time to see it, as it was
showing until dark. A friend of ours,
John Pegdon, who is a big twitcher, dropped everything and even managed to get
there from South Lincolnshire and see the
bird. With the history of the two other
birds being seen flying away, I was not feeling optimistic about the bird still
being there the next day. It felt likely
that the next day was going to be a huge dip.
For New Year’s Eve we had
been invited to a party in our village. It
would have been rude to not turn up at all.
So Dad stayed at home to go to bed as he was not feeling great and had
to drive whilst Mum and I went to the party.
The plan was that we got home at 10 pm, so that we could get up at 2 am
to leave. There was a possibility that
the bird would fly out of the field at down, never to be seen again, so we
could not be late leaving. Once we got
to the party, Mum and I got talking to our friends and so we ended up
celebrating the New Year and getting home at 1 am. Dad was not impressed and an hour later we
were up again.
A Young Birder's First Twitch of the Year
It was lucky that Dad was
driving, so that Mum and I could catch up with some sleep in the car. When we got to where the bird had been seen
the day before, it was swarming with twitchers lined up along the side of the track
for (what seemed like) miles waiting for the sun to properly rise, hoping for
the bird to show and praying it was still here.
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| Twitchers waiting to see Little Bustard on 1/1/2015, Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
As we hurried along the
line of 500 twitchers, I was feeling tired and anxious about whether the bird
would be there. When suddenly, we could
hear people talking excitedly, and then saw them moving fast down the line,
before discovering that birders down the line had seen the bird. We sped up,
asking people if they actually knew where the bird was.
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| Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig with Twitchers looking for Little Bustard at Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph and copyright Chris Craig |
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| Twitchers looking for Little Bustard at Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
Once we found someone who
had their telescope on the bird, we asked for directions. He gave us directions and at the same time
let us look through his scope. Once we had we all seen the bird, a new British
Bird for all of us and also a world tick for Mum and me, we had to contain the
strong urge to do a victory dance before setting up the scope with giant grins
on our faces. We stayed there for a few
more hours, taking turns admiring this lovely bird. It did not move much but did
move his head and body from time to time, giving slightly better views. It was also lovely to catch up with some
great old friends.
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| Little Bustard on 1/1/2015 at Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph taken by and copyright Mark Rayment |
This gave us a chance to
get over the fact that we had managed to actually see a Little Bustard as well
as inventing theories about it being the ghost of the one from exactly 27 years
before, 1st January 1988. Dad
was in his late teens and had stayed sober on NYE to drive down to the South
coast to twitch a Little Bustard. He
also gave a lift to a car load of friends.
The bird was seen once, flying out of a field with half the birders
there seeing it and the other half missing it.
Dad’s friends all saw it, but he missed it…which he has never got
over…until now! His friends said that
there was subdued euphoria in the back of the car on the way home that day and
some friends liked to remind Dad of the day whenever they bumped into each other.
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| Little Bustard on 1/1/2015 at Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph taken by and copyright Mark Rayment |
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| Twitchers at Little Bustard Twitch on 1/1/2015, Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Twitchers at Little Bustard Twitch on 1/1/2015, Fraisthorpe, Yorkshire Photograph and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
As we
were driving home I fell asleep, smiling with the fact that I had managed to
see such a rare bird. 500 miles after
our start and 17 hours later we arrived home ready for
the exciting year of birding to come.
About the writer
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig |
Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder,
conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol
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