Not quite phasing

Phasing. A good word that, used quite a bit in the counter-culture that was 1970s twitching. If somebody had phased they had given up going for rare birds. 

"Dave didn't go for the 'legs or the Bobolink, he's phased"

This was said in hushed tones, as if Dave had recently departed this life. To phase was to exit stage right (or left), to cease to be a player, to be consigned to the rank of 'dude' - another good 1970s twitching word.

Now, my question to myself is 'Am I phasing?"

We are in mid-August. I would normally be scouring the nearby downs for passage warblers and chats. Even having fantasies of Wrynecks and shrikes. But I'm not. Has fifty years of birding experience told me that to do so will only solicit disappointment? Just a Wheatear or two, maybe even a Whinchat? I could wait a week and drive an hour south and see hundreds of migrants on the South Downs, double-figure counts of Spotted Flycatchers and Common Redstarts to boot. Why not conserve a bit of energy, keep my enthusiasm dry and not blow it all on several local jaunts where I know (at least 95% know) that I will return home flat. But then again, there is the 'other' 5%. That percentage in which I become a birding hero and find the Wryneck or shrike. But time has taught me not to trust such thoughts. Yes, they do happen, but very, very rarely. So if I do wander into the field at the moment it is to botanise or look for butterflies. The birds can wait, and when I do go, it will be to that marvellous section of South Downs that I have come to love - or Dungeness, which I have not crunched shingle upon for a couple of years - or even back to Cornwall - all for a proper watch, a real ornithological immersion, not some worthy attempt at being green and local. 

I do know that at some time in the next few days, regardless of what I have written above, I will be up on the local downs, searching for chats, dreaming of a Wryneck or shrike, which tells me that, no, I'm not phasing. Not quite...

(Once again I've disable the comment function on this blog - tens of spam comments have been arriving.)


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