American White-winged Scoter, Murcar, Aberdeenshire

Sometimes we do a long distance twitch that is really fun, just because of the madness of the trip.  That was what this twitch was like.

I had  an inset day on Tuesday 5th July 2016. That's when school is closed for teacher training.

So rather than have a lazy day at home, we left home after school and Dad drove us to the Lake District. My Gran has a caravan here and it's the perfect place to stay over and get a few hours sleep.

Early morning of the 5th July, we set out for North Eastern Scotland.  It was 9 am when we arrived at Murcar, Aberdeenshire.  We were looking for an American White-winged Scoter, which had been around a while. However, we soon found out that it had not been seen that morning. Had it gone?  The next few hours were spent looking through the telescope, out into the sea, which was hard to do as it was difficult picking up the birds and identifying them.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig at American White-winger Scoter Twitch

 

Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig at American White-winger Scoter Twitch

After 1-2 hours, Dad eventually found the Scoter and we got reasonable views but not good enough to digiscope photos.  It was a really amazing bird to see, all the way across the Atlantic. It was another new bird for for my British and World List.

After watching it for an hour, we had to leave and head home, via a quick stop at the caravan, where Dad got a have a power nap.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She organised a conference in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter