We headed up the A50 and A38 and then received the news that it had been seen again briefly at 15-10hrs. That raised our hope a little, but as we were driving along, I worked out it had been seen once in 4hrs, and that was only a brief sighting.
We hit no traffic and headed out onto the headland. As we got nearer, we could see a crowd in front of us. They didn't look like birders, more like a riot of some sort. As we got nearer, we started seeing a few scopes and we realised we had found the crowd. But what on earth was going on. There were two vans with birders stood on the roofs, and loads more birders just standing around.
Our first impressions
We slowly discovered that the WHITE-THROATED ROBIN was showing in the garden on the other side of a 10ft wall. I then started to think how was I going to get on top of the van, and how was GAS going to get on. Then the ladders started turning up. I noticed one was being set up and we immediately joined the queue. There were only three birders in front of me. We had to wait about ten minutes for the bird to be found again, and then I simply had to wait my turn. Incredibly, after only being on site for less than 15 mins, I was up a ladder watching a female White-throated Robin sitting sunning itself. I reluctantly came down to let the next man have his go, but I joined the small queue for seconds. On my second go, I managed a bit of a video.
So after nearly not bothering to go up at all, we had our tick in no time at all. It really was a bizarre sight and one of the strangest twitches I've been on. Grown men on top of vans, grown men trying to climb wall, some covered in anti climb paint. Unforgetable!
Note the dirty hands 
These blokes were only popping down to the shop 
GAS in the red cap up a ladder 
A video grab (well what do you expect when I'm up a ladder!)
The bird is just right of the obvious white rose (This was repeated many times on our ladder) There was more drama to come. Fellow Clayheads Rich Sutton and Phil Jones had set off at 16-45hrs from work. I had already worked out that it would be nearly 20-00hrs by the time they would arrive. We kept in touch as they drove up. When the Robin flew from the Doctors garden, we all walked round to view the bowling green but there was no sign of it there. I saw quite a few birders walking down the road, so I followed them, only to find they were simply walking to their cars. We walked back to the green, only to find most of the crowd had departed. It was only 19-00hrs, and it seemed that everyone had seen it. I really felt so sorry for the boys on their way up, as they were going to have no chance of seeing it. We headed off for home just after seven. I spoke to Phil; he was still an hour away.
Then, at 19-17hrs, I received news that the WHITE-THROATED ROBIN was back in the Doctors Garden. I sent this to Phil. He arrived in Hartlepool at about 19-40hrs. When he parked up, he saw three empty ladders and so presumed the bird was not showing. A quick question as to whether it was showing was asked, and they got a surprise answer back.
HE WHO DARES...RODNEY...HE WHO DARES!
An ecstatic PJ following his furthest after work twitch ever (finishing work at normal time that is)
