Our first full day back in the UK was full of excitement as we dashed off with fellow birders to look for a Steller’s Eider. This extremely rare bird in the UK would have been the first ever record for Wales. Steller’s Eiders live no closer than northern Norway, you may remember we saw them on The Biggest Twitch back in June 2008.
But one just fifty miles away was not to be missed. We had heard of the sighting via our great friend Steve Culley, the Anglesey County Bird Recorder and all round top bloke. Steve had received a series of emails telling the story of how a strange duck had been seen on the sea off Morfa Nefyn, west of Caernarfon, Gwynedd. The writer of the emails included a rather grainy photo of said duck which clearly showed a female Steller’s Eider! As you can imagine Steve nearly fell off his chair on seeing the image of this mega rare bird apparently bobbing about a few feet off the North Wales coast! Steve emailed the writer back and asked for more information which was free and quick in coming. A whole background story unfolded detailing how the writer had once been into birdwatching but had given it up in favour of golf (well that is weird!!) and had seen the duck while playing a round at Nefyn. The following day returned with camera and took the picture which he sent to Steve. So having the photo and established contact with the sender Steve did the totally correct thing and jumped in his car and bombed off to Morfa Nefyn. Err not sure how while he was driving, he probably had a friend with him or something, he telephoned numerous other birders and the news was quickly on general release. Only problem was daylight was fading already and by the time Steve reached the beach only a little light remained and no sign of any ducks.
The next morning we were up well before dawn, despite the jet lag and off to Morfa Nefyn with other local birders. We spent the whole of the day searching, in vain, for the duck. We were joined by a keen young birder who had driven all the way from Glasgow in the hope of seeing it!
We were pretty fed up by the end of the day, but that is birding for you, you do not always see the bird despite all the effort and we accept that, all be it grudgingly. So imagine our mood when late last night it came to light the whole thing had been a carefully planned hoax!! The bird was never there, no Steller’s Eider had ever been seen!
So a whole lot of people had wasted a whole lot of time. How that benefited the writer of the email I really do not know. I suppose it gave a jolly good laugh but that is one very sick sense of humour. We imagine it was a birder responsible – you would need to know which species to pick for the hoax to work. Rest assured if the identity of the email writer is ever discovered I recommend they leave the country fast before Steve and a whole lot of other people make quite sure no more emails will be ever written by them again!!On a lighter note, murder is not a subject for this diary, Alan actually got to escape the keyboard and do a little birding today. With the car playing up it was time for a trip to the garage. By pure coincidence, no honest its true, the garage just happens to be a short walk from the RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve. So when Chris the friendly mechanic gave it one of those looks and said could take a while, fine, see you later. A few minutes later and a Little Egret is in the bins roosting on the saltmarsh alongside the reserve. A flock of 38 Redwings were feeding on a grass area at the south end of the reserve. Ok not world shattering news but the great thing about a local patch is that a sighting like this can be really exciting. In over ten years, ok I missed last year, so in over nine years of birding here this was the largest flock of Redwings I had seen actually on the ground on the reserve, great, it made my morning. Lots more birds were on the reserve, especially when the tide pushed the waders up on to the reserve from the estuary. A Greenshank was a good January record and only a few years ago the two Black tailed Godwits would have been the same but in the last few years small numbers have over-wintered. It is great to see how the bird populations of this small easy-to-cover site are evolving. Sure to be back soon!Posted 14th January 2009