My quest for a photo of a rare bird

[John]

The first complete day of my holiday (02/10/05) I planned to call into Drift Reservoir, near Penzance, after the long staying Long-billed Dowitcher. These are rare vagrants from North America that pop up very infrequently.

Arriving at 07:30am I soon located it but it was on the other side of the bay, some 300 yards away. I was hopeful it would fly near to the hide as it had been reported as frequently doing this and after half an hour it duly obliged. I re-positioned my scope and camera and just as I was focussing it all up two birders came out of nowhere noisily talking away and flushed the bird which promptly flew high up and disappeared. I was not best pleased. An hour later and I still hadn't relocated it so carried onto Pendeen for a spot of sea watching. By the end of the morning not too much had been seen out to sea apart from my first Grey Phalarope of the year followed by a couple of Pomeraine Skua's harrassing a distant Tern and one lone Arctic Skua.

I decided to go home early as the weather had completely calmed down and nothing much seemed to be moving. Not long after arriving back at our chalet (some 35 miles away) the pager announced the sighting of the Upland Sandpiper (even rarer than the L B Dowitcher) not far from where I had just been. Apologies to my missus and I was off. Thankfully timing it just right to see the Upland for a brief 5 minutes, albeit at a distance, before it was flushed by cows. It was now fairly late in the afternoon so i decided that i would give the L B Dowitcher another try.

Arriving at Drift the sun was setting quite fast and by the time I had reached the hide the sun had set low behind the vegitation behind me, casting a shadow across the water. there was the L B D just about 50 yards away but behind some reeds so making photography very difficult.

As it had been a long stayer I thought I would chance trying to get a photo of it outside of the hide and slowly approached the top of the bank closer to the birds position. I was now about 30 yards away and it didn't flinch. The only trouble was the low light. I was having trouble getting enough light to make up a decent photo. Just then 6 Greylag Geese suddenly leapt out of the water making an almighty racket and still the L B D didn't flinch as it carried on feeding.

Thinking that this bird was really settled I thought it might be an idea to ditch the scope and put my 5 x telephoto lens onto my CP 4500 camera and to try crawl on my belly to get a little closer. By now it was well gone 6pm and the light was quite bad. I slowly crawled forward and it took me close on 15 minutes to do it but I got within 10 foot of the bird and still it didn't flinch. Slowly raising my camera I fired off a series of shots. The sun was really low at the time turning parts of the cloud cover orange. This in turn reflected back down onto the water giving it a lovely effect which also was picked up on the birds plumage.

Anyway I thought i would like to attach a few of the resulting photos to see what you guys think.

[Tinkerbell]

Absolutely beautiful John - never a dull moment is there? And it pays to be patient. Thanks for sharing your holiday photos with us, plus the narrative painting a very comprehensive picture. We'll have to give the Drift a visit when next down in Cornwall.

[John]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

Absolutely beautiful John - never a dull moment is there? And it pays to be patient. Thanks for sharing your holiday photos with us, plus the narrative painting a very comprehensive picture. We'll have to give the Drift a visit when next down in Cornwall.

Hi Tinkerbell

Drift can be a nothing area one day then jumping the next. I don't usually have much success there myself but this bird more than made up for it.

I have put 10 photos in the gallery from the weeks holiday. One of the L B Dowitcher + 9 others, some common some not so common.