The peace and quiet of this morning was shattered shortly after 8.35 when the pager announced that Britains first ever twitchable White-throated Robin had just been trapped and even better it was on the mainland at Hartlepool Headland! It was currently being processed and would be released shortly, so after a couple of quick phone calls etc I was on the road heading north eagerly awaiting news as to whether it would be seen after release. News came through that it was indeed showing and messages confirming its continued presence came periodically over the next few hours as I battled my way through the daytime traffic.
Arriving at c1.40pm with the pager announcing it was currently being watched, I quickly walked the short distance to the crowd only to find out it had just flown off into the gardens. No worries it shows every 20 minutes I was assured, but 20 minutes turned into an hour and then into an hour and a half! In the meantime measures were tried to get people to stand back and allow it a pathway back into the bowling green where it had been feeding and far from coincidentally, shortly after they eventually moved it flew back in at c3.10pm. An anxious few seconds ensued then I noticed a few raised pairs of bins looking down the street so I quickly joined them and to my relief enjoyed about 5 seconds of it on the pavement before it disappeared through the fence and then shortly after flew back off from whence it came.
Obviously the pressure was now off but more prolonged views were worth waiting for, but unfortunately more people continued to stand in its flight line and ridiculously refused to move. Over two hours passed with no further sign and with a local checking the gardens it was frequenting with no luck, a few birders who had yet to connect disconsolately started to spread out to look for it in the adjacent area.
With a near 4m high wall around the garden it may be in, there was little prospect of seeing in to it but one intrepid Teesider drove his van onto the pavement and standing on the roof started to look over the wall into the garden. He quickly asked for confirmation of what it looked like as he had almost immediately picked up a bird feeding round a compost pile. Its appearance was quickly relayed back to him and he immediately declared he had it and after quickly climbing onto his van Franko confirmed that it was indeed the bird.
At this point all hell broke loose as people tried to get up on top of the van and scale the wall and lamp posts etc to get a glimpse. Amazingly after only a few minutes vans and ladders seemed to be arriving from all directions to enable everyone to get a look over the wall, and thankfully it contined to perform well in the garden and with everybody keeping calm all present got to see the bird even if it was only for a minute or so whilst atop a ladder or hanging off the top of the wall.
Having already seen it I stood back to let those who needed it get in first but with it performing so admirally and everyone having now seen it, I was able to have another look courtesy of one of the dozen ladders, as it sat motionless in a flower bed before moving off further into the garden.
All in all an excellent twitch in the end with everyone going home very happy and it was so refreshing to see the amazing generosity of the locals to whom so much is owed with them doing everything they could to help us see the bird, so a big thank-you to them.
Mid-evening viewing over the garden wall after the initial rush had subsided
