My aversion to being part of a twitch caused me to miss seeing the Northern Mockingbird on Friday. It had stopped over at Pulborough, only a few miles from where I live and was reported to be showing well. I was determined not to go or to be part of the melee that normally ensues. That is, determined until I saw some of the pictures emerging on the Friday evening and realised what a mistake I had made. Out at the crack of dawn on the Saturday I joined the group of forlorn looking "should have been here yesterday" birders - it had of course flown overnight.
I was further tested on the Saturday when details of another North American vagrant, the long staying White-throated Sparrow in East Sussex, began to emerge. I think I had first seen reference to it back at the beginning of February or possibly the end of January but no details of its location were forthcoming. We were in the middle of lockdown and suppression of the details did not seem unreasonable.
Awake early on the Sunday I decided I couldn't risk missing another rarity and set off before dawn in the hope of missing the twitch. Unfortunately others must have had similar thoughts and there were already about thirty people on site when I arrived.
Fortunately the bird was very obliging. It turned up almost immediately, it stayed less than two minutes, I got my record shots and a life tick and was able to leave having spent less than ten minutes on site. Why can't all twitches be like this?
The bird is very obliging and I am sure that on a one to one basis and with more time there are some much better pictures to be had but when lots of people want to see the bird there are limits on what can be achieved.
As for the Mockingbird, you always need to leave one for another day. Lets just hope we don't have to wait another thirty years for the next one.
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