Ortolan Bunting, Pacific Golden Plover but nothing for Des(s)ert (Wheatear)...

Being a birder is sometimes about combating the FOMO factor.  One of the weird side-effects of social media, bird location apps, and doing a Big Year is that when you're not birding, you're seeing other people's birding and it can sometimes pile pressure on to make you feel like you ought to be birding.  The bizarre curation of the presentation of lives on social media can make us feel like we should have some mythical lifestyle - the "influencer" trend has us drinking the KoolAid: I should be seeing all the birds. This weekend, solo parenting meant that I watched as people found a confiding Desert Wheatear, kept relocating a mobile Caspian Tern, found an elusive Ortolan Bunting and picked up a Pacific Golden Plover, while I was unable to go and see any of them.  Settling for a bizarre ten minute encounter with a Bolton Brent Goose (species 208 in Greater Manchester), I resigned myself to waiting until Monday to see any birds, all the while observing from home and cursing the timing.  Friends of mine went and saw the Wheatear and the Yorkshire/Cleveland goodies and their photos and enthusiasm were winding the pressure I was feeling to higher and higher levels.

Monday, 3am, I woke up with a muttered swear word and set off very much with coffee to beat Manchester and Birmingham rush hours to arrive at Keynsham in Bristol by 6.30.  On the plus side, the company there was really good, and it was great to meet Leon and a couple of other guys who have been helpful and friendly online with information that has enabled me to see some of the specialist birds in the south of the country that a northener like me has no real knowledge of.  On the negative side, the Desert Wheatear very much wasn't present, and, though many locals reassured us that it has previously vanished for an hour at a time, it was one of those twitches where I just got the sense that I'd arrived a day late and a dollar short.  I gave it three hours, more because the company was good and I was being educated by more experienced birders through their conversation.  Contrary me, having a written a blog about people being distracted at twitches last week, to find myself more interested in the conversation than in searching for a missing rarity!  

I drove home slightly downcast at missing such a beautiful bird (again!), but looking forward to getting out to see local Nightjar and to check on the juvenile Long-eared Owls, and to meet a sharp young ecologist specialising in Willow Tit so I could pick his brains and learn more about how I can be helping them.  The evening (well past 11pm!) went well, and I went home tired, disappointed with the Wheatear, but mostly just thrilled to still be hearing Nightjar in Manchester.

Waking at 5am on Tuesday, I realised I was on the edge of burning out.  I wouldn't have enjoyed the early morning trek to Wykeham, and I understood I was being driven by the fear of missing out.  I went back to bed - a serious, once a year rarity for me.  School run completed at 8.30, I decided to try and see the Ortolan Bunting in Yorkshire, motivated as much by the love of the forest there as by the rarity of the gorgeous little bird.  An easy drive, admiring the property for sale in Sawdon (far, far too pricy for me), and parking half a mile past the viewpoint; a leisurely walk in the sun, standing in the middle of the loose knot of 150 or so birders along the footpath to the side of the log piles.  Feeling good, no pressure, happy to have had two extra hours sleep.  The lads next to me had been waiting 4 hours.  I was wondering if I could stand the heat that long, when the shout went up and I got eyes on the Ortolan Bunting calling to her Yellowhammer mate.  She flew to a bushy willow directly opposite me, and I was in such a fortunate position to have a reasonably clear view with little obstructing foliage. I reeled off 40 or so photos, and spent five minutes watching her feed, call, and fly to the Yellowhammer's perch, before she vanished into thin air.  An absolute gem of an experience, and though the company was as good as the Wheatear trip, this was otherwise the exact opposite of that.  No pressure, no FOMO, no rush.  Just seeing an Ortolan Bunting in a habitat that always makes me feel happy.

From there, I took a 90 minute detour to Cleveland to try and see the Pacific Golden Plover.  A good learning bird, as someone wiser than me said today, this was my first.  Comparing the distant frame of the long-legged, smaller plover with the more robust forms would have been easier without the heat haze and the foliage obscuring most of the bird most of the time, it was a long way away and looked lethargic in the sun.  Josh Jones in the June edition of Bird Watch magazine gave the opinion that June is an underrated month in birding, and on the evidence of the first half of the month for me I would have to give him full marks for that.  I've seen Western Sandpiper, Song Sparrow, Ortolan Bunting and Pacific Golden Plover, and missed out on a dozen other rare birds; but I'm determined not to let the misses dominate the narrative - I am absolutely not missing out, and keeping up with the Joneses isn't the motivation, no matter what social media says.