'A bit alarming and certainly having a number of long lenses poking over the garden fence was pretty surreal'
The first UK sighting of a rare mockingbird in over 30 years has led to police action against five birdspotters.
Last updated 17th Feb 2021
Chris Woodward-Biddle spotted it while doing the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch with his kids in Devon.
After posting a picture online, he says enthusiasts somehow found out his address and started turning up uninvited – but has pledged to try to accommodate requests to view the bird if it remains in the same place after lockdown.
“Firstly we were surprised that people were able to find out where we were so easily,” he said.
“We didn’t think we put any particularly distinguishing photographs up. That was a bit alarming and certainly having a number of long lenses poking over the garden fence was pretty surreal – and a little bit unnerving.
“We assumed (at first) it was just local birdwatchers who were coming to have a look.
"Then we heard that people had been travelling, I think, from as far as Cambridge and Nottingham - which is some serious driving.
“We obviously felt extremely concerned given the fact we are in a national lockdown and also I think you almost blame yourself don’t you.
“You think ‘have I done the right thing here’ (in sharing the sighting) but clearly we didn’t ask anybody to travel.
“I’m glad the police intervened actually and enforced the regulations that we’re all having to live under.”
Mr Woodward-Biddle added: “if the bird is still here at the end of the lockdown then we will tell everybody - and we will make sure that we do our best to accommodate people to be able to see it. But only when it’s safe to do so.”
A spokesperson for Devon & Cornwall Police said: “We were contacted at around 8.20am on Saturday 13 February with reports of a potential Covid regulations breach in an area of Exmouth.
“It was reported that a number of individuals, suspected to have travelled from outside the area, were trying to photograph a rare bird which had been seen in a garden.
“Officers attended and fines were issued to five people for breaches of Covid regulations.”
Until now the last UK sightings of the grey, long-tailed northern mockingbird was in the 1980s at Saltash in Cornwall and at Horsey Island, Essex.
Mr Woodward-Biddle said he was happy to have identified it, after approaching friends and then the RSPB to confirm the sighting.
He says while neighbours could hear the bird’s noise, he jokes he was unable to because of his noisy family.
For more about the discovery read Mr Woodward-Biddle’s in depth interview, in his own words, with Rare Bird Alert
Mr Woodward-Biddle was not paid for speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, but did donate his fee from the above article to a local pre-school.