I got a message on my phone.
"Pied Flit, Lodge, 13:10, showing well, mobile."
Wouldn't mean much to most people but it told me that a Pied Flycatcher had been seen at the Lodge near where I live. It was easy to see, and moving around a lot. But Flycatchers are usually active birds, they do move a lot by virtue of their food, flies... obviously.
The drive down from the midlands was tense. I've never seen a Pied Flycatcher, so I was keen to see this fella. They don't stay in my home county, they pass through on the way to North Wales, The Lakes, and other places in the spring, and then in late summer and autumn they pass through again heading South.
But then there's the agoraphobia... It's an odd phobia, because while I can rarely go birding, a rarity, or a full blown twitchable bird, is usually not a problem. That said, as soon as I see the rarity, the Red Breasted Flycatcher, the Tundra Bean Geese, or the Wood Lark all in the area in the last year or so, the phobia kicks back in and I have to go home.
So I arrived, parked, grabbed the gear from the boot, and headed off to the reported location.
I wasn't sure exactly where to look, but I was fairly sure I'd find someone, and I did. Two guys I didn't know and one I've spent a lot of time birding with over the last 10 years.
And so I spent 2 hours fixedly watching a tree and a bush. Great Tit and Blue Tit were the only species that I saw, with the possible exception of a bird that dropped from the Tree into the back of the bush (all we saw was the movement, not an identifiable bird) and we all decided was our target... but that doesn't count, you have to see it properly. You don't have to see all of it, or even see it for a long time, just see enough of it for long enough to be certain that that was "it".
Just before I arrived my mate had seen it in the bush, he'd seen the shape of the head, the white chevron on the wing, and then it vanished into the depth of the bush. But all I'd seen was a blue, a great and a movement... Still we kept watching.
We even tried the old trick of convincing it we had left, by walking over to another stand of trees a hundred yards away, and staying out of sight for a while. Why? Because the bird knows you are watching and is waiting until you go to come out and sun itself... obviously. Why else would birds be seen well just after you leave a site after trying for 3 hours to see it?
And so we watched, circling the tree, sitting quietly, chatting loudly... eventually going into the little thicket and looking around.
Nothing.
It was decided that the bird was still there, on no evidence whatsoever other than we hadn't seen it leave. We hadn't seen it stay either, but that's not birder logic. Whether the bird was there and not showing or absent the result was the same.
I still haven't seen a Pied Flycatcher.
I'm busy this weekend, so I wont have another chance to get back there.
Maybe next year.
"Pied Flit, Lodge, 13:10, showing well, mobile."
Wouldn't mean much to most people but it told me that a Pied Flycatcher had been seen at the Lodge near where I live. It was easy to see, and moving around a lot. But Flycatchers are usually active birds, they do move a lot by virtue of their food, flies... obviously.
The drive down from the midlands was tense. I've never seen a Pied Flycatcher, so I was keen to see this fella. They don't stay in my home county, they pass through on the way to North Wales, The Lakes, and other places in the spring, and then in late summer and autumn they pass through again heading South.
But then there's the agoraphobia... It's an odd phobia, because while I can rarely go birding, a rarity, or a full blown twitchable bird, is usually not a problem. That said, as soon as I see the rarity, the Red Breasted Flycatcher, the Tundra Bean Geese, or the Wood Lark all in the area in the last year or so, the phobia kicks back in and I have to go home.
So I arrived, parked, grabbed the gear from the boot, and headed off to the reported location.
I wasn't sure exactly where to look, but I was fairly sure I'd find someone, and I did. Two guys I didn't know and one I've spent a lot of time birding with over the last 10 years.
And so I spent 2 hours fixedly watching a tree and a bush. Great Tit and Blue Tit were the only species that I saw, with the possible exception of a bird that dropped from the Tree into the back of the bush (all we saw was the movement, not an identifiable bird) and we all decided was our target... but that doesn't count, you have to see it properly. You don't have to see all of it, or even see it for a long time, just see enough of it for long enough to be certain that that was "it".
Just before I arrived my mate had seen it in the bush, he'd seen the shape of the head, the white chevron on the wing, and then it vanished into the depth of the bush. But all I'd seen was a blue, a great and a movement... Still we kept watching.
We even tried the old trick of convincing it we had left, by walking over to another stand of trees a hundred yards away, and staying out of sight for a while. Why? Because the bird knows you are watching and is waiting until you go to come out and sun itself... obviously. Why else would birds be seen well just after you leave a site after trying for 3 hours to see it?
And so we watched, circling the tree, sitting quietly, chatting loudly... eventually going into the little thicket and looking around.
Nothing.
It was decided that the bird was still there, on no evidence whatsoever other than we hadn't seen it leave. We hadn't seen it stay either, but that's not birder logic. Whether the bird was there and not showing or absent the result was the same.
I still haven't seen a Pied Flycatcher.
I'm busy this weekend, so I wont have another chance to get back there.
Maybe next year.
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