An hour later and my window was about to close. The Dusky had called occasionally but no one had seen it. I gloomily announced I had to go and took a picture of the hedge it was believed to be in.
I packed up my scope and turned to leave. Just then a chap behind me mentioned that something had "flicked up". I swung round and there it was in the gap between the two right hand trunks of the pollarded willow shown.
It briefly appeared three more times in the next five minutes allowing almost everyone to get a glimpse.
Not a massive twitch, but good by West Midlands standards.
Other birds seen while we stood around were 6 Golden Plovers, several Siskins, and a couple of Redpolls over.
The unremarkable habitat is further proof that rarities can turn up anywhere. What's missing is the birders to find them.
Good to here you connected with the bird Richard...your visit paid off.
ReplyDeleteTo quote what you said "The unremarkable habitat is further proof that rarities can turn up anywhere. What's missing is the birders to find them."
I couldn't agree more. I think it's fine to twitch and we all, at some point, twitch some birds be it at a patch level, locally or nationally. But I think there are too many people who just twitch and nothing else. It would be great if more people took up local patch birding (and not just at well known reserves) as more areas would get covered and more good birds in turn found. I think that local patch birding is so rewarding...yes there are all those visits spent with little reward but the pay off of finding something good on your patch or turning up a patch first is so great...it just gives off such a buzz...some people just don't know what they are missing!