April 25, 2005
I'd rather tell you about the Mountain Hares...
(NB - for those looking for the Little Auk / Gyr Falcon image - click here)
Made an absolute arse of myself yesterday, and as a consequence have managed to leave my birding reputation, such as it was, in complete tatters. First we need to rewind a week, to a report of an eagle being mobbed by gulls on the island. JL investigated, and despite going round the island twice, he couldn’t refind the bird. Forwards to last Saturday, and JL’s father and others heading south on Mainland in the morning; where they saw a large, brown eagle, with shaggy trousers, yellow feet, and described as much bigger than a bonxie. JL spent ages searching for it on Saturday, but to no avail. Only to hear later, after he’d returned home that it had been seen from the road once again later in the day.
He phoned me on Saturday night to bring me up to speed on what had happened, and we decided to catch the first ferry off the island yesterday morning, at 6.30am. Accompanied by JL’s son we set out to see if the eagle was, as reported, a Golden rather than a White-tailed. As we drove slowly along the road from Laxo towards the main road, a large, more or less uniformly brown raptor lifted up on our left, and flew away from us heading south up the broad valley around the Laxo Burn. It seemed too light-coloured to be White-tailed, a species which JL has extensive experience of in Norway anyway. Whilst the bird seemed somewhat smaller than JL expected and I recalled Golden to appear, we were both sure we’d the right underwing for a sub-adult Golden, and to categorically eliminate Buzzard. The bird was quickly lost from sight, as it had sent every bird in the valley completely bonkers, and was being harried by gulls and Hooded Crows. I made the rash decision to put the news out onto the local grapevine. A move that was to have cringe-inducing consequences…
We set off cross-country up the valley in a bid to relocate the bird to get better views. All to no avail; plenty of singing Skylarks, but no raptors. On the plus-side, we did see several Mountain Hares, some more or less back to their brown summer coats with just a hint of white on the ears, but others more piebald and with some patches of white fur still on their bodies. I tried to get some photos, some unmagnified and some handheld through my binoculars. Stalking them was difficult, as even though the terrain was broken and offered some cover, they were very alert and wary and spooked easily before I could get close enough to take anything meaningful.
Back to the car, and a phone message from PH (BBRC member) concerning my report of Golden Eagle; he tactfully suggested it seemed ‘rather unlikely’. I called him back, and the phone was answered not by PH, but by MM (the Shetland county recorder). He passed the phone to PH. PH was a little dubious about the likelihood of Golden, and suggested that a young White-tailed was more likely, as they could look surprisingly long-tailed, and circumstances suggested a particular individual that had been seen recently on North Ronaldsay, and reported last week here on Shetland. The one thing we were adamant about was that there was no way our bird was White-tailed, and PH asked me to keep him posted if we relocated the bird, adding that I shouldn’t feel talked out of calling it Golden by him…
Events shortly took a turn for the worse; as we drove back along the road, our raptor flew in front of us, briefly alighted by the road (straight into the sun, so not at all helpful), then buggered off over an embankment to the left. By the time we were out of the car and up the embankment, it had gone over the horizon, its passage marked by the attendant swirl of agitated gulls. We got back in the car, and drove along the road. The brief but closer views I’d had were setting alarm bells ringing – I knew in my heart of hearts I’d fucked up; this wasn’t an eagle at all. Something inside me was screaming Buzzard. We rounded a corner, and there the bird was again, this time in flight off to our left, and with the sun behind us. No doubts this time, good clear views of a nice dark brown Buzzard.
All I wanted to do was head home, and say no more about the whole debacle. Of course, what I had to do was come clean that I’d got it spectacularly wrong. In my defence I could say it’s been 4 years since my last Golden Eagle, and two years since my last Buzzard, but frankly that doesn’t wash – it’s an elementary i.d, and I made a complete hash of it. Back to the phone, and PH - I introduced the call as ‘one of the more embarrassing calls I’ve ever had to make’, and told PH what the bird really was. He asked, “ Are you sure it’s the same bird?” – I replied that I wasn’t even going to pretend there were two birds involved. He was very diplomatic, and looked for a positive note in the whole sorry affair – ‘Buzzard? Well, that explains why you didn’t think it was White-tailed’. I muttered something about really picking a public way to fuck up, in front of a BBRC man and the county recorder. PH told me not to worry about it, and that people would think more of me for coming clean and admitting I’d got it wrong. Nice of him to say that, and it’s the conventional wisdom that we all get identifications wrong sometimes, and people respect you when you put your hands up and admit it… but really, it’s hardly an episode that will do my reputation and credibility any good at all.
Tail between my legs, I slunk home to lick my wounds. As we waited for the ferry at Laxo we saw an Otter, normally a real treat, but yesterday the lustre had been tarnished, and I just wanted to get home and get on with planting trees and working on the house.
Follow the Weather Starling for a forecast, or see Shetland live on the NAFC webcam… 
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Come back soon!
Posted by Stercorarius at April 25, 2005 01:41 PM