Sunday 16 June 2013

Have I turned?

That is the question that faces me.  Do I now have to remove that sentence saying I am not a twitcher?  Have I turned to the dark-side?  The answer is yes... NO.   Well I must admit that -dare I say the word- I twitched.  I?  Yes, I twitched. Despite the obvious fact I have twitched a fair few times I still don't count myself as a twitcher.  I have explained before my thoughts on twitching -See here- and again would like to make it known I have nothing against twitchers.  I actually quite like them, their immense knowledge of birds is incredible.
What did I twitch?  Well there isn't much around at the moment that I could and would twitch.  So if you are a London birder is should be quite obvious.  But if you are not you probably won't know.  The bird is a female Long-tailed Duck, quite rare inland, especially odd in the urban water of Rotherhithe.  How can I justify this?  Well to that I have an answer.  You see the long-tailed Duck is a Sea Duck.  So as any Wildlife photographer will know photographing a bird out at sea isn't easy as they are usually so far out.  So how could I pass off an opportunity to photograph a species like that up close?  It was too good to miss.
 Well I will let you have your own opinion on whether or not I  am a twitcher, but I still say that I am not.


5 comments:

  1. So long as you had a good time I wouldn't worry about whether it was twitching or not. And you got a great picture. From Findlay

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will echo what Findlay has said - if you enjoyed yourself then the question of "to twitch or not to twitch" shouldn't enter the debate. Twitching only becomes a problem when enjoyment is replaced by the over-riding desire to tick a box on a spread sheet - it's all about perspective. If your twitching the Long-tailed Duck was purely for fun/enjoyment then it has to be a good thing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totaly agree with Findlay and Dylan , i got into the trap of ticking instead of birding quite a few years back , thankfully these days i enjoy birding especially the blogging and photography ( although not very good at it ) i still go on the odd twitch even for birds i have already seen...lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Surely if the bird is on your "patch" it doesn't count as twitching, or have I got defintion of twitching wrong? Either way the comments above by Findlay,Dylan and Rob are spot on. It's how you behave when you're on a twitch, i.e. not chasing the bird around to get a better view etc not the fact you've gone and seen a rare bird....I mean who wouldn't go and see a L.T.D especially so far inland. I would!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Guys. Yes a very good point, I have not fallen into the tick-trap yet, and hope not to, as I imagine it is hard to get out. I prefer to enjoy birding more than just 'tick' as that does take away some of the enjoyment as I have before mentioned. I'm sorry to here you fell in Rob, glad you're out of it :)
    Oh and Douglas, it's not my patch, sorry if I made it sound like it was.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...