Birder behaving badly! Twitcher under fire for seeking to flush rare Pechora Pipit from undergrowth

Pechora Pipit - species that likes to skulk (photo: Wikimedia commons)

A TWITCHER who allegedly sought to flush a rare bird has been rapped on social media.

The incident is reported to have occurred at Trow Quarry, South Shields in Co Durham, where a mega-rare Pechora Pipit turned up earlier this week.

This is a shy bird which is usually difficult to photograph because of its propensity to skulk low in vegetation.

For most of the the scores of birders waiting to snatch a glimpse - and preferably a photo - patience was the watchword.

But one broke ranks and allegedly walked into the undergrowth with the sole intention of flushing the bird into view.

In response, one birder posted on X:  "This sort of thing gets all birders and bird photographers a bad name."

The bird, which hails from the banks of the Pechora River in Siberia, is believed to be the first confirmed record on  mainland Britain since November, 2007, when one was seen, following days of heavy rainfall, near Goodwick in Pembrokeshire.

That Welsh bird was seen by many birders, the last sighting being some four days after it had arrived as it flew off in a south-westerly direction.

An account of the sighting subsequently appeared the following 12 months later in the Welsh Ornithological Society's publication Scarce and Rare Birds in Wales 2007.

                                          

The 2007 Pembrokeshire bird was a new species for Wales

It is believed the species was first recorded by English ornithologist Robert Swinhoe (1837-77) who spent much of his life in China as a career ornithologist and  naturalist.  

He encouraged like-minded compatriots to support his ornithological research and was intrigued when one of his team sent him a corpse of  a Pechora Pipit which had apparently been picked up dead near the base of a lighthouse.

Because of its secretive habitats, the Pechora is probably often overlooked or mistaken for confusion species such as  Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit or Red-throated Pipit.

An authoritative report on how to differentiate the species from its cousins was compiled by C. D. R. Heard and G. Walbridge and published in British Birds journal in September, 1988.