Keeping up with the paranoids 13/11/19

OK I’m one of those paranoids too. We listers all are. Missing a rare bird is bad enough, but missing one that everyone else has seen really sucks. There, I said it. I mean, I love birds, all birds, but twitching and listing is distinctly OCD with kleptomaniac tendencies. That leads to what we refer to as insurance listing - the need to go and see something controversial in case it ultimately turns out to be a genuinely rare bird and accepted by the all powerful BOU. Insurance listing is a far stretch from the adrenaline fuelled frenzy of a proper mega, but it’s an increasingly common phenomenon. We are all sheep - once interest is shown in something potentially rare that may even turn out to have been a tick then, one by one, we all crack. Better to see it, just in case, and particularly if everyone else has. Such events occur more frequently with the advent of cryptic species identified only by DNA and sonograms - forensic birding.

So on to the bird in question. A putative Paddyfield Pipit has been present in Cornwall since late October. Unsurprisingly the ID has taken a while and the bird was naturally first thought to be a Richard’s Pipit. But some features didn’t quite fit, and questions were raised. The call was not typical of Richards and once recordings were made then the ID came back as almost certainly Paddyfield. DNA samples have been taken for analysis, but should simply confirm the identity now. The bird is in advanced moult, which doesn’t help matters either. The main stumbling block though, is that this South Asian species is largely sedentary and any vagrancy almost unrecorded, and certainly nowhere near Western Europe. It simply wasn’t on the radar, the sort of species that no-one ever considered a possibility here. But is it wild, could it be an escapee or even assisted vagrant? And why is it in active moult? Who knows, and of course we never will for sure. It seems a very unlikely vagrant and the moult status is possibly of concern too. This is perhaps the ultimate insurance bird then (so far at least). If accepted as a wild bird it is a truly mega rarity despite its lack of charisma. Personally I think it is unlikely to be accepted, but then I’ve been wrong many times and I am also a sheep.

EDIT mid December - Paddyfield ID confirmed by DNA.

Some two weeks after the true hardcore twitchers had been and gone, I eventually cracked and made the long journey to Sennen with Phil W on 13th November. We arrived at 9am to find a small group of dejected birders who’d not seen the bird. We decided to move to another part of the same huge field where it had been known to frequent and Phil picked it up immediately, right in front of us. Doddle.

Photos were taken, we watched and studied the bird but had nothing to add to the ID debate, and left. Job done, policy taken. Back in the road for 10am, a quick Philps pasties in Hayle and back home for 4.30.

Our timing was fortuitous - it was nearly taken by a cat on the Friday and then not seen again. Seems likely that it is now an ex pipit!

Now hopefully for a certain eider next. Now that's a proper mega.