A (long ?) while ago I wrote about an extremely short.... but unsuccessful .... twitch. It was, also unfortunately, fictional. But ..... it got me thinking .... what was your shortest twitch ? One of mine was only about 20 yards..... a local birder knocked on my door to tell me there was a Common Crane up there in the sky. I whizzed up the street about 20 yards to his already-positioned scope and there it was .... way up, but totally recognisable .... then I walked backwards until I was in my front "garden", so I could count it on the house list as well. Then I had a look at it through the bins so it would be on the "Zeiss list" ... ace. I think that's the rarest bird on my house list. Another v-close-to-home "twitch" was a Woodchat Shrike just 30 mins walk from my house. I was mighty mad that I didn't find it ..... I go by there quite often. And there was another feeling about it, one that happens to me a lot these days ... it would have been such a disastrous "miss" if I didn't see it that I nearly didn't even bother to have a try. After all, it wasn't a tick anyway. I'd seen them before. But as the day wore on, I snapped ! I trundled down there and "got " it. But I kept a good distance away from the crowd ... didn't go anywhere near the "congregation" but scoped it from a distance. Because I knew full well that there would be all that " how come you didn't find it then" and all that " you're the man on the spot, where were you ? " stuff that would have made things worse. And if you're thinking ..."what an odd attitude that is" ...just wait till you get older. I'm not the only one who gets those " don't want to go and not see it" thoughts. Probably because you know your time above ground is running out and having missed something that'll might have been your last chance. So better just not to try ? The jury's probably out on that one. I'm sure I thought of a "name" for that feeling .... it's on the tips of my fingers ...
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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