1 Day ........ 2 Lifers !!!!!

                                   2nd May 2023 : Lower Newton-by-the-Sea

                                                        Northumberland 

                                                                         

Grey-Headed Lapwing.

My twitching buddy RR & myself had already made plans to head to Lower Largo in Fife on the 2nd May when news broke on the 1st May that a GREY-HEADED LAPWING had been found by Gary Woodburn (Great find Gary) at Lower Newton-by-the-Sea in Northumberland !!!!

If accepted this would be a 1st for the UK !!!! so we both agreed a small diversion was in order on our upward journey to Scotland, we were 5 minutes out from the site when news reached us that there was no sign of the Grey-Headed Lapwing.

RR said we might as well check the site out anyway , so that is what we did, on the way around to the wetland scrape we met a few rather disgruntled disappointed birders heading back to their cars , we eventually reached the scrape and i did a very quick scan and straight away was looking at the GREY-HEADED LAPWING !!!!!!

Always quite distant.

We looked further along the track and could see other birders were onto it already, soon more & more people returned looking alot happier then when we had passed them earlier.

We stayed for about an hour watching this fantastic looking wader do it's thing, it had a great feeding action, basically drumming it's feet on the ground then stretching out with one of it's feet prodding the ground.

Grey-Headed Lapwing  with a Shelduck.

Grey-Headed Lapwing 

Grey-Headed Lapwing.

Lower Largo : Fife  Scotland

It was another 3 hours to get to Lower Largo and another new bird was our target , Stejneger's Scoter !!!

From Temple car park the scan of the large Scoter flock produced a distant drake Surf Scoter & approx 300+ Velvet Scoters .

After awhile we decided to head to Crusoe Hotel and view from there as the Scoter flock looked closer from there. The Stejneger's Scoter was seen by a lucky few about 10 mins before we got there but was playing hard to get.

Eventually i managed some really good views of a White Winged Scoter which was only the 2nd one i have ever seen and these views were much, much better then before.

Alas still no Stejneger's Scoter, we headed back to Temple car park for some lunch and another scan from there as a lot of the main Scoter flock had moved further down that end.

Eventually the shout went up, someone had picked out the Stejneger's Scoter and it didn't take me long to pick it up amongst the Velvet Scoters , we spent 4 & half hours here looking for & watching this bird, sadly no photos .

We ended up with superb scope views of the Stejneger's Scoter with all key features seen well. This was my 2nd Lifer of the day !!!!!

Other birds of note seen were : White-Winged Scoter (1) , Surf Scoter (2 ♂), 500+ Velvet Scoters , 20+ Common Scoters , Red necked Grebe (2sp) & Long tailed Duck (1)

WHINFELL TARN  :  CUMBRIA

We left Lower Largo at approx 14.45 and headed to Whinfell Tarn in Cumbria in the hope of seeing the Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

It didn't take long to see the Hooded Merganser which appears to have paired up with a female Tufted Duck.

The origin of this bird is unknown however if it's accepted it would be a Lifer for my birding pal RR.

Hooded Merganser.

A very long rewarding day  ended with 2 Lifers (Both 1st for UK) and several new birds for the year.