Chuffed

Gus and I travelled to Heysham again today for another attempt at spotting the lonesome chough that for the last month has been frequenting the cliff edges and grasslands around Half Moon Bay. We walked the cliffs between the Half Moon Cafe and the horse pastures north of the chapel with no joy. On the way back I was beginning to think it would be another dip, when it flew over us showing its red legs and bill and fingery wings, calling loudly and explosively Keeeeeow!

Another 200 metres on and it was feeding around eroding gullies in the grassland, then flew back to the cliff edge where it was probing the soil where the broken edge of the grass met the rocky cliff edge. It was very confiding and allowed me to get within 2 metres at one point, almost too close for Big Len. For admirers of Gus, there is an Extra of him waiting patiently in the grass above me as I took this photograph.

It's a long time since I last saw a chough in Great Britain (where the population is only 250-350 pairs, and this was the first one I have seen in England). The Isle of Man has 120-150 pairs, and maybe our Heysham bird originated there.

The chough was bird number 90 on the 2018 year list. Later in the day, the list moved on to 93 with first sightings of pintail, pochard and green woodpecker.