Hundreds descended on a nature reserve in Northumberland on Bank Holiday Monday after a rare bird was spotted in the UK for the first time ever.
The grey headed lapwing, which is usually between 34 and 37cm long and has a grey head and neck, darker grey breast, white belly and black tail, was spotted on Monday at Low Newton by the Sea by local birder Gary Woodburn. Within minutes of posting his find on a Northumberland birdwatching group, the news had gone national and enthusiasts and avid twitchers started to travel to the North East from all over the country.
It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 people in total came in search of the grey-headed lapwing, which would usually be nesting in China and Japan at this time of year. The birds spend winter in southeast Asia, and yesterday's sighting is only the fourth record of the bird in the Palearctic realm, one of eight biogeographical section that the world is split into - this one covering Europe, some of North Africa and the Middle East.
Read more: Farne Islands to remain closed until end of summer following devastating avian flu outbreak
The previous four records have all been since 2018 in Turkey, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club believe that it could be the same bird spotted each time.
Gary Woodburn, who broke the news, spoke of his delight at finding the bird. He told ChronicleLive: "As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what it was as I've seen them before in India 25 years ago.
"But it's such a rare thing and it's so unexpected I had a bit of a wobble and I couldn't even think straight I was so excited. It took me a few seconds to compute."
Full-time carer Gary already had a link to the site from working on it with a local farmer to make it more attractive to wading birds. He continued: "It's really special to me because that's my local patch and I go birdwatching there most days when I can, and the area that the lapwing was on is a wet flush.
"I worked with the farmer in 2009 to create that habitat for wading birds, so I've got a link to the patch itself. To find a really rare bird on there, it doesn't get any better than that for me."
Ornithologist Tom Cadwallender was one of the first on the scene on Monday and described the sighting as in a "different league." However, he said that people shouldn't expect to see more of the birds in Northumberland anytime soon, saying: "Rare birds can turn up anywhere, what happens generally is they get blown off course in their migration.
"We've had quite a lot of easterly winds this last month or so and it will have been working its way over to us gradually, and with Britain being on the west coast of Europe, this would have been the first landfall it made. This species is expanding its range but not to the extent that it would become a regular feature in Northumberland in the foreseeable future."
Though the grey-headed lapwing was thousands of miles off course, Tom says that the bird seemed content and healthy at Low Newton on Monday, and on Tuesday morning when it had moved a couple of miles further north. Tom added: "It was feeding quite happily, it was roosting so it's quite content, and it appears not to be sick or anything."
The sighting of such a rare bird has given a local nature reserve a boost too. After getting over the initial excitement of spotting the lapwing, Gary Woodburn rushed home to get a bucket with the aim of helping out Embleton Quarry Nature Reserve.
Gary finished: "Once things had calmed down, I ran home and got a bucket because I knew people would be coming from all over the country to twitch this bird and I thought it would be a great opportunity to raise money for a local nature reserve. I know from experience that happy birdwatchers are quite generous, so if you're there and they see a bird and they're chuffed to bits, they're quite generous at giving to local community causes."
On the day, Gary raised £632.23 and a crowdfund page set up has raised a further £187 at the time of writing. The volunteers who manage the nature reserve are currently attempting to make the site more accessible, so any money raised could go towards making the site more wheelchair and pushchair-friendly, or towards environmental education events for both children and adults.
To find out more about the Crowdfund, visit the JustGiving page here.
Did you see the grey-headed lapwing in Northumberland? Let us know!
Read next
Meet the North Tyneside moggie representing the North East at the National Cat Awards
Desperate fight to save Gateshead cat in need of £8.5k treatment after being injured in hit and run
Dog owner's delight after stranger dives into River Tyne to save her five-month old puppy
The Byker pigeon people around the world are willing to pay £50,000 to own
Northumberland wildlife including otters and baby badgers captured in series of night-vision videos
