Tales of a Tormented Twitcher

Mid-morning on the 4 th November 2019, Steve Wing caught a Yellow-browed Warbler in the nets in the Nordy Wood and released it. A second Yellow-browed was caught shortly after which was much brighter. Later in the morning, Steve heard what sounded like typical Hume’s Leaf Warbler calls coming from the same area. However, the calls stopped and the bird wasn’t seen or heard again that day despite best efforts by Steve. Steve put news out around 12:30 to say that he had caught a probable Hume’s Warbler at the Waist. However, despite this being only the 4 th Irish record, the lack of news after the original sighting put Gerard Murray, John Cusack and myself off trying on Tuesday morning. At 9:35 the next morning, Steve struck gold again! The Hume’s Warbler was back in the net in the Nordy Wood. The tweet read as follows “Phyllosc showing features of Hume’s present and retrapped at the Waist 5 minutes ago. Photos to be looked at for confirmation” Twitch on! However, there was one flaw...

October 2019 As September drew to a close after being relatively uneventful apart from a few American Waders, I was itching for a twitch. Late on the 29 th September, a Black Tern was relocated at Spanish Arch beside Nimmo’s Pier, Co. Galway after a non-birder photographed it the previous day. Many Galway birders were on site quickly including Cathal Forkan, Niall T Keogh etc. and these were able to nail the identification as American Black Tern and the shots that followed were gripping, to say the least. As I was in work when the news broke it was difficult to start planning any sort of twitch but I knew I’d try for it. The next morning and I was almost in Dublin for college when Dermot Breen posted in the WhatsApp group that there had been so sign all morning. This put me off trying and I continued on to college. There was no further news on it, that was until Hugh Delaney relocated it just before 15:00 pm. On hearing this I ran out mid-lecture to the Euro Giant shop...