Twitcher

I fell off the wagon again recently. Thankfully my addiction is not life-threatening, and I did have a good excuse this time. On Wednesday 24th September an Arctic Warbler was reported behind the visitor centre at Bempton. I probably missed it because I no longer look through all the reports on the Birdguides App, but use filters. My filters don't include Arctic Warbler (I once found one in Cornwall), unless nearby. Later that day I saw the message "probable Eastern Crowned Warbler (probably not Arctic Warbler) in copse behind visitor centre mid-afternoon". This was followed by two more negative messages, plus another the next morning. I saw the first Eastern Crowned Warbler near South Shields in 2009, so this didn't cause any deviation from my normal activities, but I did think that had it stayed I might have gone to see it for something to do, especially as I had just cancelled my usual Shetland trip (due to problems at home that needed us to stay put.) The following day the bird had morphed again to a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, a third for Britain but the first confirmed live bird. Apparently the bird had been sound-recorded and other possibilities eliminated, that would be a British tick for me. However, it was mainly being seen in flight and was very elusive.

The brain started. Do I really want to go if I'm not going to get decent views? No. But the fact is it will probably "settle down" a bit as it becomes more familiar with its surroundings, or it will move to another area where it will show better, especially with more observers. So do I want to go? No. I decided a while ago I would only twitch my "naughty nine", birds on Category A that I hadn't seen anywhere in the world. But it's still a British tick, and I haven't had one this year, so why not? No. Because the weather forecast for the next few days is horrendous, and it will be bedlam there with everyone I know and probably hundreds more trying to see it. I don't tend to go birding at weekends now anyway, so I won't go. 

Saturday morning, and the bird was seen before 7.00 am, and messages came through all day, it remained elusive, and here, at least, it was tipping down. Sunday was much the same, and I was happy to stay indoors. I had things to sort out on Monday, so I had more or less put the warbler to the back of my mind, on Tuesday I had to go shopping but Ann said "why don't you go tomorrow for something to do?" I think she wanted a day to herself so I said I would go birding. I'm not a twitcher any more (denial alert) so I decided that if the bird was there I would go to Bempton, otherwise I would see what I could find at Frampton, on the following day, a Wednesday, one week after the bird had first been reported as an Arctic Warbler.

For some reason I looked at my world list on Tuesday evening. I had been 100% certain I'd seen Pale-legged Leaf Warbler in Hong Kong in the late 1980's, but it WASN'T ON MY LIST! I didn't panic (much), still being fairly certain I'd seen one, in fact I could picture the actual bird in my mind. The weather forecast for the following day helped, not only was Bempton to enjoy good weather but overnight wasn't clear, so there was a good chance. I no longer have trouble sleeping, and thought that if it was there in the morning it would show off and on throughout the day, and I could get up at a reasonable time to drive there with plenty of daylight left. I woke up at 5.00 am, could I go back to sleep? No. I eventually left the house at 8 o'clock, having had breakfast, made sandwiches etc, and leaving Ann in bed. As I had a last look at the app in the car, the news came through-it was still there! I ran back to tell Ann, who knew nothing of it now being a World tick, so she wouldn't worry on my behalf. 

I saw the bird well, didn't get a photo thanks to a moving shoulder, but I don't care, my target is still "naughty nine" and not "terrible ten", and it's back to my being in recovery status- until the next time.........

The bird in Hong Kong? It was definitely real, I don't get hallucinations yet, but I wouldn't have been able to identify it then anyway. A name was obviously put to it by by someone else and I remembered it wrongly. I suspect it was an Eastern Crowned, but it doesn't matter now. By the way, the Pale-legged departed overnight.

As a postscript, I'll never really be cured of twitching until I physically can't walk, but the Asian Desert Warbler soon after was just something to do, and I did manage some decent photos. Plus, I missed nothing on Shetland that I hadn't seen before, perhaps it's a good omen for next year.



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