This is a rather late posting to update the past month's sightings and sketches... so there's more to come as I can't post it all tonight. Well, what an utterly maddening and frustrating month October has been, particularly the first two weeks, and not much let up since. Just so many mouthwateringly incredible birds turning up all so far away and for such brief periods that hardly any birders have managed to see any of them unless they just happened to be there at the time they were found. I'm talking about the Magnolia Warbler on Fair Isle and then the Eastern Kingbird on Inishmor for starters. What a pointless activity twitching rare birds can be - I've spent most of this time getting wound up about whnting to see some of these mega rarities, but all to no avail.
Twitching... you just can't win.
Every October there's always such build up and expectation, and in some years goes beyond our wildest dreams (e.g. 1999 and 2011), wheras in other like 2012 it can be a lot of frustration, stress and disappointment.
I always remember a certain well-known birder/tour-leader saying 'work, in October? Me? Ooh, I couldn't do that, it's my favourite month!' Such a classic quote that sums up the excitement and buzz of the month of October that only a birder could say! There's just something about this month; seeing migrants on their way, the subtle change in the seasons, the falling leaves, the colours in the sky and seeing a rarity in this atmosphere is just the icing on the cake, it just sums up the magic that is October.
I've also spent huge amounts of time glued to my PC scrutinising the synoptic charts on meto.gov.uk and on magic seaweed attempting to predict what might turn up. Again this has proved frustrating; you need to be in more than one place at any one time! Wherever you choose there'll be something better somewhere else! If it's just going to be a wind-up, I may as well not bother, just chill, make a plan and go with it.
So I eventually caved in and decided to go to Scilly and see what happens. Before I went though, I made another trip to North Norfolk, seeing a minor movement of Jays, and finding an Osprey which appeared to have come in off the North Sea. It circled a few times then carried on south until lost to view. I didn't do much artwork that day, but MUCH MORE TO COME...
Twitching... you just can't win.
Every October there's always such build up and expectation, and in some years goes beyond our wildest dreams (e.g. 1999 and 2011), wheras in other like 2012 it can be a lot of frustration, stress and disappointment.
I always remember a certain well-known birder/tour-leader saying 'work, in October? Me? Ooh, I couldn't do that, it's my favourite month!' Such a classic quote that sums up the excitement and buzz of the month of October that only a birder could say! There's just something about this month; seeing migrants on their way, the subtle change in the seasons, the falling leaves, the colours in the sky and seeing a rarity in this atmosphere is just the icing on the cake, it just sums up the magic that is October.
I've also spent huge amounts of time glued to my PC scrutinising the synoptic charts on meto.gov.uk and on magic seaweed attempting to predict what might turn up. Again this has proved frustrating; you need to be in more than one place at any one time! Wherever you choose there'll be something better somewhere else! If it's just going to be a wind-up, I may as well not bother, just chill, make a plan and go with it.
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