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What's been your "Best ever find" under "challenging" conditions? (1 Viewer)

KenM

KenM

Well-known member
April 26th early 70's, found me trudging round the KGV reservoirs N.E. London, during a particularly heavy downpour, having been enticed out earlier by bright clear conditions, which lasted until I was at the furthest point from shelter "the car"..circa 2.5 miles away. When the heavens opened, prompting me to "leg-it" in Wellington boots, anorak with scope/tripod and bins swinging around respective shoulders, and "afeared" to look at the exit fence (c1.5 miles away) just thinking head down and go for it. At the half way point my lungs were on fire (I was a fit boy then!) and I was saturated, such was the precipitation I thought I should have brought my "snorkel"...when I looked up! and saw a blurred shape descending out of the morass, it was circling as it came down, "what the hell's that?" I cried! Swiftly taking out my non-waterproof bins (got soaked in seconds)...Christ I exclaimed!...an adult Arctic Skua eyeballing me from just 20 metres. In that brief moment the acute dampness just evaporated, as I savoured the spectacle, before it soared back up, and disappeared into the gloom...ne'r to be seen again. (quite rare in Spring within the LNHS recording area).

What's yours.....?
 
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Himalayan Snowcock after a ridiculously vertical hike in Manang, Nepal, worth it though!


A
 
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andyadcock said:
Himalayan Snowcock after a ridiculously vertical hike in Manang, Nepal, worth ith though!

A
Click to expand...

C'mon andy...how about a" hand hold" by "hand hold" account with loose scree, falling boulders and death defying leaps, before finally laying eyes on it's mythical being! :-O
 
KenM said:
C'mon andy...how about a" hand hold" by "hand hold" account with loose scree, falling boulders and death defying leaps, before finally laying eyes on it's mythical being! :-O
Click to expand...

I'm still too knackered to give you a full account Ken and it was seven years ago!

Believe me, I exaggerate not when I say 'vertical'!


A
 
I was wondering what 'challenging' conditions in parentheses mean. Drunk, traveler's diarrhoea, both legs broken in plaster? Ah, just rain. :D

So one birder (not me) was birding on a Russian ship in the Arctic. They spent ten days breached on a sandbar because captain was drunk. He himself was once having a puff of weed, when he saw a ghostly white bird screaming horribly. He dismissed it as a hallucination. After a few days the hallucination appeared again when he was sober. It was Ivory Gull.
 
jurek said:
I was wondering what 'challenging' conditions in parentheses mean. Drunk, traveler's diarrhoea, both legs broken in plaster? Ah, just rain. :D

So one birder (not me) was birding on a Russian ship in the Arctic. They spent ten days breached on a sandbar because captain was drunk. He himself was once having a puff of weed, when he saw a ghostly white bird screaming horribly. He dismissed it as a hallucination. After a few days the hallucination appeared again when he was sober. It was Ivory Gull.
Click to expand...

Until I saw this post...I had no idea what Ivory Gull sounded like. A quick thumb through Collins yielded a Tern-like "kreeo".....He'd clearly sobered up by then....had he been beached on a sandbar in the Baltic, and submitted it to his local Rarities Committee, he might have found the "acceptance"...somewhat more challenging?.....being high on weed wouldn't have helped his case. :eek!:
 
Probably the closest for me was an impromptu trip to the Rio Grande area at the end of May, camping in Bentsen Rio-Grande State Park. Around 100 degrees each day, and so humid I was basically just continually sweating my life force away.

This was my first trip to the Texas-Mexico Border, so got a ton of lifers

Think we must have all taken 3 showers a day just to help with thermoregulation. Probably pretty lame for most people, given that many people here have probably birded in the tropics and maybe faced similar conditions.
 
Mysticete said:
Probably the closest for me was an impromptu trip to the Rio Grande area at the end of May, camping in Bentsen Rio-Grande State Park. Around 100 degrees each day, and so humid I was basically just continually sweating my life force away.

This was my first trip to the Texas-Mexico Border, so got a ton of lifers

Think we must have all taken 3 showers a day just to help with thermoregulation. Probably pretty lame for most people, given that many people here have probably birded in the tropics and maybe faced similar conditions.
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I certainly haven't, high humidity and me, don't mix!....I'll stick with the temperate zone..."no sweat" birding. ;)
 
Farnboro John said:
Note to self: do not attempt to bird the Arctic on Russian ships....

John
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We have a friend who's a notorious drunk, scary to think that he was once a Soviet Submarine Commander!

He lives on Sakhalin Island and we hope to visit for some birding in the near future, that should be challenging. If he's to be believed, there's a Grizzly around every corner, they take stuff from his bin!

One of my worst ever birding experiences was the three days I spent, curled up vommiting on the deck of the MV Chalice during a pelagic as it rolled around in the SW approaches.

A
 
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Mysticete said:
Around 100 degrees each day, and so humid I was basically just continually sweating my life force away.
(...) Probably pretty lame for most people, given that many people here have probably birded in the tropics and maybe faced similar conditions.
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Most birding in the tropics is much easier. I drank 7 litres of water while birding Santa Ana NWR (in TX) in July 1995... which remains unsurpassed.
 
andyadcock said:
Israel in July isn't a good idea, basically too hot to bird after 0900hrs.

A
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You must be thick-skinned then andy, cos when I went in April '86, I couldn't realistically bird after 0800hrs. I attempted it at mid-day once when there was a "push" of Black Kites (Eilat), and it wasn't long before I was cowering under a Palm tree of a not inconsiderable maturity. :eek!:
 
KenM said:
You must be thick-skinned then andy, cos when I went in April '86, I couldn't realistically bird after 0800hrs. I attempted it at mid-day once when there was a "push" of Black Kites (Eilat), and it wasn't long before I was cowering under a Palm tree of a not inconsiderable maturity. :eek!:
Click to expand...

Spent a lot of time in the tropics so am well accustomed to the heat but Eilat in July was a stupid idea.


A
 
andyadcock said:
Himalayan Snowcock after a ridiculously vertical hike in Manang, Nepal, worth it though!


A
Click to expand...
Got my lifer Himalayan Snowcock in nearly the same spot in nearly the same way! One day back down river and epic hike upwards from the small village Ngawal. Also saw the beautiful little White-browed Tit-warbler on same hike. The cascading glaciers Annapurna II loomed over across the valley.
Andy
 
I have to assume that the Himalayan Snowhens....also find the males vertically challenging as well. ;)
 
I walked to the top of my road, and saw 7 Waxwings (or was it 8)?

I swear my knees were killing and it made me late for work.

Also jammed in on a fly-by Goldfinch.
 
wolfbirder said:
I walked to the top of my road, and saw 7 Waxwings (or was it 8)?

I swear my knees were killing and it made me late for work.

Also jammed in on a fly-by Goldfinch.
Click to expand...

Nah!....that doesn't count Nick!....you didn't use crampons, pick axe or rope. ;)
 
Hee hee nice one Ken.

I'm mocking my own lack of worth, birding wise. Self depreciation is a good quality.

Some of the stuff on here makes me pretty jealous:)-
 
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