[bartooon]

Whilst up in the loft digging out the Christmas decorations, I came across my old notebooks. Aaah - the memories that came flooding back!

The notebook for 1989 reminded me of the highs and lows we birders enjoy (suffer!).

In those days I was a reasonably hardcore twitcher and in February two 1sts for Britain were up for grabs - Golden-winged Warbler in Kent and Double-crested Cormorant in Billingham. At the time, I lived near Chichester so four of us decided to try for the warbler. Leaving home at 5.00am, we were on site at Larkfield at first light where we were joined by a few (thousand, that is!) other birders. After a frustrating couple of hours trying to catch up with the little blighter, a lady beckoned me and another birder into her garden, where we had stunning views of the bird on her rose trellis. My travelling companions were not so fortunate and it was nearly 11.00am by the time we had all seen it well.

Buoyed up by euphoria and optimism, we rather foolishly decided to try for the Double-crested Cormorant too. That was fine in theory, but Billingam is nearly 300 miles north of Kent. Undaunted, we set off at a speed that was probably not quite legal (pinning our hopes on the fact that if we did get pulled over, one of number was a police officer and so might just have a little influence over the situation). We arrive, somewhat exhausted, at about 4.00pm with the light already fading - only to find that the bird had flown off a few minutes earlier when some local yobs had starting taking pot-shots at it! With darkness descending, we had no option but to start the long journey back to the south coast, finally reaching home 18 hours and about 700 miles later.

I still can't make up my mind whether it was a successful day or not. I guess we were just greedy and that the chance to have two firsts for Britain in one day was just too good to miss.

As I said earlier, we all suffer highs and lows, but on 12th February 1989 I experienced one of my best ticks and one of my worst dips all in one day!

Anyone else had a similar experience?

[Collster]

Not the answer you have in mind, but, yes i too have been up the attic getting decorations down ;-)

[Jono L]

I saw both these birds when just 14. The GWW remains the biggest twitch I have attended and one of the best birds I have seen in the UK. The DCC was possibly the dullest looking rarity I have seen (second only to Yank Coot) so you didn't miss much!!The ID of this bird was quite interesting though!

I recently dipped the Murrelet by waiting until the Wednesday to go for it. I was rather gutted. However, I then found a Laughing Gull on my patch four days later, which was a county first, so it rather eradicated the "dipression" I was feeling, and reminded me to work the patch harder and forget that environmentally-damaging trainspotting that is long-distance twitching!!
All the best
Jono Leadley
www.indybirder.com

[scfmerlin]

Hi Bartooon.

I remember both birds well and is it really that long ago??

I was luckier with the DC Cormorant, we drove up the early hours from the west country and apparently on cue at about 8.00 AM it flew in to the small pond , caught a fish and by 8.10 am took off and disappeared for the rest of the day. We then headed back towards home with the intention of a fun packed tour of every bird reserve north of Gloucester. As usual all my passengers fell asleep within minutes of leaving Middlesborough, they were all shocked when the next time they all woke up as we were back at Chew Valley Lake near Bristol, just in time for a lunchtime pint at a local hostelry!

Merlin

Originally Posted by bartooon

Whilst up in the loft digging out the Christmas decorations, I came across my old notebooks. Aaah - the memories that came flooding back!

The notebook for 1989 reminded me of the highs and lows we birders enjoy (suffer!).

In those days I was a reasonably hardcore twitcher and in February two 1sts for Britain were up for grabs - Golden-winged Warbler in Kent and Double-crested Cormorant in Billingham. At the time, I lived near Chichester so four of us decided to try for the warbler. Leaving home at 5.00am, we were on site at Larkfield at first light where we were joined by a few (thousand, that is!) other birders. After a frustrating couple of hours trying to catch up with the little blighter, a lady beckoned me and another birder into her garden, where we had stunning views of the bird on her rose trellis. My travelling companions were not so fortunate and it was nearly 11.00am by the time we had all seen it well.

Buoyed up by euphoria and optimism, we rather foolishly decided to try for the Double-crested Cormorant too. That was fine in theory, but Billingam is nearly 300 miles north of Kent. Undaunted, we set off at a speed that was probably not quite legal (pinning our hopes on the fact that if we did get pulled over, one of number was a police officer and so might just have a little influence over the situation). We arrive, somewhat exhausted, at about 4.00pm with the light already fading - only to find that the bird had flown off a few minutes earlier when some local yobs had starting taking pot-shots at it! With darkness descending, we had no option but to start the long journey back to the south coast, finally reaching home 18 hours and about 700 miles later.

I still can't make up my mind whether it was a successful day or not. I guess we were just greedy and that the chance to have two firsts for Britain in one day was just too good to miss.

As I said earlier, we all suffer highs and lows, but on 12th February 1989 I experienced one of my best ticks and one of my worst dips all in one day!

Anyone else had a similar experience?