worst dip

[G Anderson]

The old SBC thread brings back bad memories for me, missed it by 20 minutes! Reckon thats maybe the worst possible dip in terms of rarity (assuming it was one;)). Another of my disasters was an overnight to dip Sibe Rubythroat in Dorset. And the Scottish Royal Tern wasn't nice either.
I've since given up on the twitching
Anybody like to share their shameful near-miss dips?

[walshey]

There was some sort of falcon at Tophill Low that I missed by 5 minutes a week last Sunday. Wasn't particularly bothered at the time...

[JWN Andrewes]

A recently explored topic!

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=122119

You'll see the Osmington Rubythroat crops up here too, and a few other frightful episodes. Hope it cheers you up!

James

[G Anderson]

A recently explored topic!

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=122119

You'll see the Osmington Rubythroat crops up here too, and a few other frightful episodes. Hope it cheers you up!

James

Whoops, sorry folks, must pay more attention, now I've sent my stupid post to the top of the rares, when everybody expects a big one, sh*t.

[lewis20126]

The old SBC thread brings back bad memories for me, missed it by 20 minutes! Reckon thats maybe the worst possible dip in terms of rarity (assuming it was one;)). Another of my disasters was an overnight to dip Sibe Rubythroat in Dorset. And the Scottish Royal Tern wasn't nice either.
I've since given up on the twitching
Anybody like to share their shameful near-miss dips?

In a few years time you'll only be worrying about one of those....

None if you get a Rubythroat ;)

cheers
alan

[Binocularface]

In a few years time you'll only be worrying about one of those....

None if you get a Rubythroat ;)

cheers
alan

Now about that Tern..............:eek!:

[Romperstomper]

Worst recent dip was the Brown Shike, but en route home we called into Tophill Low........................

1989 dipping Brunnich's on Shetland was hard, but pulled back a few years ago.

rs

[scary-canary]

I was standing next to a bloke looking at the black and white warbler in Norwich. He was telling me where it was and i was searching to see it. Then it dropped down and was never seen again. I still need it for my British list.
maybe next month somewhere?

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Guacamole

;););)

[Newton Stringer]

Belted kingfisher... dipped it in stafford.... dipped it near Hull, then dipped it in aberdeen the following weekend..... 3 counties and 2 countries FFS !!

[Binocularface]

Skipool Creek - Great Knot.....four visits......four dips......ouch ;)

[rb_stern]

Within the last 3 weeks I tried 3 times for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (Canada) - a very spectacular bird. The 1st 2 involved a 3 hour drive in rain each way, and the 3rd, a delay on the way back from Seal Island. On the 2nd try I was having a quick bite at a local fast food outlet, when a fellow birder phoned me from a spot 15 mins. away, to say he was looking at the bird. By the time I got there he said it had just left, and fact it was never seen again. The bird hung around the same spot every day for 3 weeks, except for the days I went, and was seen by just about every other keen birder in the Province, and several visitors from abroad. That was the 4th or 5th record for the Province in the last 30 years, and I still haven't seen one in N.America.

Richard

Richard

[Jono L]

Off Brighton beach on my stag do at 1 in the morning. Had 17 mates pelt me with shingle as I crawled naked up the beach in front of gathered onlookers...
Worst dip I ever took...

[Colin]

There was some sort of falcon at Tophill Low that I missed by 5 minutes a week last Sunday. Wasn't particularly bothered at the time...

Apparently there was a Red-footed Falcon present for a couple of days back in September which then departed and a few days later that site got lucky again when an Amur Falcon turned up. Both would have been nice birds to see.;)

[Larry Lade]

I have made several trips out to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I have put in quite a few hours walking the boulder strewn heights intently looking for the always (for me) elusive White-tailed Ptarmigan. So far, I have always come up empty.

Perhaps one of these times I will be able to see my nemesis bird.

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Apparently there was a Red-footed Falcon present for a couple of days back in September which then departed and a few days later that site got lucky again when an Amur Falcon turned up. Both would have been nice birds to see.;)

Not just me proposing two bird theory ;)

I saw the bird in september and october so would be lovely to have both :t:

[jimmyg]

At least your worst dips didn't involve physical pain - I cycled for 3 hours only to dip a Serin at Heacham, and got sunstroke on the way back!

[marklhawkes]

Off Brighton beach on my stag do at 1 in the morning. Had 17 mates pelt me with shingle as I crawled naked up the beach in front of gathered onlookers...
Worst dip I ever took...

Don't blame any of us mate... it was the alcohol! At least you had that nice dress to keep you warm....

I thought yours might have been on another beach at Dawlish!!! ;)

[GXMegson]

great bustards in Norfolk for me - dipped and got my car smashed to smitherines by a white van driver.

[GXMegson]

... so smashed up I couldn't go for them in Suffolk a few days later!

[canadagurl123]

I have tried to get a Tropical Kingbird several times in Victoria and others on South Vancouver Island. Still can't get it.

[Xenospiza]

At least your worst dips didn't involve physical pain - I cycled for 3 hours only to dip a Serin at Heacham, and got sunstroke on the way back!
I cycled 50 km to dip a Bridled Tern that had been present for weeks (while I was on holiday and not a twitcher yet) by 15 minutes... never to be seen again in the over 19 years that have passed since. And my 50 km ride back was in driving rain...
But I can imagine much worse dips – at least I'll be able to see this bird elsewhere!

[Archie Archer]

That's an easy one - 'Blue Cheese & Caramelised Onion' by ALDI...... and the neck of the jar isn't wide enough to accommodate the average sized 'Dorrito' ...... on a positve note the 'Sun-blushed Tomato & Pesto' by Waitrose is delicious.

