One Sunday back in 2010 I was convinced to drive to
Norfolk in the depths of winter to see a Northern Harrier. Being a tick-hungry
whelp back then I was in the car like a flash, and shortly after dawn at Thornham
barn the Harrier was observed floating over the salt marsh. Fantastic, tick and
run! Then somebody let out that it wasn’t on the British list or some other
minor listing issue….
What a let down! I remember the day very well as I lost all
my toes to frostbite. It was absolutely freezing, cold of the sort that we just
don’t seem to get any more. Somewhat keen, Bradders and I had arrived in the dark,
as had a great many people. This meant a long time standing around before there
was any action to speak of, during which we gradually got colder and colder.
This may have been in the days before Bradders Birding Tours offered coffee,
before the mother-of-all-flasks put in an appearance, so there was no respite
and we gradually turned to ice. So after all that to then find out that the
mission target wasn’t tickable… Gah! DB may have mentioned insurance value or
some such, but try telling that to a small child!
Anyway, I mention this not because I have run out of
current material and am thus dredging up the past, blog recycling if you will. Nobody
would wantonly do that ;-) No, the reason I’ve brought it up is that it appears
that the long wait is over, and that the species has now been accepted onto
Category A of the British List. For those of you who have no idea what this
means, I don’t really know either, but the key point is that it means that the species is eligible to
be included on twitchers’ lists. I’ve no idea what category it may have been on
before, but there are other various categories for non self-sustaining populations
(the extinct category), the obvious escapes category (the Radipole category)
and stuff like that. Of course individual birds still have to be accepted as
the species by BBRC, but this particular Northern Harrier passed that hurdle a few
years ago. Of course despite this it remained untickable. I don’t say know why
I’m saying “of course”, the whole thing is baffling actually. Why bother
accepting a bird that isn’t on the British List? Why even bother submitting a
description? Anyhow, it is now on, Jupiter has aligned with Venus etc etc, and my
once twitchy self has got what is known in birding parlance as an “armchair
tick”. Indeed, in the depths of my disappointment five years ago I noted that on
a particularly and viciously cold day in the future I looked forward to being
cozied up indoors in an armchair and receiving news of its elevation. That day
has now come, albeit that I found out at work and it’s stupidly mild outside.
Still, I’ll take it.
That same day in 2010 I watched a man at Titchwell point out a Little Crested Grebe to an assembled group of birders. Still waiting on that one.
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