itch4atwitch,blogspot.com

Twitching is a vile and shameful habit, well at least it can be. I say shameful, well I always felt 'sort of' ashamed anyway? The purist in me did think it wasn't real birding, just a shortcut? I don't know, it's hard to quantify? To me birding is about exploring and there are few finer things than finding a rare bird for yourself or being out during a day of mass migration. Twitching ... um er ... it's sort of something that cannot be compared with what I deem as so-called 'proper' birding? It's just my personal opinion I suppose? There's nothing wrong with twitching it's just that in my opinion it has very little to do with what I'd refer to as birding that's all. Another thing about twitching is if you are one of the sorts of people who enjoys a bit of peace and quiet then twitching defeats part of the object? One nice thing about our idealistic view of the countryside is that we often like to go to the countryside because it gets us away from people? Once again, if you're going to twitch a rare bird in these the days of social media etc then you can forget about getting any peace and quiet or having a place to yourself for very long as no doubt there will be lots and lots of foot traffic, and with the foot traffic comes the push and shove of the world, the competitive types, the loud mouths, the braggarts, the egotists and the like. With me being me it's just not my scene. The good points to twitching are twofold in my opinion the camaraderie as there are some lovely people who twitch and the fact that you'll see some rather fantastic birds! The rat race aside, it can be rather splendid if you're not the shy and retiring type as I am.

All the above aside, it can, if you're not careful lure you in every now and again. It did me anyway.

Why write another Blog then? And all the more so about such a shameful, pointless and unfulfilling avenue of one of your chosen hobbies then? Well, I actually quite enjoyed some of my twitches. I spent time with some nice people and saw some great birds too. The real reason of course is boredom, sheer unadulterated boredom. I've been stuck indoors for five months of so feeling sorry for myself, as is my want of course, this type of thing is nothing new for me being amongst the top five nutters in the entire UK. No, I was and still am very, very, very VERY bored. I've not been birding since the end of July (it's the week before Crimbo of 2019 as I write) and I need something to write about just as a stop gap cure to stop me going stir crazy. About a month ago I had a manic week writing various parts of my fishing career out into some self centred, dull and boring, virtually unreadable Blog which I also wrote due to an onset of boredom. Boredom is a danger to a depressive, anxiety ridden person such as me so I have to dream up ways of keeping boredom very much at bay/ The consequences of being bored are terrifying. Let's leave it at that eh?

Oh yeah, back to my utter hypocrisy as to moaning about twitching but doing a fair bit of it, well it wasn't even my fault. It was all daisies doing ... nothing to do with me. Well, fair enough but I'm sure that Stubs is partly to blame!

Daisy and his part in my downfall. Not just him, Giblet too!

Yeah ... bloomin' Daisy and co., nothing but a bunch of snobs the lot of them!

Much of what I will write out here will either be taken from my old hand written journals or my computer written Blogs ... of which there are many. Again it's a trip down memory lane when life was easier, more straightforward etc and when I had more hair, a less fat gut and my knees didn't hurt so much. Nowadays pretty much every part of me hurts, especially my brain. Anyhow, enough of that. I first met Daisy on Sunday 23rd May 1993. I was thirty and he was about four years of age, something around that sort of age anyhow? I was fresh back from a week in Pembrokeshire, a nice birding trip for me and I'd seen all sorts of things including my first Red Kites, Chough and breeding Goshawks. On this occasion I'd turned up at Pegwell where I met a few people including this mad keen birder who had tales of seeing Hobby's at Stodmarsh and Bullfinches at Ramsgate Cemetery. From thereon we were pretty much joined at the hip and my diary records show we went all over the place during pretty much every minute of spare time we had, all local stuff initially, well as far as Stodmarsh but later on Dover to see the nesting Peregrines then Elmley, Dungeness and the woods around the Canterbury area before the year of 1993 elapsed. Anyway, Craig was a bird-line addict at the time and whenever we'd meet he'd always keep me up to date with whatever rarities had been showing up where there and everywhere. Eventually all this led to us travelling further afield ... my first twitch being ...

Twitch number 1: Friday 6th August 1993, Montagu's Harrier and Marsh Sandpiper, Cliffe Pools.

It's a good thing to write down what you see, the memory plays tricks if you don't. I've just read through a full handwritten page of notes telling me that 'we' saw a Marsh Sandpiper and a ring-tailed Montagu's Harrier and as I sit here writing this tripe I can honestly say that I have no recollection as to who the 'we' were, or the Marsh Sand or the blimmin' Monty's Harrier or even how we got to Cliffe Pools? I assume the journey was taken by Craig and I, on the train but in those days we did used to go birding with Dave Coppen, so it's quite possible that he drove us to North Kent? My diary fails to inform me I'm afraid. The odd thing is that I do remember one thing about this day, it sticks in my mind vividly. On one of the small shallow side pools of Cliffe some berk had set up a hide to get photos of a Pectoral Sandpiper that was there at the time. He'd flushed the bird and we never did see it. My notes tell me me there was a nice Marsh Harrier showing superbly, how times have changed eh, and of course the long staying Greater Flamingo was on one of the large pools. We also saw 20+ Curlew Sandpipers and a Little Ringed Plover.

Twitch number 2: Monday 6th September 1993, Icterene Warbler, Minnis Bay.

