I twitched a bird and I liked it

In the ten days the brown shrike has been on Staines Moor, thousands of birdwatchers, 'twitchers' to use the vernacular, have traversed the country to catch a glimpse of this innocuous looking fellow - only the seventh recorded sighting in the UK.

I've always been a nature lover, and in particular, a bird lover, but I'm not a fan of the idea of 'twitching' - where birdwatchers travel hundreds of miles at a moment's notice to glimpse a rare bird and tick it off their 'list'.

I still get the same buzz just seeing a robin in the garden. But the pull of knowing this rare vagrant was just a few miles from the office was too much and I decided to try and see it for myself.

I got up two hours earlier than normal and left my Wimbledon home in the pitch black, genuinely excited at the prospect seeing this rarity. I can't remember the last really rare animal I saw, but I know my brothers still relish reminding me of the time I saw a goshawk, the king of woodland raptors, in the garden of our Hampshire home.

More than twenty years they have been reminding me, "You remember that time you saw a wood pigeon and thought it was a goshawk?"

It wouldn't shun my enthusiasm. I entered Staines Moor from the south passing under the A30 and immediately felt at ease. A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) the moor is a wildlife haven and a place of tranquil beauty.

Approaching the River Colne, a shrill piping noise was followed by a silhouette darting low and straight over the water. Kingfisher. Glorious.

The sun was coming up behind the embankment of the King George VI reservoir and a pair of kestrels quartered the field backlit by orange clouds. Barely on the moor and already I felt that I had could go home happy, even if the shrike was a no-show.

As I neared the spot I had seen marked on an online birding forum as the shrike's chosen hang-out, I caught up with a lone birder heading the same way. Bob Warden from Ottershaw had been birding in Norfolk, when he got a text message alerting him of the shrike's appearance on the moor. The irony of him being on the other side of the country birdwatching with one of the UK's rarest birds just miles from his doorstop didn't even occur to him.

"I have been here every day since it arrived," he explained. "It normally shows around 8am"

It was 7.50am, I didn't have long to wait. As we walked Bob told me about the other birds he has seen on the moor, short-eared owls, barn owls, great grey shrike, a water pipet, a bluethroat and his affection for the place was evident.

We reached the spot, and as if the bird's wake-up time was well established, five or six more twitchers arrived and set up their spotting scopes as it turned 8am. Bob was just explaining which tree the bird favoured, when one of them interrupted, "It's there now isn't it?"

The rustle of waxed jacket sleeves as six pairs of 'bins' are raised to expectant eyes. I didn't have binoculars, but could see something greyish, and fluffy in the middle of the bush. Camera shutters clicked around me, someone phoned a friend, and Bob set up his scope and offered me a view.

And there it was.

Hunched up, fluffed up from the cold and viewing us with seeming bemusement. A dark brown mask across its eyes, with pale greyish white outline, and long russety tail. He was actually quite a handsome fellow.

The black glossy bill with a slight hook at the tip was, Bob assured me from his own observations, perfectly suited to plucking bees, wasps and other insects from plants.

Two of the birders, one of them from Stoke, had driven overnight from Penzance in Cornwall just to see this great little bird. They weren't sure how long they would stay there, but I have a feeling they remained long after the cold had got the best of me.

I was told at one point last weekend, more than 500 people had amassed on the river bank.

Another birder followed me towards Staines. He had to catch a bus back to work having told his boss his car had broken down that morning - he didn't feel that he could justify his absence with 'I went to look at a rare bird'.

He asked me if it was true that they were planning to build a railway line through the moor. I told him about the Airtrack scheme and how it might affect the moor and it became apparent that this little bird could become quite a significant weapon in the Airtrack protestors' arsenal.

Staines Moor clearly is a gem for nature lovers. So much so that of all the places it could have stopped, the 'Staines shrike' as it has become affectionately known, has chosen to stay here a while.

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