Hudsonian godwit, Eden estuary

It's been a poor year for birding, I've been very cautious about where I go and who I meet due to being in a vulnerable Covid-19 group and because of this I've been very restricted as to where I was prepared to go chasing birds. You only have to look back through the posts on this blog to see that despite all of the great birds available during the autumn, from Siberian thrush to yellow-bellied flycatcher to rufous-tailed scrub robin, the only really notable entry from me is brown shrike in Yorkshire. Everything else is pretty much local stuff, and not even much of that. However, my job does take me to many great places around the UK, so I've not been completely stuck at home and when I'm away I do get opportunities to get some decent wildlife experiences, e.g. bottle-nosed whales in the Clyde on my way home from Mull of Kintyre in September.

I saw my first Hudsonian godwit (and the first for the UK) in April 1983 at Blacktoft Sands RSPB and for the next 32 years it was one of the few blockers on my UK list until it finally fell in May 2015, a bird which I also saw. When a 1st winter was reported on the River Eden at Guardbridge, Fife in early November this year, it was a bird which piqued my interest partly because of my fond memories of the species but also because it was a plumage which I had not seen before. However due to Covid-19 I had no expectation of seeing the bird, yes I did have a job nearby in mid December, but surely it wouldn't stay that long? I was wrong.

I'd almost forgotten about it to be honest, it was only periodically being reported in the run up to my visit to Fife, but I made a few enquiries with locals and managed to get some further information regarding the bird and the best places to see it, depending on the tide. 

So today I called in at the Eden Centre at Guardbridge. The centre is currently closed due to Covid-19, but there are viewing screens (thankfully not hides) on either side of the building which are permanently open, and this is where I headed for today. It turned out to be a very nice lunch break stop, there were just three other birders present and all nicely spread out, and the bird was showing as soon as I arrived, on the far side of a channel about 75m away. Although it was a beautiful, bright sunny day, the harsh winter sun to our right rather than directly behind us meant that the light was not as good as it might have been, but I can't complain, it wasn't raining or blowing a gale and I'm told that only in the past few days has the bird started coming this close, having spent much of its stay quite a bit more distant.

The bird was associating with about 30 black-tailed godwits which were also joined by a few knot, dunlin and redshanks. While I was watching the air was full of the calls of waders and ducks, which also included curlew and greenshank, and a couple of times a kingfisher flew past unseen but clearly heard.

Superficially similar to the black-tailed godwits, once you got your eye-in for the bird it was quite easy to pick out even when it had it's head tucked in asleep. The pale supercillium in front of the eye really stands out and is a really good feature for picking it out. It's also smaller than it's cousins and this individual is well marked on it's scapulars, much more so than the accompanying black-tailed godwits, though I'm not sure if this latter feature is true of all 1st winter Hudsonian godwits.

However, most birders are not really going to be happy with the identification of Hudsonian godwit until the bird flaps it's wings, either during preening or in flight, revealing it's diagnostic black underwing and immediately ruling out all other godwits or godwit like birds. It also has a narrow white wing bar and a white rump with black band, similar to black-tailed godwit.

Eventually the incoming tide forced the birds to move and they all took flight and wheeled around for a minute before landing much further away. Black-tailed godwits in non-breeding plumage are always at their best in flight and today their black and white plumage glowed in the winter sunlight, every one of them with brilliant white underwings, all except one, the Hudsonian godwit right in the middle of the flock and revealing a jet black underwing. A fantastic sight, probably my best view ever of the species.

This bird is only the 4th ever in the UK yet remarkably I've now managed to see three of them. My first was an adult in near summer plumage at Blacktoft Sands RSPB in April 1983. I was on my way to Norfolk at the time with a couple of mates when we called off at Clumber park in the hope of seeing honey buzzard. While we were there a fellow birder told us that the Hudsonian godwit was back at Blacktoft. "Back", I didn't even know that there had been one there and this was the first time I was aware that such a species existed, I'd never heard of Hudsonian godwit prior to meeting this birder. So a little like the green heron the year before at Thorngumbald, when we got to Blacktoft I was watching a 1st for Britain that I'd never even seen a picture of previously, so didn't really know what features to look out for and I don't remember too much about it to be honest. 

Apart from a brief sighting of a bird in Aberdeenshire in 1988, which was seen by just two birders, the years went by and the species became a blocker on the UK lists of those who were birding in the early 1980s. No further sightings and the new generation of birders could only wait and hope that eventually they would get the opportunity to see one. 

Finally in May 2015 a female Hudsonian godwit was found at Meare Heath RSPB in Somerset. I was offered a lift by a couple of birding mates who needed it for the UK so I jumped in with them and saw my 2nd Hudsonian godwit. Since then there has been at least one in southern Ireland, but no further sightings in the UK.

So to the present, and the bird currently in Fife was found at the beginning of November. A birder photographed what he thought was a group of redshanks and a single bar-tailed godwit in flight, but a few days later when he came to look at the photos he spotted that the godwit clearly had a black underwing and the rest is history. I would say that his original photo is still the best flight photo I have seen of the bird.

Notice how well marked the scapulars are in this video, when compared to the sleeping black-tailed godwit in the foreground. Hudsonian godwit also has quite a distinctive rapid feeding action not unlike a dowitcher.

My first visit to the Eden estuary and what a great place it is, I wish I could have spent more time here.

Lots of waders on the mud as the tide advanced. The godwits were in the near group and the Hudsonian is the tenth bird from the right (I think), if we only count the birds in the water. Apparently, up until about three days ago the godwits were spending most of their time in the area where the main group of waders are in the background of this photo.