Thursday, February 18, 2021

One Fine Day

Hi Folks.

I'm Linking this post to Rain's Thursday Art Date and her theme this week of “Comedies”. Rain's Thursday Art Date

Knowing how twitchers are ultra determined and always up for a laugh a story in “The Sun” of 16 February 2020 gave me a smile. 

“Twitchers fined for Covid breach after flocking to seaside town to catch glimpse of rare bird”

The twitchers were collared when residents became fed up with the dozens of bird-watchers who crammed into an alley from morning to night for more than a week to see the Northern Mockingbird, a common North American bird. 

Tempers flared as one irate local threatened to smash up their cameras. Cops were called at the weekend and fined five twitchers who broke lockdown rules by travelling from outside the area. 

One bird-watcher said: “I saw photographers crammed into an alleyway for hours behind people’s houses hoping to catch a glimpse of the bird. It was crazy and as if Covid didn’t exist.” 

Northern Mockingbird

The Northern Mockingbird has been spotted in Britain only twice previously - the most recent in Essex in 1988. But when bird-lover Chris Biddle reported seeing one in his garden in Exmouth, Devon, about 100 enthusiasts swooped from as far as Perth in Scotland, Norfolk and Kent to see it. 

But locals became increasingly anxious. A bird-watcher told The Sun: “At one point, a furious resident came round and threatened to smash everybody’s cameras if they didn’t leave. "I think he was worried about people spreading the virus.” 


However, Chris Gair, 75, a local resident let dozens of twitchers into her garden to grab a picture and raised £520 in donations for the NHS. She said: “They were a bit cheeky. Some of them had travelled very far.” 

Devon and Cornwall Police later confirmed: “Fines were issued to five people for breaches of Covid regulations.”  

Chuckles The Cat

You can read the full story in Britain's most popular newspaper.


 

12 comments:

Ella said...

Hi Phil!
The cat with the police officer is gorgeous! Of course there is no good reason to be outside to hunt birds ... 🤣

Cathy Kennedy said...

I have no problem with people being in public if they actually followed social distancing practices and it shouldn't matter if we're under a pandemic or not. People need to maintain proper distance because who wants to get sick from anything? Not me! Of course, when I'm in public I pay close attention to who's doing what and the first sneeze or cough I hear or visual signs of sickness then I skirt around it like its a plague heading toward me. Paranoid, nope. Just hate being sick. Thanks for making me smile with the humorous piece at the end. Poor kitty!

Curious as a Cathy

DVArtist said...

Really beautiful photos. People do need to get out. Here in my part of Oregon people just seem to not care. They HAVE to wear a mask at the stores but any place else there is not social distancing, no masks, just idiots. I DO NOT, CAN NOT, get sick so I stay in as much as I can. BTW I love this cat.

Christine said...

Good story, beautiful photos!

Mike Attwood said...

Superb cartoon. Stay safe.
Mike.

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

Poor kitty is getting a ticket and the worst part for him is that he can't go find that Mockingbird ... so delicious :( This was fun and clever that you got your birding into a comic setting. Hope you are all following the mitigation rules, so that we all can be safe, right? I will get my second vaccine shot in a week and then I can relax a little. Good fun, Mike ...

Andrea @ From the Sol

Rain said...

Hi Phil! :) Great post! I'm so happy you found some comedy in this situation! I never heard the term "twitchers"!! The mockingbird is beautiful. The way the story is told reminds me of a movie with Steve Martin called The Big Year, it's about twitchers. It's okay, not har har funny, but okay! Great sense of humour! :)

NCSue said...

A fun post! Thanks so much for joining us this week at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/02/more-from-last-weeks-peek-at-cedar-creek.html. You're one of our most faithful visitors, and I appreciate that so much.

Fun60 said...

Twitchers on a mission.

Lady Fi said...

Thanks for the chuckle!

Veronica Lee said...

Thanks for the cartoon!

I too, have never heard of the term "twitchers"!

Happy Wednesday, Phil!

Linda said...

That's a cute kitty meme! Here mockingbirds are common so the store seems odd. Yesterday I watched a mockingbird chase a blackbird off the bird feeder.

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