After the fun of the owl fest at Portland, today was the big day - the grey catbird at Lands End. This would probably be my longest twitch yet and I'd been metaphorically twitching to get to it for a few days. It is a real mega rarity. Only one UK bird before, in Anglesey, many years ago and that was not seen by many. This one popped up in a field near Sennen last week and caused a major twitch. It even got onto the national news with hundreds going on the first few day and over 4,000 by now. It should be in the USA and is only a short-distance migrant over there hence why it is so rare over here. Over the last week I had been seeing loads of social media posts from people going to it and posting some truly gripping photos. Finally I had a window of opportunity and so it had to be done. Of course, leaving it this late always has a risk. These waifs and strays will not stay for ever and there is no guarantee that a long drive will result in seeing the bird. Still, it was there the day before, feeding happily, so I had a very early night in Weymouth and was in the car just after 4 to head to the tip of Cornwall.
At least at that time of day the traffic was light and I got to the designated car park just after 7 with dawn only just faintly breaking. The landowner had opened up a field to park in and I was the third car in. I parked up next to one of them and said hello to the man sorting himself out. I discovered he had actually slept in the car overnight, so I offered him a coffee! Has name was Nick and very soon we were joined by the other overnight stayer, a local birder called Steve. This was very useful as he immediately gave us all the gen on where exactly to see the bird. It normally roosted in a patch of brambles in the corner of the field and that was where best to see it first thing.
The patch is behind the telegraph pole and we walked the short distance to it and scanned around. Lots of corvids, mainly jackdaws, were already up and about and a few smaller birds were waking up. As the crowd grew and the light came up there was no sign of the bird though. Steve confirmed it had been a late riser recently but as the clock passed from 8 to 8.15 to 8.30 we started to get worried. What if it had moved on or died overnight. It had never failed to be seen by 8.30 before and it was now 8.45. The crowd, now about 15 strong started to check other areas. There was no way it was in that bush. Nick had moved along the field as there were other viewing areas and we could see a small group on the other side of the hedge staking out its favourite feeding area. They were chatting and clearly not on it either.
Suddenly a call went up from behind me "its showing". Cue everyone gathering up gear and running the short distance to where one man was staring at a bush. There it was, sitting proud on a bramble as if it had no care in the world and didn't worry about the chaos ensuing around it. I got a good view though my bins before it dropped back down into the thicket. Nick came running up just too late and missed it though.
You could see the people on the other side were photographing it so most of us yomped the few hundred yards to get round to there. Within only a few minutes it popped back up onto a bush and stayed there for a minute or so allowing most of us, including Nick, to grab good views and shots of it.
It looks superficially like a blackcap - a dull grey bird with a very dark cap. It is much larger though, almost the size of a blackbird. It also has a really red area under its tail. In the sun the grey shone beautifully as it posed for us. It was just unfortunate that there is a bloody big twig right in front of it which is beyond my skills to clone out (and believe me I have tried!).
The reason it has been so site loyal is the food it is finding there - lots of juicy berries which it was wolfing down.
Over the next three hours we then played a game of hide and seek with it.
The cover was very thick and it spent most of the time out of view. You would then hear its call coming from deep in the bushes. Normally this meant it was about to either show or to move location. The reason it is called a catbird is that the call supposedly sounds like a cat. If you listed to one of the calls on the link below you can make your own mind up, but speaking as the owner of cats, you need to have a big stretch of your imagination to make it into a cat call!!!!
Click here for cat bird call
Often the views you got of it were, how shall we say, fleeting as it peered out from behind the branches.
Other times it did sit out but it rarely stayed on view for more than few seconds. This meant you had to be lucky with where you were standing as it could appear anywhere!!
Finally by about 11 I realised I still had 300 miles to drive back so I left it to its berries. A really successful and enjoyable day .THe bird was there and behaving well, there was a really good and sociable crowd, the weather was kind and even the traffic on the way back wasn't too bad! Winds are set for easterlies at the weekend so we may get wither Mary Poppins or some nice siberian warblers. I know which I'm hoping for!!!
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