ML645992538

Observation details

A phenomenal rarity found by Richard Carr at the extreme Tip shortly after noon. One of my most wanted birds in Essex for years! Olivia and I had been napping in our oTENTik and somehow (thankfully) I got service and got the notification of Richard’s find, but about 40 minutes afterwards and just before Josh posted that it had flown. We raced to get ready and made our way out to the beach at White Pine. The bird had last been seen going due North extremely far along the West side, so I was hoping to intercept it there. Olivia had suggested we instead head back to the Tip and her idea proved correct - as we were walking North it was posted by Quinten as being back at Serengeti. We raced down, caught the next available shuttle as I was freaking out internally about potentially missing it, and kindly got dropped off at the halfway stop. We literally sprinted down the beach with Gary McLarty and caught up with a group watching the bird right on the sand North of Serengeti. I got good photos of it on the sand and just missed smoking it as it flew right by point-blank. It later perched up in some short trees on the beach edge for a while, where we watched it with Bill Lamond, and then flushed into the forest. Then intense rain hit, and we got absolutely drenched on the walk back to the shuttle where I protected my camera under my shirts. Olivia’s first rare bird chase - a very exciting one - and a nemesis crossed off all while on our first camping trip!