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Originally Posted by pheonix Just to clarify i didnt post this to start a row.
If i felt that strongly about it i wouldn't have gone myself, i was quite aware of what to expect i was just surprised by the reallity of it.
It is right that any bad behaved people of any group of people can give a bad name to the bigger party.
Hope you get to see the bird john, and maybe we'll get a short report of your nights findings? |
Well I'm back, tired and exhausted. I arrived at 8pm just outside Thrupp to a long line of cars parked on the edge of the A4260. Thankfully close to the road to Thrupp there was one space that I think all other car drivers hadn't thought of. It was near a gate and the grass was very very high but I slowly edged my car onto the grass, mindfull that I couldn't see if it dropped into a ditch, but after a couple of minutes I was safely parked and ready to go. It was about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the Scops Owl site and as soon as I got there I could hear the Scops single note call. In fact a few times in the first hour and a half I was probably standing within 20' of the bird but apart from a quick flight, in deep foliage, (which could have just have easily been a Thrush) nothing was seen of the bird.
By 9:40 pm the crowd was beginning to swell so I took a photo of it (below). You can at least double this number as there were large amounts the other side of the trees and similar numbers the other side of the canal. As the night wore on even more arrived.
The one thing I have to say about this twitch was that it was like no other twitch I have been on. There were whole families in the field with their kids and more woman than I have ever seen on any twitch, most of them none, or novice birders.
At 9:45pm the bird flew unseen and started calling at the far side of the small wood next to the field we were standing in. Most people moved to one side of the tree but I got there about 30 seconds later just as the bird flew out towards the canal. I managed a brief two second look at the bird.
As the night wore on the Scops moved around the area frequently and as it got darker so a couple of lamps were switched on when it landed in any nearby trees. We waited in our field for another hour but the bird seemed to favour the trees furthest away from us and also those the other side of the canal so most of us moved to by the canal bridge. On the way we were treated to a pair of Glow worms which caught the attention of a few of us.
Four times the bird landed in the trees above our heads, near the canal bridge, and each time the trees were illuminated by two torches. If any more were lit up they were told to shut them down as the beams were to be controlled. Four times the bird was located but each time only a few birders managed to see it (I wasn't one of them). Each time the bird flew to groans from birders that hadn't seen it. After each sighting the birders that had seen it started the journeys back home, so reducing the numbers there.
At 12:35am the bird flew back into a nearby tree and straight away I was first under it, followed by Lee Evans (who was controlling the lamping) and another lamper, then the rest of the birders.
Two sides of the tree were illuminated and 5 minutes later one birder caught sight of it then I did. It was calling and each time it called it dipped its tail so at least there was movement to look for. I managed to get Lee onto it and then the second lamp was switched off.
This was a very hard bird to see as it blended so well into its surroundings but if you managed to see the movement then you had prolonged views of it but sadly a fair proportion of birders were possibly slightly at a wrong angle and failed to see the bird.
I had an eight minute look at the bird before it flew of to yet again more groans by those that still hadn't locked onto it.
I left just before 1am but there must have still been at least a couple of hundred people there that still hadn't seen it.
I don't normally give Lee Evans much credit but on this occasion I will as he controlled the lamping to perfection. He was telling me that he had been there every night so if that was the case I would have thought the lamping would have been equally controlled on each night.
In the end it was an enjoyable twitch amongst birders that were respecting both the habitat and the bird. I can't speak for other nights (apart from reports from friends that had been on previous nights) but this night was certainly succesfully controlled.
John