Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy

Before you think I’ve gone all Sooty and Sweep here’s actually another blog about birds… I know, amazing! This time a celebration of all things Isabelline Wheatear from Seaton Snook near Hartlepool. Isabelline Wheatear is one of my bogey birds, a few years back I even dipped two in six days so this time I wasn’t going without news. Andrew Kinghorn kindly messaged me early morning with Colin Green, Steve James and Dave Gray also texting and The Rare Bird Network getting twitter messages out.

Bundling Minnie into the car I headed North. I arrived about 11.00 to smiling faces heading off the beach… on the beach however the news wasn’t so good. The bird had been pushed a lot and had flown off and not seen for 30 minutes. 30 minutes turned into an hour with no sign. I walked to the Snook and almost to The North Gare. No joy.

Seaton Sands

It looked like atmospheric landscapes and industry would be the only photos I took.

I decided to head back to the car, give Minnie some food and water and have a quick drink myself. On the way I bumped into Rob Lambert, newly arrived and looking chirpy. Rob’s demeanor changed as I told him the sorry tale. Undaunted he strode off purposefully to the beach.

Back at the car another birder was heading down the road and as I updated him he casually said there’s a Wheatear on that telegraph post (next to the bloody car). There weren’t any other Wheatears around, surely. I got my bins on it and asked him, why he hadn’t considered Izzy… this was it! As I set my scope up it flew the 100 or so yards back to the beach! Isabelline Wheatear! I rang Rob and left and answerphone message to then receive calls from Andrew Kinghorn and Rob to tell me what I already knew. It was back on the beach.

Once again there was a danger of birders chasing and harrying the bird so after we’d all had a good look and it had moved, I suggested to the crowd we all back off and allow it to return to it’s favoured tree stump where we could all get great views and photos. Despite one woman having to be coaxed off the log after stopping for a sit down the bird soon flew in.

Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)

Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)

Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)

Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)

Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)

Even Minnie managed to get in on the act and made it to Twitter!

Minnie & Me

Anxious Mother Faces Eviction After Son Caught Twitching

by a Drunkbirder reporter

A mother faces eviction tonight after her son was found guilty of twitching in Hartlepool in June. Tina Bellend (47) a single mother of 15 is likely to lose her home after her son Tim Bellend was filmed stealing a look at a White-throated Robin in Hartlepool.

Tina Bellend

Tina who does not wish to be named spoke to The Drunkbirder today. To protect her identity her voice has been disguised. ‘I’m at my wits end’ she said ‘Eton Borough Council have served me with an eviction notice.’ Tina went on to explain that her son, a manic twitcher suffers from a mental illness and that the whole family were being punished for his crime. ‘I just don’t know what we’ll do’ said the mother of three ‘we haven’t got a pot to piss in.’ Miss Bellend has five other children all under the age of 16. ‘Why should my 12 other kids suffer?’ she said.

The leader of the Conservative run council, Gervaise Brook-Hamster, said ‘the rules of her tenancy were quite clear about her responsibilities.’

Gervaise Brook-Hamster

Mr Brook-Hamster felt that losing her home was enough of a punishment, ‘we could have had her tied to a railway line’ he said.

Nigel Incubator-Jones, Lib Dem opposition leader at Eton Borough Council felt the eviction was counterproductive. ‘The council will end up footing the bill for Miss Bellend to be placed in temporary accomodation such as a shoe. All this will end up being passed on to the Tax-payers.’

Tim Bellend was unavailable to comment as he was seawatching in Ireland, The Drunkbirder understands. The leader of the British Birdspotters Club who did not wish to be named, said he had a datebase containing evidence that Hartlepool was not the first time Tim had been involved in twitching. ‘He’s been for loads of birds and I’ve personally verified this by phoning him at twitches. Tim’s seen lots of birds but once I heard he’d been caught I had to remove him from the 2011 year-listing rankings and question all his sightings.’

It is thought that Tim was caught after his year-list total was posted on Bobu and his sister Tanesha-marie Chlamydia Bellend saw him up a ladder on the news. ‘I knew something was wrong’ she told our reporter ‘as he were due to sign-on that day and then he had a job shifting some hooky TVs for Del Trotter, innit?’

Cameron To Crack Down On Social Media After Twitching Mayhem

Following yesterdays release by Turkish Avian Scientist, Taş Bülbülü, of footage of a mass twitch in Hartlepool for a White-throated Robin the Prime Minister is planning a crackdown on twitchers using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to spread news of rare birds. Fearing copy-cat twitches like the horrific scenes in Hartlepool in June where passing van drivers were dragged from their cabs whilst their vans were driven in to walls so that twitchers, with no regards for the welfare of birds, could get a vantage point to look into a Drs garden.

Mass twitches have occurred since near Aberdeen where a rare boring seaduck was spotted amongst a raft of other boring seaduck off the sleepy coastal village of Black Dog.

