Monthly Archives: July 2010

H*USE FINCH & GULL-BILLED TERN in Devonshire – 04/07/2010

Posted on by
5

Sunday 4th July 2010

House Finch at East Prawle, Devon

Right folks I’ll come clean here…. My name is Archie and I’m a twitchaholic!  Just like all those poor, addicted souls who are out there craving Vodka or Heroin, when the real hard stuff is not available, I will sink to the lowest of all depths to get ‘smacked up’ and out of my hairy, little face on whatever ‘avicrack’ I can.

At around 9.30am I found myself staggering around East Prawle village craving a feathered fix. My head was spinning and I felt nauseas but luckily a recovering birding ‘bag-head’ called Jules Allen was there to keep me as focused as he could. As I weaved in and out of the confusing maze of stone cottages I became paranoid, as if a thousand critical eyes were starring at me.  As I passed by a ginger Tomcat sat licking its balls in a quiet doorway.  He looked up at me and sniggered before continuing to cleanse his swollen Mick Hucknall style gonads. If I had a telepathic link to the feline World then I would have heard the word “Loser!” uttered from beneath those horrible, wiry, whiskers.

It then hit me that there were about another dozen lost souls just like me wondering around like extras from Dawn of the Dead.  Eventually my knees stiffened and I became rooted to the spot, I could walk no more. For ninety minutes or so I was slumped against a fence post, I was cold despite the early morning sunshine. I was sweating despite the fact that I was shivering. Suddenly, a lone bird flew up and landed on the ridge tiles of one of the buildings, I lifted my bins and in front of me there appeared a male, yellow variant HOUSE FINCH.  I braced myself awaiting the freezing rush of blood to flow through my veins and for my pupils to begin dilating.  Instead though I was jarred with a giant prang of anxiety as nothing happened, nothing at all.  What was happening?  This was a NEW species for Britain and maybe Europe.  I was in trouble, my ears started to ring, my legs began to buckle and I slipped into unconsciousness. 

Twitching detective Sir Birdlock-Holmes was on site in order to establish the credentials of the Devonshire House Finch.  

I eventually came around after being woken by the song a male Yellowhammer. Upon scanning the stunning coastal scenery I soon realised that I was now at Prawle Point, a short distance from the aforementioned village of the damned.  After a few more ‘hammer’ sightings our attention then turned to a much scarcer member of the Emberizidae family and soon we were enjoying the sights and sounds of a male Cirl Bunting.  A stroll around the coastal footpath produced a further five birds, consisting of another three singing males and a couple of females.  This species suddenly became my aviform equivalent of diamorphine and I quickly became at peace with the World. 

Jules Allen allegedly searching for Cirl Buntings…. eyeing up the up local wooly talent more like!

My views on the House Finch can be found HERE (until some Moderator deletes them) so there is no real need to bore you all again with my opinions….. but rest assured folks this bird will NEVER make it onto my BOU list, even if by some twisted debacle they accept it as a one-off ‘ship-assisted category C foreigner’.

Bowling Green Marsh RSPB, Topsham, Devon

With the GULL-BILLED TERN not being seen since early afternoon, confidence was pretty low as we arrived on site at around 4.00pm. There was no sign of the bird from the hide so we headed down to the platform overlooking the Clyst Estuary.  After a few minutes Jules Allen picked up a Tern species in the distance and upon careful scrutiny the identification was soon clinched, my fourth ever British ‘GBT’.  Other species of note included 25 Little Egret, a single Whimbrel, 70 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Common Greenshank, a ringed 1st summer Mediterranean Gull, a single Sandwich Tern and a pair of Spotted Flycatcher.

 

GULL-BILLED TERN – Clyst Estuary, Devon – July 2010

Not satisfied with the views of the Tern we decided to head around the Estuary and attempt to view the bird from Exton railway station.  It was here that an attempt was made on my life.  As I reached for my scope from the boot of Julian’s car, the vehicle started to roll backwards down the grass bank.  At the same time my foot became stuck in a divot and until Jules cranked on his handbrake my right knee took the full weight of a Peugeot 306!  After a few choice words I grabbed my stuff and headed for the platform with a right leg reminiscent of a mangled Greater Flamingo. I’m still unsure which party to sue, Jules for his dangerous driving or Martyn Yapp for his distracting phone call to Jules.  Where there’s blame, there’s a claim apparently.  The agony I was suffering soon faded after enjoying superb views of the GULL-BILLED TERN feeding around the exposed mud of the low tide.

All in all a pretty good day….. well all except for that grotty American escapee.