Update from SARBN

Trevor Hardaker

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Aug 23, 2016, 8:17:42 AM8/23/16

to SA Rare Bird News

RUFOUS-TAILED SCRUB ROBIN – still present this morning around the picnic sites on the eastern shore of Zeekoevlei – reported by Margaret Maciver.

I would also just like to remind everyone of two items…

- Please always send the updates on this bird through to me directly, even if you think others might have already let me know about it (because, often, they haven’t…).
- Please remember to send your details (and those of the rest of the group you were with) through to me if you have already been to see this bird so that I can keep a vaguely accurate count of the twitcher numbers.

Thanks and regards
Trevor

Trevor Hardaker

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Aug 23, 2016, 12:31:02 PM8/23/16

to SA Rare Bird News

Well, it took 38 days for me to collect all the names, but we finally have our 3^rd 1-tonne twitch in Southern Africa! A huge congratulations once again to Peter Steyn and Andre Demblon who were the “instigators” of this entire event and have caused a pretty impressive wave of happiness across the Southern African birding community! You now join a rather select group with Dominic and Patrick Rollinson and Pieter Verster to be the only people in Southern African birding history to have found a bird that has caused a 1-tonne twitch...:)

As I was catching up on the numbers a few minutes ago, I realised that we are now up to 1010 birders who have already been to see the Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin at Zeekoevlei (and let me know about it) and that the milestone was actually reached yesterday already without me knowing about it. I was actually just joking about this with my friend Cliff Dorse a few days ago to say that Barrie Rose is holding back because he wants to be the 1000^th twitcher of this bird... and, as luck would have it, it turned out that he actually was!!!

Just to put things into perspective, especially since Barrie is one of only five 900-plussers in the subregion at the moment, it’s not like he wasn’t paying this bird the attention that it deserved. When news broke of this bird, Barrie was “stuck” on a ship in the middle of the deep blue yonder somewhere between Panama (where he had set off from) and Singapore (where he was due to finally dock) and would be at sea for 90 days in total (news broke of the bird just after the halfway mark of his trip). Over the weekend, Barrie’s wife, Roselle, was regularly in touch with me to get the latest updates on the bird and, after his long haul flight from Singapore, he finally landed in Cape Town and was through the airport and in the car by 12h00 and had ticked the bird by 12h50 – great stuff Barrie!

It is perhaps also interesting to note that the only two twitches larger than this one were of a, by comparison, relatively “common” bird in the form of a Spotted Crake and a second record for the subregion in the form of a Snowy Egret. It is hard to believe that a first record for the subregion that is actually hanging around just waiting to be twitched still trails these two others, but I suppose there are many contributing factors e.g. the Spotted Crake was very accessible and in an area with the highest birder density in the subregion, the economy has taken a dip recently and twitchers don’t necessarily have as much available funds as previously, etc.

And, while we celebrate our newest 1-tonne twitch over a 38 day period, it is perhaps also of interest to note that, while twitching is growing in leaps and bounds here in the subregion, we are still way behind a number of other places (and that is probably a good thing more than anything else!). At the beginning of this month in the UK, the country’s first ever Western Purple Swamphen turned up at Minsmere in Suffolk. It stayed around and was twitchable for just 6 days before disappearing and, within that relatively short period, it drew over 3000 twitchers!!

So, let’s see just how long this bird continues to hang around for and how big this twitch finally gets...:)

Kind regards

Trevor

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TREVOR HARDAKER

Cape Town, South Africa

Follow our local exploits in the field at:

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