The subject of twitching crops up right here extra ceaselessly 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 might be essential to get there as quickly as potential for one of the best likelihood 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 throughout the day that I couldn’t miss. I realised that you could solely determine your private twitching boundaries once you’re pressured to decide on…
Coming back from my trip, the chook was happily nonetheless there and this time I went out to the spot proper after work. After I received there, it was odd to suppose that this place was teeming with twitchers all through the final week, whereas superficially showing not out of the peculiar in any respect: the chook frequents a row of apple timber in an space of farmland. A number of individuals have been strolling their canine or biking previous the place, asking us whether or not this thrush-like chook was nonetheless there (owing to the German identify for Mockingbird being “Spottdrossel”, which interprets to “mocking thrush”). This occasion was picked up varied native papers and there was in all probability (and considerably understandably) quite a lot 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 chook 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 received scope views for a number of 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 (not less than for the night, it was nonetheless there on the time of writing, per week later).
Fortuitously, the chook 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 brief phrases of its tune. The tameness of the mockingbird was – other than the apparent attraction – additionally fairly stunning, and raises the suspicion whether or not this can be a real vagrant or an escapee. The gap from the West European coast, the place this chook would’ve arrived, can also 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 weird sighting of a chook fully totally different than what I’ve seen earlier than.
Autor Luca
