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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Perry Smale" data-source="post: 1599152" data-attributes="member: 14674">I'm with Matt on this I'm afraid. I saw no locked gates, no irate farmers and no policemen wearing hi-viz jackets, all things I have noticed before at twitches for extreme vagrants. What I did see was the majority of those present in the field accessed by the gate secured by a piece of blue twine, a field which consisted of nothing more than rough grassland, ie no crops or livestock. The problem which exists on Scilly, whereby nematode worms can be introduced to grass on footwear and then to cattle or whatever, does not, as far as I am aware, exist on the mainland, presumably because the organisms are already indigenous here. Further to the point, unless damage is being done to property, I believe (but stand to be corrected) that no law of trespass technically exists.The people I saw at the site were, in the main, long-standing members of the Cornish or Devonian birding community, some being very well-known characters and some excellent birders (some of which I know quite well), but at no time did anyone make any noises to the effect that birders should leave the fields. In conclusion, no-one, myself included, was of the opinion that any wrong was being done. I mean, for Chr***'s sake, if it was private land, not only could the farmer not be bothered to lock the gate, he/she hadn't even erected a sign saying "Private"!Oh yeah, incidentally I didn't see the bird so its id, for me at the moment, is academic, but from the photos it looks more like Brown Shrike than anything else. I've only seen spring ones at Beidaihe in China, though, so wouldn't commit myself on a definite id for a bird in an unfamiliar plumage.Let's see what happens if it stays though. An interesting situation echoing what happened on Scilly last year regarding id!</blockquote>

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