Bradshaw

Sometimes birding takes an unbelievable turn, and today was one of those days!

With thick fog limiting visibility from dawn, I decided to crack on with work and postpone my Soil Hill visit until the cloud lifted. In the meantime, between work periods, I kept an eye on the weather and occasionally had a scan of the fields with the scope, in case the lifting fog revealed something interesting.

At around 09:20, the fog had lifted just enough to see the newly constructed Bradshaw Pond, a body I had wondered if it might turn up something interesting in the future. On the island I could make out the profile of a large white bird, standing upright, with its back to me. Alarm bells immediately started ringing! This is one of those occasions where you know what your looking at, but can’t actually believe it. Upright posture, long neck, body not hanging down at the rear but being held level; it simply had to be a Spoonbill. Helpfully the bird then turned, revealing a great big black snout, almost as long as the neck itself.

SPOONBILL!

All hell broke loose in my mind. First I’ve got to get a photo! Something! Anything! It’ll be awful through the fog but I gotta do it! That done, its rubbish but its got the beak in, you can tell what it is! Next to put the news out. With so much to do, the message simply read ‘SPOONBILL BRADSHAW POND’ before I sent a terrible phonescope shot to prove the fog hadn’t driven me to madness. Oh yea, I also had to send directions so that anybody else might know what the ‘Bradshaw Pond’ meant.

All that done, shaking like a leaf, I was able to actually watch the bird. The fog was still lifting, so visibility had improved. The bird was actively preening and moving around the island, so the impression was that it would be off as soon as it thought the fog had lifted sufficiently. I gave JJL a call to make sure he had got the news, but he was already in Sowerby Bridge.

About ten minutes later AC arrived. I called from the window that it was still present, before I descended to the road to join him. His timing was immaculate, as about ten minutes later the bird took off. Although it initially looked as though it might pass by over Ogden, it looped back round, right over JJLs house and then directly over our heads, before continuing over the hill towards Bradford.

I have never had as good a view of a Spoonbill as that, never mind a full adult. As I understand, this is the second record for Halifax, and the first to be even close to twitchable. Glad AC made it in time, and apologies for those who missed out. This truly was one of those freak occurrences in birding, where something absolutely bonkers happens, and you just need to be lucky; in the right place and at the right time.

-Spoonbill