American Robin

American Robin at Bingley, West Yorkshire, January 2007

Not so many years ago, back in the dim and distant past of 10th October 2003 there were lots of birders trying to get to Bardsey Island for the first twitchable American Robin for many years. Amazingly this bird was shortly followed by another in Cornwall during December 2003 and then a third found at Grimsby in Lincolnshire on New Years Eve was probably the most accessible for most, especially as it was such a long staying bird. The Lincolnshire bird was the bird I twitched back in January 2005. This bird was pretty confiding and a nice 1st tick of the year, following on from the Baltimore Oriole on the tail end of 2004!
Since the Lincolnshire bird there had been one in Speyside in April 2006 (though this one was not twitchable) and two on Scillies (a twitchable one on Tresco (October 2006) and one that was only seen by a few on Bryher (October 2006). So in recent years they have certainly lost their ‘mega rare’ status.

On the 24th January 2007 news broke of a 1st winter American Robin at Bingley in West Yorkshire. Having already seen the Grimsby bird I should have not been to worked up about this one, but for some reason I was. I was working in Edinburgh most of the week, so was not in a position to go for it until the weekend. I spoke to Craig and he was really keen to go and see the bird on the Saturday, especially as it was a tick for him. So on went a stressful few days hoping the bird would linger into the weekend. I was well stressed now, not sure why really! Perhaps it was the residual obsession of my Yorkshire list, from the few years I lived in that superb county, or perhaps it was just that fact that I am a sad rare bird obsessed freak, who knows?

Anyway Friday came and the bird was still present. I spoke to Craig again and we decided to travel for the bird the following morning. The twitch was most definitely on!
Craig picked me up at 0800hrs on Saturday morning and we headed down the M6 and across the A65 to Skipton and the on to Bingley. The journey was tense, until just before nine, when my pager informed us that the bird was still present. Phew. Then I was in hyper-mode, nothing could stop me talking until we got there!

We arrived into Bingley just after ten, and using my famous navigational skills we found the exact location surprisingly smoothly! As soon as we arrived we got, good views of the bird working its way to the top of a bush. The bird then promptly flew across to some gardens. We decided to stay in the area where we were, rather than follow the majority to glimpse the bird in the gardens. The bird had been favouring the patch of grassland that we were overlooking, so the odds were good that it would return. We waited and we waited and we waited!

Just to set the scene, we were stood overlooking the open area of grassland along with a small group of mainly long-lens DSLR boys. During our long-wait the sun was out, there were Jays, Long-tailed Tits, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Redwings, Fieldfares, singing Mistle Thrushes and displaying Nuthatches to keep us company!

After a wait of about an hour the American Robin flew back into the bush that we were standing near. Within a few moments the bird was hopping on the grass in front of us, allowing us good view and the opportunity to take some reasonable pictures. The bird showed really well for several minutes until it was spooked by a dog walker. The bird flew up into the bush, climbed its way to the top and then flew back to the gardens. We decided to wait where we were as this was certainly the best area to view the bird.

After 45 minutes or so the American Robin retuned and gave excellent views in the bush just near to where we were standing. The bird then dropped on to the ground briefly, literally yards in front of us before returning to the bush. After another short while the bird returned to the ground and gave prolonged close views.
This was a superb bird; it was a much brighter individual than the Grimsby bird. We watched and photographed the bird for another thirty minutes or so, before it flew back to the gardens.

We then decided to walk down to the canal behind the sewerage treatment works to view a garden that had an over wintering Firecrest. As soon as we arrived we could see the bird as it flitted actively through the garden. The bird showed really well. This was a superb little bird; I had forgotten how striking these birds were! We watched the bird for a while, and then decided to head of to Pule Hill, near Halifax to look for the wintering Shore Lark.

Once we finally found the right bridal path, we walked along to the rear where the Shore Lark had been favouring. There were a few birders present, though the bird had only been glimpsed briefly by one birder. Eventually the bird flew across to the area we were viewing from and we managed nice views in the wind, whilst it fed along the edges of some puddles with some Sky Lark.

All in all a superb day!