Peterborough Bird Club

MORE TWITCHERS TALES

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Some would say that a true birdwatcher finds his own birds out on the hoof but when the best bird you’ve ever found yourself is a Ring Ouzel or a Spotted Flycatcher, it doesn’t make for a very exciting hobby! It may also mean I should get out more! Let’s not forget that I see a lot of interesting but more common birds and commune with nature generally while I’m out chasing the rarities. That wasn’t the case late one Sunday afternoon when internet news of a River Warbler in deepest Norfolk was divulged! I just had to dash with equally unbalanced friends before the daylight disappeared and the bird possibly left overnight. This beauty nests around the Baltic and places further east and should winter in East Africa. It also says it tends to be skulking unless singing! Was it ever! That evening it hardly tweeted and views were of a tail-end or an eerie eye deep in a bush. Of course it didn’t disappear overnight but stayed some days and sang beautifully from the top of said bush to be a real delight for some lucky twitchers (I hate ‘em). 392 however, no matter how poor the view! I’m quite sure that many of the ?200 there that evening didn’t see anything but if you’ve driven 200 miles ……I bet most ticked their books!

My wife was agitating to go to see her sister down in Devon in early July and telling me what a great driver I was and what good company I was on a long journey and, when I noticed that a Gull-billed Tern was loafing around the Exe estuary, I fairly quickly agreed to go. The plan was that I dropped her at Cullompton and continued to Bowling Green marsh on the estuary, see the bird and return to Stamford via Cullompton. Well, I was becoming distinctly less good company as the miles rolled by and still no word of the GBT and suddenly there we were at Cullompton. So we both visited sister and I tried to be on my best behaviour and still no news until we’d said our ‘Goodbyes’ and were eating sarnies on a bench on the High St! Game on! Pushed in last mouthful and high-tailed it down the road. Showed exceeding well from the viewing platform and distant picky taken for the record. Motoring home feeling pretty chuffed having done a good deed and seen no. 393 when news breaks of a first-ever for the UK! Just back 80 miles down the M5 and then a little bit further and it’s really nice countryside down there. No, we’ve no overnight things, not even a toothbrush and no accommodation booked but herself says I must go!!! Ok, about-turn! (What has got into her?) They say the sun shines on the righteous and I really had been such a good chap and such excellent company, so when I enquire at the Pig’s Nose East Prawle about B&B there just had to be a cancellation up the road at the only establishment in the village! Drank a draught or 2 of the local ale, ate steak and ale pie and retired to bed with a very broad smile! Got the gen from another guest about finding the House Finch and 394 was in the bag before coffee time! There have been a lot of misguided mutterings about the possibility of this wonderful American migrant being an escapee – absolute twaddle, all of it! Took a stroll around Prawle Point for a bit of exercise after all the excitement to reconnect with Cirl Bunting and it was very satisfying to see so many, and they sit on the top of bushes singing away making life very easy for an exhausted twitcher. Celebratory sarnies were being eaten outside the Piglet Café when up pops the House Finch again on a rooftop just to make sure that we’ve appreciated the finer points of his appearance.

No sooner had I returned and recovered from an inordinate number of miles in pursuit of avian delights than another ‘must see 3-star’ challenge turns up in the form of a White-tailed Lapwing only down at Rainham Marshes. So off I pop first thing next morning and there’s no sign. I stand and wander around aimlessly and eventually drag myself home only to hear that it’s been seen at Slimbridge! Did this bird ever lead twitchers a dance! Off early to Gloucestershire and got my due reward for determination. No.395. If I’d missed it there it would have meant Dungeness next day! Why do these birds get so far out of their normal surroundings? He breeds in central Asia west to Iraq and should winter in east Africa or India! Was very tempted to add an attractive Cinnamon Teal and a Chilean Flamingo while there in the reserve to try to justify all the miles I’d been doing, but with great self-control I resisted!

Things quietened down for a while and I managed to reduce the length of the job-list that she’s always got and to therefore ease my way back into favour slightly. However the autumn’s antics weren’t over yet! A mere 2-star job but it had to be chased all the way to Spurn Point. This was another of those worrying early morning starts when the bird had been seen the day before and we had to decide whether to wait until it’s reported and then hare off or to go on the off chance. We went on the off chance and not a word came through the ether! We ‘ummed’ and ‘aahed’, drove more slowly and became rather glum. Reached Patrington Haven, slowly dragged ourselves out of the car, stretched our legs and idled off towards the sea. Why were these birders running back towards us! Pulses quickened, adrenalin flowed and we were dashing to Kilnsea just down the road. Leapt from car almost before it had stopped and there we were just yards away on the mud exposed by the receding tide – a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper which breeds in eastern Siberia! Smart little fellow, which we finally managed to differentiate from the mass of Dunlin and to digiscope rather nicely. Not many twitchers got to see this beauty before it was off and away to ? ; see if I care where! So 396!! Having gambled well there, why didn’t we push our luck and go for the ‘as yet unrecorded that day’ Semi-palmated Sandpiper on our way home? Blunder! Woe is me and thrice woe! Maybe it wasn’t mentioned in despatches that morning because there was no mobile signal as in nearly all of the remote spots that twitchers get to! I’ve been caught out by this problem so many times that you’d think I’d not be caught again! So having driven almost by the door without stopping, you know what happened just as we got back to base! Showing well!! Off next morning of course to the south side of the Humber, find reserve, converse with smiling birder (‘I’ve been watching it for an hour’) on way to hide, sit and fidget for 90mins. Not a sign. Go looking for it in other parts of reserve and, having got a long way from the hide, look back with telescope to see small flock of waders right in front of said hide! Can I see anything that’s recognisable? Some Ruff and some Dunlin but the S-p Sandpiper? Honestly, no. Too much wind-shake and too far away. Oh yes, it was there but down comes a peregrine and scatters the lot never to be located again! It’s heart-breaking!

Well, I think that’s quite enough excitement for today so I’ll hold back a few more riveting tales for the next publication. It’s been a great year for us certifiable members of the birding community and I’ve still got 3 successes to come but also some tragic tales of ‘dipping’! Ending on a thoroughly bad note, I’ve reluctantly been shamed into removing Kumlien’s Gull so it’s back to 395! Why did I do that? It’s my list after all and I might have to reinstate him if things get hard and I haven’t made the magical 400.

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