Is twitching of any benefit to a proper birdwatcher?

It is nearly May and I am sure with some certainty that if I wasn’t confined to my property and local daily exercise schedule that something rare somewhere in the southern half of Britain would be luring me in its general direction and the “Twitch” would be on.

In my early days as a birder it was impressed on me that twitching a rarity should be shunned and there was no fun in it apart from the growth of a pointless list! Sadly, I lived that life for more years than I should have, and the consequence has been that I have missed some truly great birds due to stubbornness! Thankfully now I am not so easily led, or pig headed and in recent years I have travelled about to see some of the natural worlds most elegant and beautiful avian wonders. But what is the point in twitching? Is my sole purpose to build an endless list in the vain hope that one day I can use it as some metaphorical truncheon to beat any young up and coming bird nerd into submission? Or is there deeper value and meaning to seeing a new and rare bird? Well I think so! As somebody who is reasonably proficient at general birding, I tend to do OK for odd and rare records each year helped by the fact that I live in the surprisingly under watched Cornwall. So why leave the picturesque oasis of home to see birds when the chances are you will find something half decent nearby? Well, simply put for the novelty and learning opportunities.

Let’s face it there are not many people who don’t like seeing and experiencing something new! I find twitching can bring out a huge range of emotions reminiscent of a Christmas or Birthday morning! Anticipation, trepidation, jubilation and defeat are all regular feelings when heading for or departing a twitch. How many legal or safe alternatives are out there that allow for such a range of feelings? But perhaps more importantly the learning value and opportunity of seeing something in the field offers so much more than reading about a species and viewing pictures. We have all heard the term “jizz” and the fact that sometimes you just know you have stumbled across something with "Wow" factor before evaluating the finer details of the bird. This gut reaction does not come from knowing everything about possible rarities that could turn up on your patch but from a more extensive experience of the local birds that inhabit an area and just knowing it was unlikely to be one of them. So, seeing a rare bird and having the opportunity to familiarise yourself with its general traits and appearance will only add to this bank of subconscious information in my opinion! 

Looking back over the last six months I have had some real twitching luck and the lock down period has given me the opportunity to revisit some of these jubilant experiences. So, without further ado here are some of the recent highlights.

Black-throated Thrush – Whipsnade Zoo – 22nd of December 2019.

I am sure that for the die-hard rare bird enthusiast out there this bird may be best left in the archives due to its immense popularity at the time and the number of pictures that did the rounds. No doubt some people got sick of seeing it! However, I can’t help myself. It was a long drive to Whipsnade Zoo and back home in the same day in fact 540 miles. So, a little more appreciation and admiration for this show stopping stunner is warrant and just I think.

There were a couple of reasons to make such a long drive for one bird, which is not normally mine and Bob’s style. We tend to wait for two or three targets in order to justify the expense and effort. Firstly, the Thrush was an unmistakable male with a grey back, white belly, and a pitch-black throat and chest, exactly how we wanted to see the species. Secondly, it had been around awhile and seemed settled so the risk of it departing was perhaps better than normal odds? Long story short we were one of the first cars on site that morning and waited patiently in the entrance cue for around 30 minutes. Thankfully, once inside the zoo we didn't have to wait quite as long for fantastic views of this handsome bird! Well worth the effort and trip.

The following day I did some reading and found out that in the past 120 years only around 90 individuals had been seen in the UK and few of them had offered such great views and the cooperation that this individual had presented us! To put it into perspective of how far off course this bird was, it is normally found breeding from the extreme east of Europe to Western Siberia and north-west Mongolia. Add to that the wintering range extends from the Middle East to eastern Burma. So, at the end of December it was around 5000 miles north-west of where it should be! Now surely that deserves some sort of accolade?  

Ross’s Gull – Plymouth – 14^th of March 2020

Now I must confess I first went up to Plymouth after work on the 13^th of March and did briefly see it for all of 5 seconds before it sailed off upriver and was sadly not relocated again that evening. The view was almost to poor to count it and I left a little narked and frustrated! The hour drive home gave me plenty of time to mull it over and concoct a plan for the following morning.

Shortly after dawn at around 8 am I was stood in the same spot hoping and praying the little beauty hadn’t departed over night and that I was going to get a better view of it that morning. I waited patiently with no sign but was happy admiring the local Great Northern Divers and Red-breasted Mergansers from my vantage point. After an hour I was starting to get that sinking feeling in my stomach that I wasn’t in luck. I thought it best to check the internet and see if any local news had come out. Sure enough about 15 minutes earlier a tweet had gone out and it was showing well about 1.5 miles further up river! Now Plymouth is just like any other city between 8 and 9 am and there was traffic everywhere. It took me the best part of 20 minutes to navigate and battle through the local bustle. I am thankful though that it waited for me and on arrival to the recommended car park I could see it from the far river bank through the scope. What a relief!

