It was August 1995 and I had spent the summer season working for the National Trust at the Long Nanny Little Tern Site, the season was almost over but we still had a small number of little terns using the site, including at least 2 unfledged juveniles.
With tern site activity now almost non-existent, I took the opportunity to do as much seawatching as possible. I still had to be based at the wardens hut in the middle of Beadnell Bay though, to keep an eye on the terns and chat to any visitors. The middle of Beadnell Bay is obviously not the ideal place for seawatching, however you can still get distant seabirds passing between Newton Point and Beadnell, and spending the late summer here probably increased my ability to identify seabirds at range !
At around lunchtime on Friday the 11th August I was scanning for sooty shearwaters or arctic skuas, which I had been seeing regularly for a week or so. A distant skua appeared to be flying from Beadnell directly towards the tern site. Head on it didn’t look quite right, it appeared to be a pale phase and lightly built, quite interesting but it was very distant so I didn’t jump any conclusions, instead I just kept a keen eye on it as it got closer and entered the bay. A couple of minutes later and about halfway into the bay the skua was still flying directly towards me and giving nothing away, then it just turned south and it was immediately apparent that it had long tail streamers !!
“FUCKINELL !! LONG-TAILED SKUA !!!” I think the people a couple of miles away in Beadnell probably heard that exclamation !!
I called my co-warden of the site Karen and got her onto the skua, which slowly drifted south. I then radioed Rick Lockwood, National Trust Coastal Warden, (NEWTON BIRDING LEGEND !!), and my boss at the time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of him and I suspected the skua was going to fly right past his house at Low Newton without him seeing it.
After calming down form the “longtail” excitement, I started seawatching again, within 3 or 4 minutes I had picked up another distant adult long-tailed skua flying south, awesome !! Half an hour or so later I had déjà vu when I picked up another small pale phase skua at distance flying directly towards me into the bay. This bird just got closer and closer….. and closer. Another adult long-tailed skua with full tail streamers, and this time it was flying up the beach towards the tern site !!
At this point I had mixed feelings, I’d spent all summer protecting the terns and the few little terns that were left here were very vulnerable, on the other hand I was getting the best views I’ve ever had of an adult long-tailed skua, which was just flying around my head chasing the little terns !!
Another call to Rick on the radio and I got him this time, unfortunately he was working way inland and was not able to make it for these skuas, he had called birdline though and said that there were a few reports of adult long-tailed skuas along the north east coast in the late morning and early afternoon. I arranged to meet Rick at Newton Point after my shift finished at 6pm for an evening seawatch.
During the afternoon I seawatched solidly and managed a few sooty shearwaters, a couple of little gulls, and few arctic skuas and bonxies too.
I met Rick at 6pm at Newton Point for what turned out to be one of my best ever seawatching sessions at Newton ! A steady stream of sooty shearwaters trickled by with at least one every 10-15 minutes, manxies were more common, and it got to the point where we didn’t bother calling them because there were too many other birds to look at ! With the stiffening onshore winds many birds were at close range, with many just off the rocks at the point.
5 minutes in and an adult long-tailed skua drifted south just over the rocks of the point, and then another…… and another… A group of 5 black terns lingered offshore and were joined by a couple of little gulls. During the whole 3 hours or so that we were sat there, a slow but steady movement of bonxies and arctic skuas continued.
About an hour in and 4 adult Pomarine Skuas with full “spoons” drifted over the point, closely followed by another adult “longtail”. The close range skua action was just astounding. At one point I stopped looking through my scope to give my eyes a rest, I looked up and happened to glance behind me, a group of 3 adult long tailed skuas were actually flying over the point just behind where we were sat !! We didn’t even need binoculars they were so close !
Back to the scope and next up was a storm petrel, another rare bird at Newton. While watching another long tailed skua off the point 2 more poms appeared, then more poms, then 2 roseate terns and some more sooties… and so it went on…
We were completely transfixed by the skua spectacle going on around us and the few hours between 6pm and dusk seemed to fly by.
Soon the evening was over but we were in high sprits having logged 17 long-tailed skuas and 12 pomarine skuas, all adults ! This was great for us but left us wondering if seeing these adult birds in early August was an indication of a poor breeding season. On top of these awesome skuas, there were just too many sooties, manxies and other skuas to mention. Birds like black terns and little gulls just provided the finishing touches to a great evenings seawatch.
Within a couple of days all the long-tailed skuas had vanished again, however the one bird did remain at the tern site for three days, giving us and one or two lucky visitors some of the best views we’d ever had of this species.