9th November. Seals and some ranting!

The Seals at Donna Nook are an annual event in my calendar so having planned this trip over a week ago the added bonus of a couple of decent 'rares' made it more the worthwhile.
Not wanting to push my luck too much I decided to do the seals first (not in the biblical sense of course). As is the norm there was lots of "ooh"ing and "aah"ing at the baby seals. There were a few birds namely 4 Snow Buntings and a House Martin, flying around with a large flock of Starlings and a couple of skeins of Pink-feet.





First birding stop was the female Desert Wheatear at nearby Saltfleet Haven. Not the most obliging Desert Wheatear that I've ever seen but it did eventually come close enough for some record shots.
Now for a rant with some minor swearing

It's a long while since there's been a twitchable Steppe Grey Shrike in Britain, so a very obliging individual near Grainthorpe would have been tempting even without the seals. It sounded flawless, walk around a mile and half and the bird would be showing very well. There was even the 'view from a sensible distance' message on the pager. So after a slog across the floodbank we arrived where the bird had been showing well. Unfortunately my arrival coincided with the outing of the mentally challenged f**kwits annual birding trip. To me 'keep at a sensible distance' means don't chase the little bastard around all afternoon pissing off everyone else present. Which is why I only got this record shot.


Anyone who has decent frame filling images was definitely not keeping at a sensible distance. Apart from the flushing behaviour several birders thought nothing wrong with standing on the farmers kale crop, despite the path being wide enough to get a bus down. Bad behaviour at a bird really pisses me off it is an all too common occurrence these days, with larger than ever numbers of birders behaving like selfish morons. After a while I got pissed off with the flushing tactics but more so the blatant ignorant twats trampling on the crops. A suggestion (ok it was a little patronising) to a group crop tramplers that it might not be the best of ideas to walk all over the crops was met with a torrent of abuse particularly from a talentless fat bastard in a Manure FC hat. Well fatty I got a photo of you and your mates for my name and shame gallery below.

Image removed. Copies available on request!


Another Wanker

This also includes a photographer wandering around amiously who later had the shrike at his feet along with Lincolnshire's long standing flusher who despite agreeing with me re the crops wandered straight in to them oblivious to my dropped jaw. By now I'd had enough and decided to head back. Things picked up on the way back, a figure running towards us like the bionic man turned out to be LGRE on a year listing mission complete with his hangers on. This amused Jo and Beth as neither had ever met the 'legend' in the flesh confirming that he truly is not all there. However I'd rather have a bus load of Lee clones than the pricks I had to tolerate earlier!!

Edit

I was probably a little unfair in stating that all frame filling images were a result of getting too close. This bird does come close, but during my visit it was pushed right down the lane and would I'm sure have come close if people had stopped charging at it.



13 comments:

Jeff Higgott said...

Good points well made. A fully justified rant.

Martyn Yapp said...

Here here,

Although the photographers were ok whilst I was at the Shrike, the small crowd had to keep running a few yards to keep up with bird, instead of staying put. This involved them all walking across my line of sight, a lot of the time.



We also had problems at the Wheatear, the usual forward positioned photographers (no problem with that) and the long line of general birder at the rear. Some newly arriving birders (use that term lightly) felt the need to walk passed the line of general birdes and tack onto the left hand side of the photographers, thus blocking my view.

It was also nice to see, most people walking at pace towards the Shrike and not looking at anything else. I saw the possible Artic Redpoll here today. Is so good to see twitch infested people totally walk past them. Although thinking about it, there wasn't anybody there to tell them what they were anyway.

Anonymous said...

wearing a manure fc hat is enough to warrant a flogging in my book never mind the shitty behaviour.

Unknown said...

I was there on Saturday when the green tide broke. In fairness, it was not the photographers who started it, but they were the first to start heading off into the crops. The inevitable problem was that, with a timid bird on a linear hedge, it was just going to get further away each time people walked (or ran) towards it. Who said fieldcraft is dead...

Dave Barnes said...

Knobheads. Well done for posting their ugly mushes. I retired from twitching in 1990 or 91 because of exactly this behaviour at an American Bittern in Lancs.

One would think they could get what one can only assume is mastabatory material by taking up train spotting where they can get their tix and pix as close up as they like. Of course being manure fans means that going to see a football match on a weekend is a thought that wouldnt of crossed their minds.
Hey but leave of the mass balance challenged of us folks!

The Drunkbirder said...

Weny today and the birds both came to us! See my blog at The Drunkbirders.

Jim Wilson said...

It might be little consolation but always remember - There is no point in being stupid (or replace with any term that suits)if you don't show it!

Fully agree with your comments, it's the main reason I gave up twitching a long time ago.

Mark said...

Good to have had so many positive comments regarding this, the only negative was on turd forum, but that's to be expected.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Harrison Ford said...

Folk seem to get caught up in the mob when there is an active bird. I basically gave up with twitching with the Tresco Hermit Thrush in '93, elements of the crowd repeatedly ran straight at the bird when it appeared from cover, scaring it back. Everyone could have enjoyed good scope views in good light, but no, the poor fucker couldn't safely emerge until dusk when the crowd had largely dispersed back to Marys.

I'm, however, wary of name and shaming coz I've seen some folk I know are normally right thinking acting like tits in these situations...

palbirder said...

Thanks for having the balls to name and shame these tossers. I have lost interest in twitching due to this kind of behaviour. This could easily lead to suppression at all but the most public of sites...and who could blame them? I can hear the screams from the ignorant twats now (Most of them couldn`t find a rarity if it landed on the end of their bins)

Mark said...

I Understand what you mean T Rex,much like the normally sane people that go out for a skinful on a Friday night and turn into monster by around 11pm. It still doesn't make it right though.

Colin said...

Absolutely brilliant blog, and I am with you all the way. A bit of "earthy" language is needed here (fuck the etiquette and political correctness!!)and photographing the fat bastards (re: shrike twitch) and publishing the photos is a great idea.

Keep it up,

Colin Key

Eagleseagles said...

Oh dear, missed all the excitement. Well the birders behaving badly stuff.
I was in South Africa birding/safari.
I missed the photo of the fat t***.
I bet I know of him! There was one like that at another couple of twitches this year!Maybe its him or his brother?
Thankfully I was able to see the Shrike on a quieter day on my return.
BF appears to be full of similar comments.....what ever happened to Fieldcraft?

Corinna