The subject of twitching crops up right here extra regularly than I really feel snug admitting given my statements in an earlier put up that I’m not the most important twitcher. On a Thursday night after work, I obtained the message from a buddy {that a} Northern Mockingbird turned up close to Bonn. That is an absolute mega rarity, being the primary report for Germany and solely the fifth for the West Palearctic. So clearly, it will be vital to get there as quickly as doable for the very best probability of seeing this beast!
A brief heads-up right here although, this isn’t a type of dramatic twitching tales all of us love to listen to from seasoned birders. The next day, I left for a week-long trip instantly after work, and I had a number of conferences through the day that I couldn’t miss. I realised that you would be able to solely establish your private twitching boundaries once you’re compelled to decide on…
Coming back from my trip, the fowl was fortuitously nonetheless there and this time I went out to the spot proper after work. After I bought there, it was odd to assume that this place was teeming with twitchers all through the final week, whereas superficially showing not out of the unusual in any respect: the fowl frequents a row of apple timber in an space of farmland. A number of folks have been strolling their canines or biking previous the place, asking us whether or not this thrush-like fowl was nonetheless there (owing to the German identify for Mockingbird being “Spottdrossel”, which interprets to “mocking thrush”). This occasion was picked up numerous native papers and there was in all probability (and considerably understandably) a number of head-shaking amongst non-birders.
As a result of it was late September, it was already fairly darkish and a chilly wind was making the wait even much less bearable. It was additionally the primary time I went birding in my workplace garments – though this did contribute to a extra ‘twitchy’ vibe. After a wait of round half an hour, a fowl someplace between a flycatcher and a thrush popped out on a really distant however uncovered department – it was instantly apparent that this was the silhouette of the Northern Mockingbird. I bought scope views for just a few seconds earlier than a big flock of starlings made it scramble again down into the dense tangles, by no means to be seen once more by me (at the very least for the night, it was nonetheless there on the time of writing, every week later).
Luckily, the fowl stayed put, which allowed me to pay one other go to on a sunny day. I ended up with intensive close-up views and even listening to quick phrases of its music. The tameness of the mockingbird was – other than the plain enchantment – additionally fairly shocking, and raises the suspicion whether or not it is a real vagrant or an escapee. The gap from the West European coast, the place this fowl would’ve arrived, can be odd – why would it not fly so removed from the place it reached land, simply to finish up for weeks in a boring row of apple timber? True, vagrants do bizarre issues, however this appears to be bizarre certainly.
This was unquestionably the rarest vagrant I’ve ever twitched – it it’s a vagrant, that’s. Regardless, I merely loved the bizarre sighting of a fowl utterly completely different than what I’ve seen earlier than.
