That Old Twitching Feeling

I cant actually remember my last tick , thats not to say I don't know what I have seen , its just 2010/2011/2012 all seem to have merged together ! I know I saw Sandhill Crane and White Tailed Plover - I even have photographs of them , but couldn't say what year without looking it up ! What I do know is that I have not seen a LOT of goodies in recent times and I am supposed to be a twitcher ( Didn't See WOW in Hartlepool or White Throated Robin ( Even the FOP saw that one !!! ) , Didnt go for any rare Swifts, Warblers in far flung places , dodgy Thrushes or large pink Finches, all in all , other than going local , my twitching had hit rock bottom ....

SO October 2013 - Many rare and good stuff on Shetland the exact week that we would have been there last year , did nothing to improve my mood , but I vowed that the next biggee that hit the mainland , I would drop sticks and go there and then ...... HERMIT THRUSH - Porthgwarra - Ticked all the boxes on the 29th .... Except that I was busy ;-) SO after dropping the kids off to School on the morning of the 30th , I headed west .... and then more west ..... and finally arrived @ Porthgwarra at 3pm in the afternoon , news had not been the regular on the way down and upon arrival I found that it hadn't been seen since 1pm and that some people had been there since 11am and not yet seen it !! Dire straits ! So I settled in the car Park side of 60ft Cover and waited .... for about 2 minutes , before a tyre squealing behind me indicated that some birder had got stuck in the Car park ! doing the decent thing , i went and helped push him out , getting spattered in the process ! , When I walked back to the crowed , they were all focussed on one bush , the Bloody Thrush had flown in while I was good deeding ! No worries , as the delightful gem of a Cartharus thrush performed excellently for about 15mins before hopping slowly off into the gloom - I even managed some pictures ! yay

Hermit Thrush resting and OML

So under the belt but I didn't fancy getting back in the car after only 30 minutes out of it , so decided to just hang on a little longer rather than try for the White Rumped Sandpiper or Rosy Pastor in Penzance

Big Mistake , about 5 minutes after the bird had hopped off , everyone left except me and 2 guys on the other side were left then 1 guy joined me , he looked a bit like Tony Soper , and I hope it was him ;-) however he had NO bins ..... and just stood silently next to me peering into the gloom .... after about 5 minutes of mute staring , I asked him if he was here to see the Thrush , he replied that he was , and that he had left his "Glasses" on the kitchen table in Birmingham ....... But when he remembered he was too far down the M5  .... 

So I decided to stay and find it for him again so he could see it with my bins ..... 

to cut a long story short as I am getting typers wrist , I refound it 2 hours later in the last rays of daylight , handed my bins to the bloke who saw the shadow and then I got it in the scope so he could see it there also , we shouted to the 10 or so other people on the other side , who were also able to get on it ! Great days , it was now 17:30 and raining and dark - it took me 5 hours to get home .... That was a rubbish drive ;-) but Hermit thrush was my 500th Species in the UK ( if you play by the UK400 set of guidelines ) if you don't , it was 481 BOU - Which is not too shabby ;-) 

Si