So on Friday 17th, without really a plan going into the weekend, a phonecall from Gary suggesting he might like to try and see the Western Purple Swamphen which had taken up residence at Alkborough Flats just north of Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, it was a case of why not. This bird was generally accepted as the same individual that first appeared at the end of July at Minsmere for less than a week, having vanished from there it was surprisingly relocated at the end of August at Alkborough and would be the very first recorded individual in the UK - assuming the governing bodies of birding accept the birds credentials of owning a foreign passport.
This was not a site known to either of us, but throughout the week (a scorching hot week) daily reports of the bird had niggled away. So we had a vague plan. Set off early to get to the site around 7am, see the bird, await other news and head off birding somewhere on the East coast no doubt taking in a selection of other rarities which had just arrived - nothing wrong with a plan !
Working back from 7am meant that I had to get up before 3am to drive over to Gary's for the start of the journey - very first part was ok, but 15 minutes into the journey my car had a major malfunction in the Hindhead Tunnel ! - I limped home, called Gary, swapped cars and started again , an hour late. No problem - we duly arrived at the site around 8.15am and tried to make sense of the reports we had seen in relation to the vast area of reedbeds and pools known as Alkborough Flats that were between the Humber River and the small village of Alkborough which was on top of a steep hillside a couple of decent sized horse paddocks in length.
The summary of the day - The weather was awful, after a scorching week with temperatures above 30c, overnight torrential rain had cleared to leave a very windy and cold day around 13c. Scunthorpe looks like a place to avoid, the British Steel plant was still chucking out plumes of smelly smoke, we only went through the outskirts and it looked pretty grim, its also miles from anywhere useful and much further than we thought in relation to other sites we had half a mind to put on the day's itinerary.
Having initially tried a hide on site that overlooks the main pool, we were quickly relocated to the top of the horse paddocks near the village as it was the only location that gave a view of one particular pool 'the square pool' where the bird had been reported, joining a number of other birders there. A good job for powerful telescopes, but at least this was a Swamphen we were looking for rather than a warbler (3 or 4 times the size of your average moorhen). The water levels seemed very high, even the pool in question saw a Heron up to its armpits when it landed, which seemed implausibly deep for a Swamphen to wade around in. After 5 hours of standing on the hill seeing nothing we very much got the sense that today wasn't happening - We headed home, having seen a only few birds, got fairly cold and uncomfortable and thought we hadn't quite understood the site or the birds habits and were slightly confused by the high water - maybe Swampy had gone overnight after the heavy rain ?
No surprise then throughout the week there were daily reports of the bird being sighted again, typically in front of the hide we had been in. It was also not a huge surprise that Gary called me on Friday to ask if I wanted another try. Despite recalling the swearing that I was subjecting Scunthorpe, Alkborough and the Swamphen to as we departed last week, the thought that 'it will be different this time' somehow won through.
So Saturday 25th - This time we arrived on site around 7.30am with no early vehicle problems. It was bright and warmer but there was still a stiff wind from the South. We positioned ourselves in the hide that overlooks the main lagoon and were the first ones there. The water level was much lower and there were lots of great margins for a Swamphen to wander around - we were feeling positive.
There were also plenty of birds to look at. Marsh Harriers constantly quartered the reedbeds occasionally giving fright to the large numbers of ducks and waders. Over 100 Avocet, 50+ Black-tailed Godwit. 21 Spotted Redshank, several Greenshank and Ruff. Wildfowl was continually arriving with increasing numbers of Teal, Wigeon, Pintail, Gadwall. A Kingfisher whizzed past as did small groups of Bearded Tit. It was actually quite an impressive list of birds.
As time drew on, the hide filled up with birders but there was no sign of the Swamphen. The longer you stared at reedy edges the more you started to convince yourself you were seeing shapes that may suddenly turn into a Swamphen peering out of the reeds, but until 2pm these shapes only turned into Snipe and Water Rails. We had been in the hide for 5 hours and slowly getting restless, Gary had seen, in the distance, a gathering of birders up the hill above the horse paddocks and a quick check on the phone surely enough there had been a sighting of the Swamphen on the Square Pool only visible from track above the horse paddocks. A very quick march uphill and we joined the gathering of birders. The sighting had been brief and only by a couple of the 20 or so people present as the bird apparently walked around the left hand edge of the pool and vanished behind the reeds at the near end of the pool we couldn't see.
So as per last week we stood on the same dirt step leaning into a wasp-filled ivy staring into a pool several hundred metres away... and we were still there 3 hours later, thinking this cant possibly have happened again !! We had had a few sightings of Hobby chasing hirundines of which there were increasing numbers of Swallows, House Martins and a couple of Sand Martins and occasionally Moorhens. As the time approached 5pm Gary finally uttered the words. '... and then there were two' as we found ourselves the only people left. It wasn't dark yet so we decided to try further along the track where viewing from a gate you could apparently see a little more of the left hand end of the square pool. We arrived at the gate, distracted by a Collie that was barking madly at the feet of a horse, and scanned the pool again. A very quick ' what's that ?' confirmed only the two Moorhens but moments later a second 'what's that ?' turned into 'there it is !!!' the Western Purple Swamphen had at last decided to make an appearance. The very large blue bird with a big red beak and feet - Had a bath and the preened itself. We watched for around 20 minutes before finally leaving. The sense of relief was immense and the justification for putting in 18 hours of birding and covering 800 miles to see it was actually worthwhile.
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| 5 Spoonbill |
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| Many Avocets with the other waders and ducks |
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| Spoonbills gave several fly-pasts |
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| Ruff |
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| Bearded Tit |
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| Snipe |
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| It was too far away for a picture - and this is probably not a Western Swamphen - but you get the idea. |
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| View from the Hide over the main pool. |
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| View from the Horse paddocks - The 'Square Pool ' is the small one slightly right of middle. |
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| Gary - just after seeing the Swamphen ! |
