Dirty Twitching v2

You can't believe what you read on the internet.

I couldn't resist the lure the American Bittern today and was there for three of it's showings, getting eyes on it twice.

The trip down was marked by very varied weather - dense fog, monsoon-level rain, high winds, sunshine.... Surprisingly, the Beeb's forecast of decent weather in west cornwall seemed to come true, and the road-full at Trewey Common were not rained upon nor blown away nor hidden in dank mist. En route, a BIG flock of Starlings west of Launceston [five figures, easy] and a female Ring Ouzel between Penzance and Trewey were the notable birds.

"No sign" said a chap as I arrived. The 'field by the pools opened for parking' was in fact in Zennor, he added [Reading things on the internet and believing them? Silly boy...]. Parking carefully and legally on the verge was possible and had been done [well, parking had been done, anyway] by many others, so I made my effort and joined the crowd. Flyover Snipe and a couple of Golden Plover flocks were interesting, but it seemed very un-Bitterny... I'd agreed to pick Joe up when he finally escaped from Scilly, but that was nigh on 3 hours away - plenty of time for a yank to get bored and fly about..

I'm sure you've read various versions of what happened;

The first, best, time was not that long after I arrived - being a fair journey away and having to sleep [especially after seawatching 'til dusk the day before] I wasn't a proper birder; there to disturb it in the dark ;)

For a far better and more detailed account than I could give, have a look at JL's tale at Wanstead Birding.

The second time it showed off it's own bat - first perched in a tree to a lucky few, then flying back closer to the ponds to a few more [including me]. One lady was still by the road, and reported it landing at the north end of the copse. The assembled remainder mostly lined up on the road again, I decided to move along a footpath to a point where I could look up the line of the copse, see the far side in case it went into the field there, and perhaps more importantly, sit down and have a cuppa!

The bird had been out of sight for just over an hour when a person went to flush it. At first I thought he was perhaps the farmer - walking through the roadside field, smoking a fag and heading away from me towards the cattle. Then he turned into the copse, went through it and around in front of it through the gorse, clapping his hands. Having realised what he was intending too late to do anything to stop him that wouldn't make things worse, I packed up and headed for the crowd. At this point the bird flushed from the trees and flew off south - I didn't see it, wasn't looking. The crowd mostly then dispersed. I asked about a third of them about the flusher - some had no idea, others had been asked by him; evidently another majority approval. With the Scillonian due back inside the hour, I was not amused, I have to say.

Neither were the assorted birders on board, as I arrived in Penzance to pick up Joe and take him up for a go at the Bittern. To add insult to injury, the weather had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and we were met by horizontal rain. Despite this, we had a good look, following the yank's flightpath to a valley chock full of all manner of cover for American herons to hide in and feed or roost to their heart's desire... Retiring to the car for rations, Joe decided it clearly wasn't going to show and so we headed home.

I see it did come back, less than an hour after we left.

£$&§^(&$£@££%±§§ *

[[* Ancient Devonian Swear-words, which I am not allowed to translate.]]

So, I saw a very rare and generally wow!-inducing Lifer today, but I feel as well as elation... Not right.

[[[This post has been thoroughly rewritten the day after as it was more than half a rant]]]