TWITCHING
So, you’ve learned to know your regular local birds well, but what can you expect from your first twitch? Hep Cairnswood explains…
In October 2020, just six days before I married my wife Abi in the middle of the Covid pandemic, we decided to twitch our very first bird. Four days beforehand, a Hoopoe had appeared on a cricket pitch in Collingham, West Yorkshire. My Twitter feed had been full of wonderful photos of the bird happily feeding its way across the grass, wandering the pavements, and picking through the moss looking for bugs on driveways. It didn’t take long for it to become a local celebrity, making its way on to the news. Consequently, instead of spending another weekend dealing with general Covid anxiety, or worrying about whether or not our wedding would go ahead due to the restrictions, we decided to head out for our first twitch.
For me, the worst thing about a twitch is the journey there. No matter how long or short the drive, I find it mentally draining. It’s a vulnerable thing to do, to put yourself out there and commit to ‘going for it’, knowing that the trip might turn out to be a disaster, or it might end up being the best day.
We didn’t have a long drive to the Hoopoe, but still, I was all nerves. In the car, I felt optimistic for a few miles, but then I’d somehow convince myself that there’s no way we’d manage to see the bird. I’ve since realised that there’s a lot of luck involved that can’t be influenced, and no amount of optimism, pessimism, or thoughts like “it won’t be there because I’m going” will make a difference. If we see it, we see it. That doesn’t stop the anticipation and hoping, though.
When we arrived, our hearts immediately dropped. The field where the Hoopoe had been quite reliably filmed and photographed wandering around for most of its time in Yorkshire, catching bugs and causing a stir, was now hosting a football match.
Straight away, I told myself that this was it. It had gone. We had driven here, got our hopes up, and we weren’t going to see anything. What if we’d missed our chance to see this rare visitor on our doorstep?
These days, I enjoy the challenge and I know not to give up too soon, but this was our first time attempting anything like this, and we had no idea what to expect. This could’ve easily and unknowingly been our first dip without even being aware of what the word ‘dip’ meant in the world of birding.
Abi is far more optimistic and practical than me, so she suggested that we check the streets where the b