As luck would have it local birding stalwart Darrell Clegg arrived on site and talked me through some of the mouth-watering avian history of the site and more importantly showed me how to get a bit closer to the bird in question so that I could try and get some sort of record shot or video. So what did I learn from it? Well just as my field guides suggested it was similar in size and plumage characteristics to that of a Little Gull albeit had a delightful “dove” shaped and rather large head. It was also slightly larger, which was quite notable when comparing it to the nearby Black-headed Gulls. It certainly didn’t appear so diminutive as I have recalled Little Gulls in the past. I also noted that it appeared to have an extensive primary projection and I could also quite easily see the diagnostic wedge or diamond-shaped tail. This particular bird was an adult and it was starting to show a faint pink flush to the breast but was lacking the neat black neck ring that it will get a little closer to the breeding season.

The following day I also did a little research on its normal distribution to refresh my knowledge on such a wonderful creature.  Interestingly Ross's Gull breeds in the high Arctic of northernmost North America, and northeast Siberia. It has a short autumnal migration and most of the population are found wintering at the edge of the pack ice in the northern Bering Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk. So another species around 5000 miles away from its normal wintering grounds! With around 104 UK records in the last 120 years this species is another rather rare bird that was a delight to see.

Laughing Gull - Cheddar Reservoir - 14th of March 2020

Feeling incredibly lucky having just had superb views of the Ross's Gull I felt it best to maximise my profitability whilst luck was on my side! So I decided to drive two hours north and head for Cheddar Reservoir and try for the Laughing Gull that had been coming into roost every evening for the past week.

I arrived a number of hours before prime time so made the most of the afternoon by enjoying the picturesque spot and take a look at the local bird life. It was a wonderful place and I can see why it has such a good core of local birders. After an all to brief siesta and as the day started to wane it was time to put my serious cap on and get into place. I was one of the first to the area and in all honesty I wasn't expecting many more twitchers as it had been around awhile, but as the minutes ticked by and the local gull population started flying in so more and more people arrived. Before long over 100 people were in place and scopes to the ready! It was pleasant talking with some others that had travelled to the Reservoir with the same goal in mind as myself and I was chuffed that I picked up on the drake Ring-necked Duck that was also present. A bird that a nearby group had hoped to catch up with all afternoon but alas it had eluded them!  It was also pleasing to meet some of the Falmouth Uni students on site and had a good yarn and catch up with Toby Flood, Liam Langley, Matt Doyle and Matthew Broadbent. They are a smashing group of lads and my bet is that they will become prominent figures in the birding and ornithological world in the not to distant future! They were also hoping for a double victory day having been for a nearby Kentish Plover earlier that day.

After some heavy scanning of the gulls that were coming and going eventually several of us noticed a sooty looking gull bobbing in and out of view. That had to be it surely? A moment or two later it slipped out from behind a Common Gull and Liam exclaimed "there it is"! Hooray, now that was well worth the effort and drive.

So what useful observations and subconscious impressions did I take away with me? Well firstly it was very distinctive and much darker than I was expecting it to be! My first thought was that it looked superficially like a long-winged mellanistic Common Gull. However, on closer inspection several key differences could be observed. The general wing plumage appeared uniform and dark chocolate brown in colouration. This contrasted nicely with the head, neck and flanks which were extensively smudged with an ashy grey. The bill was very dark/black and the diagnostic slightly dropping shape could easily been seen even at range. As the bird flew I also noted that the belly appeared pale and clean which contrasted starkly with the flanks and upperparts of the bird. It also had a clean white rump which contrasted with the mostly dark tail shown on a first winter bird.

My research following the twitch councluded that in the past 120 years there have been around 260 records of this gull in the UK. However, this figure is slightly skewed due to Hurricane Wilma which led to a dramatic invasion of Laughing Gulls in early November 2005, possibly as many as 70 individuals arrived! So, whilst a little more frequent than the previous species I had recently seen, it is still bordering the "mega" end of the rarity scale! I also brushed up on the Laughing Gull's home range and found out that they normally spend their winters from North Carolina and along the west coast of Baja California; along the Pacific Coast from Colima, Mexico, south to northern Peru! Making the Cheddar bird some 3500 miles west of its intended winter haunt. 

I do keep lists of bird species I have seen but only two are important to me and they might surprise you! The all important one to me is my Cornish list. I don't think there is is anything quite like seeing a new bird in your home county. Although I know that I am extremely lucky living where I do, as its avian history and rarity potential is some of the most desirable in the UK! I also love my Western Palearctic listing which is in its infancy but Ross's Gull was my 500th species. So I feel it is off to a good start and I have some superb trips planned for the next few years so lets hope it continues to grow. Is there a point to all of this? Well, for me at least I love the novelty value and thrill I get from "going" for new birds. But the learning opportunity and experience I gain is by far the most important aspect for me! Lets hope for some more educational conquests really soon. I hope I get to see and meet some of you there.