With the Grey Catbird sticking around, I made an early start on Wednesday morning arriving on site just before 1pm. As I arrived my old birding buddy Pete Walton with wife Adrienne were leaving, having not seen the bird, because they were due to fly over to the Isles of Scilly. Since the bird is still present today, hopefully they'll get another chance on the way back home.
There were two areas to view from: the bottom corner of the field being utilised as the car park or from the footpath running around the other side of Treve House. After initially viewing from the car park field I decided to move to the other side. The small stretch of sallows a short distance beyond Treve House was the bird's most favoured spot, although it did range over a wide area between the two viewing sites. My views were quite brief, with it perched for a few seconds on one of the bramble patches, before flying along the hedge & diving into cover on the far side. About an hour and a half later it reappeared & sped towards its favoured area. With my knee & back aching from standing for so long I made my exit, arriving back home in the early hours of Thursday morning, happy to have been able to see the bird, but a little disapponted I didn't get better/longer views.
Here's a great photo by Andrew Jordan
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| Some of the crowd... waiting... waitng |
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| The favoured sallows area |
Video by John Chapple