Yours in sport.......

[username]

Whoops, sorry folks, must pay more attention, now I've sent my stupid post to the top of the rares, when everybody expects a big one, sh*t.

Areaman.......i thought about starting a thread or two but like you....i sometimes don't notice other 'similars' that might be going on..
Just trying to 'get upto speed' on this forum thing [recent 'poster'...'old school' birder me]! I usually post rubbish [not always]! on the leics Llama's site.

Has there been a thread yet on the 'stupidist things ever witnessed on a twitch' yet? I remember a guy who climbed up a tree at the red breasted nuthatch in norfolk and fell out when the bird appeared in a feeding flock...frickin hilarious:-O Crash bang flippin wallop...

Also someone at black n white warbler [Howe Hill] fallin down the side of muddy ditch...ouch!

One poor buger got trampled [i think he bust his arm] when there was a 'charge' for an eye browed thrush on scilly a loongg time ago:eek!:

I know them last two incidents weren't stupid [they sound very painful]!

[Dicky Ticker]

I was standing next to a bloke looking at the black and white warbler in Norwich. He was telling me where it was and i was searching to see it. Then it dropped down and was never seen again. I still need it for my British list.
maybe next month somewhere?


I must have been stood the other side of you as this little story sounds all too familiar to me. A nightmare for me too and it still hurts! :-C

[Andrew Clarke]

Belted kingfisher... dipped it in stafford.... dipped it near Hull, then dipped it in aberdeen the following weekend..... 3 counties and 2 countries FFS !!


That's a ker-lassic Stringer!!! - hope you fare better with that funny egret today!

Or throw the pager away and work that lovely patch harder... :t:

[Gary Jenkins]

That's an easy one - 'Blue Cheese & Caramelised Onion' by ALDI...... and the neck of the jar isn't wide enough to accommodate the average sized 'Dorrito' ...... on a positve note the 'Sun-blushed Tomato & Pesto' by Waitrose is delicious.

Yours in sport.......

Superb:-O

[Gary Jenkins]

My worst dip is as such.I missed the Black lark on Anglesey due to work commitments.(Every birder in the UK seemed to see it).
Imagine how happy I was when the news of one in Winterton Norfolk came out.I wasnt at work the next day, so set off on the long drive at 0300am.
On arrival at the site, a local birder told me the bird was still there,as I grabbed my gear together.SUPERB.
In the distance, I could see the crowd of birders gathered on the grassy headland.BRILLIANT.
I got amongst them to be told that it 'hadn't been seen for 40 minutes'.BOLLOX!
I walked around as everyone else did for 6-7 hours.
It was never seen again.

And I still haven't seen one.

To say it was a long quiet drive back to Lancashire is an understatement.:-C

[Mark Grantham]

Not being able to go for Pacific Swift instantly due to parents being around was bad. By the time I made it I was greeted with "over North Hide, over the brown cow..." so I scoped over North Hide and brown cow but nothing... So my scope saw it... My bins that I'd loaned to a mate saw it...

Sadly I also managed to somehow miss the bird a short while later when it was miraculously refound, albeit briefly, with me and a thousand others looking in the wrong direction... ;-)

Oh, and an overnight drive from Norwich to fly on to Shetland to a waiting hire car to dip Yellow Warbler was galling!

[sparrowbirder]

Having a bad car crash on the way to Scillies in October 1987,didnt get back there for another 3 years,never mind only missed Philadelphia vireo and Two-barred greenish!!!

[BobTag]

Missed White-tailed Plover by 2 hours, Oriental Pratincole by 2 hours, Little Swift by 1 hour, Great Knot by 10 mins and just couldn't see the River Warbler singing in a bush in front of me. Still need them all...

[Richard Powell]

Remember the Scops Owl at Thrupp, Oxfordshire, in 2006? How many weeks/months was it there for?

I know it was last heard on the 29th June, because I went on the 30th. Ouch.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

I missed River Warbler this year in Sussex....a proper kick in the nuts! Back at 4am the next morn....:-( No sign!

[Gomphus]

3 misses of White tailed Plover.... and then to be in Spain on hol's and get texts from my mates about it showing well......
Oh and getting absolutely soaked on that bleak Welsh estuary dipping GW Gull on one of the worst, most miserable days of my birding career! Almost gave up after that one:-O:-O:-O

Never mind you cannot see 'em all I keep getting told.....but you can have a damn good try!

CheersB (:

[Megsonmen]

After looking for the Gugh Sibe thrush which had gone, I did 3 days & 2 nights on Agnus, sharing the island with a White's thrush that I never saw.

[GXMegson]

Hooded meerganser, 5 nov 2008. I am sick to the back teeth. I took weds off, drove 250 miles to Tayport, had a car crash into me while I was parked in a layby asleep, got pulled by the Borders police for having defective lights, stood at the pond for nearly 5 hrs in the drizzle, dipped the bird which has since re-appeared. Missed bonfire night too.

[Microtus]

Two successive weekends: 5 hour one way drive to look for a far-inland Brown Booby in Virginia. Missed both times. I should have spent the night; I might have seen it the first time. And it's still there, I just learned, but isn't showing itself at the best vantage point on that lake.

[Julian Thomas]

Walking round Lerwick on a wet Saturday night looking for a cashpoint, having failed to get on to Fair Isle the day the Thick-billed Warbler was seen briefly (after showing well to several mates the day before). Slumped in a crowded pub, the wording on the barmaid's T-shirt summed it up nicely for us - No Chance!