Ah, now this day I remember very well. My notes from the day report that Craig had phoned me at work telling me of this Icterene Warbler 'at Birchington'. I'm not sure at what time he phoned me but I read that I left work at 16.00 Hrs when a taxi picked me up and took em to Epple Bay, the wrong place!! Apparently I then walked up and down the coast for ninety minutes (these were pre mobile phone days remember) when by pure chance I ran into Craig who had a map and we then went to the right spot, the small alcove of trees behind the small pitch and putt at Minnis Bay. By this time it was 18.00 Hrs! We were two of about fourteen birders (apparently?) and eventually the bird showed properly but not until 19.15. We got splendid views, even scoped views I went on to read. During all the wandering about I also logged 3 Pied Fly's too. By this time I then found out that there was a Red-backed Shrike at Sandwich Bay ... hmmm? I must have got the twitching bug because I then went to see it on the following day.

Twitch number 3: Tuesday 7th September 1993, Red-backed Shrike, Sandwich Bay.

I took the day off work to see the Shrike, a new bird for me at the time. The bird was 'in a cow field up near to the river' I read from my notes. I only have a vague recollection of where this was, behind Pfizers somewhere, probably in the field where they ended up digging the backsand scrape. I left at 05.00am and got to the exact spot just before 06.00, presumably having cycled there? Apparently there were lots of Whinchats (30+) and a few Pied Flys and Wheatears showing when at 07.20 I finally saw the Shrike which appeared from nowhere on top of a small bush by the river before moving tot he fence-line where it put on a bit of a show, diving down into the grass and catching various Grasshoppers. The rest of my entry is a little embarrassing as I thought that one of the Flycatchers may well have been a Collared, absolute nonsense of course. I thought the wing panel markings fitted one of the diagrams in my bird book of the time, I even rang up the Obs when I got home. What a complete berk eh?

Twitch number 4: Monday 11th October 1993, Ring Ouzel, North Foreland.

Yep, you read correctly ... I twitched a Ring Ouzel. It's just incredible isn't it? I'd started birding in February of 1993 so by this time I'd done two full springs and the entire autumn of 1992 and not seen one Ring Ouzel ... but how?? Anyway, the preceding day I'd met Francis at Pegwell who told me there had been an Ouzel in the bushes along Elmwood Avenue every day for the past week. After leaving the house at 'extremely' silly o'clock, I'd arrived on site before it even got light such was my need to see this revered creature and to cut a long story short as soon as it got light enough to see I then heard the bird calling before seeing it. It then rained and I cycled back via Ramsgate cemetery to go to work. The Ouzel was in the section of thorny bushes on the golf course up closest to the thatched cottage. Whether this was rightly referred to as a twitch or not I'm not certain? Let's face it I was by this time watching Foreness and North Foreland but I suppose it was a twitch in as much as I wouldn't have gone there had I not heard about the Ouzel? In retrospect I'd say this was about half a twitch?

Twitch number 5: Monday 25th October 1993, Isabelline Shrike, Sandwich Bay.

Ah, now this was a proper twitch. Craig phoned to tell me about this bird and about midday or just after I met up with him and he took me to the spot having already seen the Shrike before I got on site. I can remember seen the bird but can't bring to mind exactly where it was? In was near to the Obs, perhaps near Worth? Looking at my notes I don't think that I was all that impressed with seeing it as I described it as being 'fairly dull' ...

Twitch number 6: Monday 1st November 1993, Dusky Warbler, Foreness.

Okay I'd been on a few twitches by this time but from what I read in my diary notes from the day it would appear that I was already a little disillusioned with this form of birding? My diary tells me that I was at home when Craig rang me, telling me about the bird being at Foreness. He wasn't exactly sure where it was, just at Foreness. Apparently after a huge roast my Dad had dropped me over on his way back to work (at Clifftonville) but soon after dropping us off, he drove back telling us he'd passed by lots of blokes with scopes further along the cliff top. We were heading towards the pumping station (from Palm Bay) but my Dad had spotted the gathering of birders further west in the opposite direction. Anyway, he dropped us off next to all of these berks with their scopes set up and we soon got onto the bird. On getting home I later wrote in my diary 'It's boring this twitching - it's too predictable. Two very rare birds I've seen this week and they have nothing nothing much for me at all. It's so much nicer finding your own birds' etc etc. It would appear the writing was on the wall very early on in my birding career.

Twitch number 7: Monday 27th December 1993, Red-breasted Goose, Isle of Sheppy.

My diary reports that Craig had phoned to tell me that there were a few Bean Geese amongst the usual White Fronted Goose flock at Harty Ferry, also a Common Crane and best of all a Red-breasted Goose. Now as luck had it the old man was driving into North Kent on this day and offered me a lift to see these birds, but the bad news was that we had a car full of people so there was no room for Craig. I wrote in my diary 'I felt terrible really as Craig had phoned me up to tell me about the birds but there wasn't room in the car! Oh well!' The Red-breasted Goose was at Leysdown amongst a large flock of Brents on the beach and I saw it immediately, so after about five minutes at gawping at this lovely looking little Goose I then got the old man to drop me off at Harty Ferry, arranging to get picked up there much later on. I can't think where he was going to? Perhaps they were going shopping at Lakeside or something? At Harty Ferry there was no sign of the Crane unfortunately thought there were 250+ White-fronts, at least 7 Bean Geese and 29 Bewick's Swans there.

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