Birding Ethics

Today's blip has caused a bit of a log-jam, it's taken me four days to work out what I wanted to blip about an excellent birding day where I saw three new lifers and added four new birds to the year list and yet I have a feeling of unease about parts of the day. I'm afraid this'll turn into a bit of a ramble so save yourself the heartache and go straight to comments - "How interesting", would be appropriate.

Have done a lot of mileage chasing birds over the last few days. Mrs L had left me to it yesterday, but when I got home from Lowestoft she greeted me with the news that there was a Red-flanked Bluetail just down the coast at Minsmere my first thought was "a what?", closely followed by "I can't do that journey again" and then consoled myself with "it'll probably be gone by the morning".

Well at 7:49 in the morning it was reported as being there. I was still not certain I wanted to do that journey again, but went upstairs to tell Mrs L. "Suppose you want me to get up then" she says, so it looks like we're off to the Suffolk coast (again).

Probably arrived at around 11:00 and made our way to the Sluice Bushes where it was lurking. Can't say we were exactly meandering along the path - you never know when a bird might depart - but it paints a picture if I mention that en-route we were overtaken by few birders, one at least who looked like he had blood pressure issues.

Anyway on arrival we entered the Sluice Bushes where the advice was "stand around quietly and he'll eventually make a circuit". Well we stood round quietly and at 12:00 the group to our left started pointing and the bird moved through the bushes around them, then moved into the bushes around us and then moved on, encouraged by a Robin who's patch he was obviously on. I must say the behaviour of the birders was impeccable no rushing around trying to get better views, just standing, pointing and watching.

I went through the photos I'd got and was disappointed to see they were all seriously underexposed although on getting home and after a bit of tweaking it was one of this set that RCB used to blip his Red-flanked Bluetail. We decided to hang around for another circuit to try and get a better shot, plus there were at least a couple of Goldcrests that were giving great views that I also wished to capture. At 12:35 we were treated to another circuit and this time the camera settings were better, although as you can see from the above picture my line of sight wasn't entirely clear, but today's objective had been achieved.

We headed back to the visitor centre and had lunch in the cafe. We were only 15 miles from Lowestoft so I suggested I take Mrs L to see the Woodchat Shrike that I saw yesterday.

Mrs L then overheard talk about a Long-eared Owl and as we were exiting the centre there on the notice board was a sighting of a Long-eared Owl, allegedly in the bushes 200m beyond the Sluice Bushes. It's a long walk back there and I've looked for Long-eared Owls in bushes before and failed. We chatted to the wardens who encouraged us to go, although they didn't know if it was still there or indeed how visible it was. In the end Mrs L decided to sit in the car while I went to look for it.

On a couple of occasions I started to turn back thinking this is silly, it won't still be there, but then I got there and a group of half a dozen birders were watching this Long-eared Owl sitting on top of a bush giving excellent views. I fired off a few shots (well maybe a hundred) and then rushed back to the car to let Mrs L know that she'd made the wrong decision and encourage her to come and see it. So an hour later there we were, both watching the Long-eared Owl, our second lifer for the day.

Time was getting on, but still enough time to get to Lowestoft to get Mrs L her Woodchat Shrike - then we got a phone call - There's an Isabelline Shrike at Dunwich Heath.

So although it's maybe just under a mile to get to Dunwich as the Shrike flys it's a five mile car journey and with no obvious signs of birders en-route we ended up in the NT car park and were pointed in the direction of a likely looking group maybe half a mile away.

As we arrived there wasn't much activity in the perhaps fifty birders, seemingly the bird had been showing well, but quarter of an hour ago it had gone into a bush and not been seen since, given that time was getting on, it'd probably gone to roost. Hey ho, it'd been an excellent day, two new lifers and our first Goldcrest of the year. There were a couple of birders at the far side of the bush and they started approaching the bush. Initially I thought they were just trying to get a view, but then I realised they were attempting to flush the bird. Now that is just wrong, actually I mean WRONG, but then, there was the bird flying to a bush on the right. I suppose if I'd wanted to take the high moral ground I could have walked away, but I didn't. We repositioned ourselves to attempt to get a view, but I failed and as I found out later so did Mrs L.

The bird was then again in flight and flew round behind us, I couldn't see where it had gone, but following the herd soon got me some good views of it and soon some reasonable photos. I looked round for Mrs L to ensure she'd seen the bird, but she was nowhere to be seen. The bird then flew on again and this time after such excellent views the herd started to disperse, and there was Mrs L, right at the front! She's not normally a pushy lady, but having been at the back of the first herd, she ended up at the front of the second herd, having been able to follow the bird's flight. It was interesting hearing her account, where she stopped quite far away from the bird to ensure it wasn't spooked again and being in the lead, the herd all stopped too, probably why we all got such good, extended views - well done Mrs L.

So there we are three new lifers and four for the year list, a worry over our carbon footprint, excellent experiences in the Sluice Bushes and watching the Long-eared Owl and an uncomfortable experience at Dunwich Heath. We never got to Lowestoft to get Mrs L's Woodchat Shrike, but it's interesting reading Ms Gable's Blip of today. She was in Lowestoft, but later got involved in an even worse twitching experience.