Other forms of bird information are also threatened with being blocked following the arrival of a rare bird. Recent events in Cornwall and on Blakeney Point where difficult to identify Empidonax Flycatcher from North America landed have caused civil unrest on internet forums with threats of violence ranging from physical assaults to being unfriended on Facebook have occurred. Mr Cameron said he would give the BBA’s new ‘Judge, Jury and Executioner’ Mr CP3O powers to track down these errant twitchers and ‘close down’ the websites at times of peak rarity hunting activity.

David Cameron and new birding Tsar Mr CP3O

‘Twitching is at a crossroads’ said Mr CP3O yesterday. ‘We cannot have a situation whereby strategic sites such as landfills are out of bounds to decent law-abiding bin men.’ It is thought that this relates to a spate of disturbances earlier in the year where 1000s of disgusting larophiles were seen almost daily outside landfill sites in London and Essex looking for a Slaty-backed Gull. Parliament is expected to rush these powers through early next week to help stop the flood of twitchers criticising rarity hunters on Shetland via internet forums this year for having the balls to call a rare bird that then turns out to be common but ‘instructive.’ ‘This kind of behaviour must be stopped’ said Mr CP3O before adding ‘decent rarity hunters will be driven out of birding or stop ringing in news other than within their own grapevines… the consequences of this would cause panic amongst the more manic of twitchers. No one needs that nightmare situation.’

Bird Discovers Twitching Frenzy Off Hartlepool Headland

An Avian Scientist based at Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi in Turkey has witnessed a remarkable twitching frenzy just inland of Hartlepool. Taş Bülbülü who was on a secondment with Teesside University was studying a pair of ringers in June 2011 on Hartlepool Headland when news of a rare bird was released. A while later whilst relaxing by the bowling greens he witnessed the first twitchers to arrive on the scene.

Speaking to The Drunkbirder through a translator Irania gutturalis, Taş said I looked around and a few birders had suddenly appeared and were staring right at me. In Turkey this is considered rude so I moved into cover to avoid their gaze.

Courtesy Alan Tilmouth

Taş later flew to a nearby garden where he thought he would be safe from prying eyes and this was when this remarkable spectacle was witnessed. Fellow avian scientist E. Blackbird said we heard a bit of a commotion coming from behind a wall, it sounded like an off-shore feeding frenzy off Gannets and Manx Shearwaters but the noise grew. It was when we saw the tops ladders being placed against the wall that we knew we were witnessing something no bird had seen before. It wasn’t long before twitchers heads started to appear over the wall.

Twitchers in Hartlepool

C. Dove a resident of Hartlepool realised that a once in a lifetime twitching event was taking place and in this footage released for the first time today we can see this twitching frenzy. It was amazing said Mr Dove, twitchers were high-jacking vans and using them to twitch from. The amount of twitching going on was unprecedented said a spokesman for the IQ40 club.

Mr Dove said that the local and national media were soon on the scene to witness this kind of behaviour for the first time in avian history. I doubt we’ll ever see the likes of this until a Siberian Blue Robin is seconded to Teesside.

The project which is run by Teesside University department of Applied Birding has funding for 3 years from The BBA to look at twitchers and twitching patterns in the UK. So far researchers have proved that there are definite peaks in twitching behaviour across the UK, which includes Ireland in Spring and Autumn. There is also a split in birders behaviour whereby a dwindling number of birders are going out finding ‘rares’ whilst a growing number of birders are using information services to twitch these birds with often disasterous results. Wynne Russell of the BBA said ‘it appears birding is going to hell in a hand cart!’

This project has nothing to do with SeaWatch SW run by Russell Wynne that is doing sterling work studying seabirds off Lands End in Cornwall.

White-throated Robin HD Video

Toby Collett took some superb HD video of the White-throated Robin today.

Desert Storms It

Check out this BBC clip to see Desert Storm arriving at the White-throated Robin twitch. He’s followed by his faithful companion Tony ‘German’ Shepherd. Also starring is superstar SKA DJ Dave Mack who journeyed up high on Cinder Toffee and Coconut Ice off Donny Market.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-13676339

Dave Mack said later he needed to score some Brandy Snaps off a dealer on Hartlepool’s ‘Historic’ Quay to help him come down from the Ice.

Tarts Post

I can’t believe all the blog posts now about the White-throated Robin. It was a tarts post when I blogged. All blog posts are now utterly devalued now the bird has stayed for four days.

Move on!

Ouch!

With little chance of the White-throated Robin staying long enough for me to even consider going I’ll have to gaze enviously at this bit of video…

What?

A message this morning on Birdguides gave me cause to think “fuck, I’d still like to find one” and that was only when the message was about a Red-flanked Bluetail trapped on Hartlepool Headland.

How elated must the finder have been when they realised their mistake? Not a Bluetail but a White-throated Robin. You jammy fucker! Your sense of elation is matched by my sense of utter despair as I’m stuck at work with no real chance of going this week… unless someone wants to drive me there this evening.