In 2008 I had not really started this twitching lark. My first ring ouzel, red-necked grebe and wood sandpiper were all in Spring that year. So a very rare sparrow in Norfolk in January/ February unfortunately passed me by. In the intervening 15 years there have been a handful of records but not a real twitchable bird. So, when news broke of a white-crowned sparrow in Sussex I was very interested. The news wasn't great though. It was incredibly elusive, hiding in thick scrub. Word came out of people spending 10 hours or more for incredibly poor or no views. I was even in Sussex on Monday and Tuesday but didn't have the time to spend hours staring at a bush. Finally though, on Tuesday, it succumbed to the copious amounts of bird seeds spread over the area it was in and started to show well. My first opportunity to go was on Friday so the alarm was set for 4.30 and by just before 7 I was pulling into a rather wet and bleak car park on the Sussex downs. There were 4 or 5 other cars disgorging birders and we set off on the short walk through the scrubby woodland to the designated viewing area.
There was a short ride through the bushes at the end of which was an area liberally strewn with bird food. I guess 15 people were pointing lenses and 'scopes at it. It quickly became clear that the funnel-effect created by the ride meant viewing would be tricky as only a small area of open ground was on view. It had been made clear the day before that under no circumstance should you go any further as the bird was still very nervous and would disappear for long periods!
Anyway, I only had to wait 5 minutes before a bloke on my left had it in view. From my angle I couldn't see it so I relocated to the left-end of the line and there it was, sitting in a tree! As the song (almost) goes "15 years of hurt" got back.
It flew off before I could get a photo but it only took 10 minutes for it to return and this time to be in view for me. As you can see, it was still 30 yards or so away and partly obscured.
Cropping in you get to see it in all its majesty. Although it's "just" a dull grey sparrow from the neck down, its head is stunning. The black-and-white stripes set off by that orange bill made it visible to the naked eye even at that distance. It should be n America, where I have seen many of them, General consensus of opinion is that given the closeness to the coast this probably hitched a ride on a passing ship to get across the Atlantic! We will, of course, never know.
Quite quickly a pattern of behaviour became established. It always flew in from our right, settled on the brambles, flew to this moss covered tree and then flopped down to feed on the seed on the ground.
Unfortunately it seemed to spend most of its time feeding out of sight for anyone in the line. Only occasionally did it walk to the left and become visible to us.
Most of the time the views were more like these ones as the low-growing plants gave it great natural cover.
Still, the fact we had established its pattern meant we now had become experts at spotting it when it returned and describing where it was - the mossy tree, the curvy bramble, the bramble patch all became part of our lexicon. You just had to wait for it to settle in view for wherever you were and hope!
As the morning went on, people came and went and the crowd grew to around 30 or more. With the weather not improving I called it a day about 11 and headed back for coffee.
A really good day. My first lifer of the year and not one I would have predicted. Takes me to 407BOU and hopefully more to come over the next few months.
