Treeve Common (GREY CATBIRD!) - 17.10.18

Grey Catbird

At the end of my long post about my trip to Scilly I mentioned Treeve Common in Cornwall and put in brackets (remember the name). On the Monday we got off Scilly we flew over this common which was about 3 miles away from the airport. I drove all the way back to Hertfordshire, unpacked the car and sat down with a cup of tea. Then the mega alert goes off. It read - Grey Catbird at Treeve Common! So I was 3 miles from the site at 9am and now its 3.20pm and I'm 300 miles away. Bugger!

Fast forward to Wednesday and I'm in the car with George Moreton and Brendan Glynn on my way back to Treeve Common. We were 5 minutes away when I received a call from Cliff Smith to say it was still present. Phew! We parked up and wandered round to view and in under 5 minutes I was laying my eyes on my first UK GREY CATBIRD. I'd seen a few in America back in 2013 but this one was only the 2nd record for UK so a much welcomed tick. Shame I couldn't have seen it on the Monday and saved myself a trip back! A female Ring Ouzel flew over while we were there.

We then headed over into Devon for an Isabelline Shrike but frustratingly it had vanished overnight.