Flushing

It is autumn 1996, and I am standing on the side of a wet meadow in the Lea Valley. Looking around I see many familiar faces among the murmuring crowd, all here for the same reason as me: the chance of a London tick. In my case, a lifer too. I check my watch. It is almost time...

Two men slowly make their way across the meadow in front of us, several yards apart. The chatter has stopped; all eyes are on the pair out there, the flushers. A bird explodes from the grass! The collective sigh of disappointment says it all. Snipe, just a Common Snipe. But look, two more birds up! One is bigger, darker... And yes, much, much rarer. That rubbish, rather distant flight view of a Great Snipe is exactly what we all came for, and now the show is over. The chatter resumes, a little more animated now, and I cannot get away fast enough.

My one and only Great Snipe. It is hard to convey effectively what a massive anticlimax that all was. And of course, I knew it would be. How could it not? An organised flush, for a load of tick-hungry listers happy to make do with tenth-rate views of a bird that someone else had the thrill of finding. I do not (and never did) have mates delusional enough to help me talk up such a scenario into something to get excited about.

An 'organised flush', did you say?

Yes. Standard practice for such a skulker. Agree a time. Kick the bird out for all to see. Everyone happy.

Couldn't you all just wait for it to show itself?

Ha ha! In umpteen acres of wet meadow, that ain't gonna happen!

But it might fly of its own accord, surely?

Yeah. So might a pig.

To be fair, some birds are so secretive that flushing is sometimes the only way you find one. Any Jack Snipe in that boggy bit on your local patch? You probably won't know unless you get in there.*

Anyway, I don't plan to debate the ethics of flushing birds. After all, we all do it, all the time. Walk along a hedge, through a wood - anywhere really - and you'll be kicking up birds that were quite happy in their little world, until you came clumping along. And away they go. Oh, wait, what was that? Looked really interesting! So you creep along, and flush the Robin again.

Gently trying to chivvy a poorly-seen bird into view is par for the course in everyday birding. But I wonder how it looks to a non-birder? How would I explain myself if challenged? I am well aware that persistently hassling a small bird which is trying to stay hidden would not look good. Which is why I was pretty gobsmacked at one of the offerings on my Twitter feed this morning.

It was a video. A short video taken on Shetland. A small crowd is strung across a road, while a number of individuals converge slowly upon a hidden Lanceolated Warbler, pishing and clapping in order to drive it out of cover. The outcome is predictable. A rapid flight across the road to the field beyond. Crippling views for all, no doubt.

The video has been taken down now, but here is a still from it...

Pre-flight. Guess where it is at this point. I suppose I ought to credit the original videographer, @BrittenKit.

Other tweets suggest this was just one of several times that the Lancey was flushed. As I said earlier, I don't plan to debate the ethics of all this, but what struck me was the seeming lack of awareness of how it looks. Amazingly the tweet had 28 'likes'! Seriously? What is to like? Mind you, it had been viewed well over a thousand times, and attracted multiple retweets and comments which roundly condemned the behaviour.

A bit of context for anyone unfamiliar with all this. Lanceolated Warbler is a small brown warbler that creeps about in the grass like a mouse. Hailing from Siberia, it really should not be on Shetland, but is one of a number of that archipeligo's Sibe specialities, and a sought-after rarity. Birders go to Shetland in autumn hoping to find such birds. Or failing that, just to see one. Even to see one really, really badly as it zips from one patch of cover to the next, showing no diagnostic features whatsoever.

It's a shame the video was taken down really. It ought to be required viewing for every would-be lister. With perhaps an accompanying question:

Is this what you want to get involved with?

*Or fork out for a thermal imaging camera.