Confessions of a Pager Slave! (1 Viewer)

How`s this then for the benefits of Using a Pager:-

Saturday 3rd of May

I was spending the day in East Anglia (I will post a trip report shortlly) and was at Winterton North Dunes watching the Tawny Pipit, all of a Sudden one of my friends shouts up to tell us "Montagu`s Harrier heading this way" he`d received a pager report of a Montagu`s harrier heading south along the coast towards us, it had been seen a few minutes before passing Waxham (just North of us) and heading south round the coast.
We all climbed to the top of one of the dunes and trained our bins and scopes eagerly to the north and out to sea. Sure enough before long a raptor comes distantly into view tracking towards us, following the line of the beach. As it gets closer we are all able to savour excellent views of a female Montagu`s Harrier as it passes directly in front of us and then circles higher up before heading back inland. It was a pleasure to see such a rare and beautiful raptor and we were able to make note of its slimmer wings showing 3 obvious primaries, more falcon like flight and "jizz" and its plumage which is so similar to other female Harriers (except Marsh Harrier of course). It was a fantastic moment and an excellent piece of good fortune to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy such an encounter. Without the pager report we would never have climbed the dunes and looked out to sea at that moment, engrossed as we were in looking at the Wheatears, Pipits and Larks amidst the dunes and the Harrier would have passed behind us and out of sight hidden by the dunes. So our day was definately enhanced by the pager report...where`s the harm in that?

No harm indeed, I actually 'ran out' onto the dunes with you too!

No harm at all it does help with coasting raptors seabirds etc

Absolutely no harm at all, because you didn't have to get in your car and chase off to see it.

Sounds like great fun, though some might say that you should have stayed with the TP. And then same might say you only got the TP through Birdline. You should be off "enjoying" your birds, not twitching/listing/call it what you will.
But if you need a new pager, Peter Hayes is your man

Yes - sounds reasonable to me - don't use one myself, and haven't got a car anyway. Each to their own as far as I'm concerned.

Only thing that crosses my mind is that even with a pager surely it's still 99% sheer luck to be in the right part of the country when the alert comes through ?? - as you said '' good fortune to be in the right place at the right time''

Is it not equally possible that one of the Pipits or Larks could have flown in the required direction and given you the lead to the Harrier ? thus rendering said pager redundant ?

Perhaps at this point I should say I'm aware there have been 1 or 2 'caustic' comments on this subject and I'm not in away way trying to get into that. Just my thoughts.

Would be very interested to see your East Anglia trip report Jason