Steve Lister
Senior Birder, ex County Recorder, Garden Moths.
Sure did. Wonderful display flight.
Steve
Steve
Definitely this http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=1102828&postcount=47 as it was on a romantic anniversary non-birding boat ride with my partner, and not the time to suddenly notice what as far as I'm aware was Southeast Asia's first auk. Not to mention that there was no way of persuading the boat driver to stop for it.
Israel in July isn't a good idea, basically too hot to bird after 0900hrs.
A
Clearly with your partner in-tow Larry!....you avoided an "aukward" moment. :-O
Am beginning to feel suitably "out-challenged"
Going via Ushaiha to Antarctica via Falklands and South Georgia for Penguins, Skuas, Albatrosses, etc. but when we got to Buenos Aires airport baggage handlers were on strike. Told we could label and load our own luggage but there were about 40 of us in the party and only Sarah and I and one other couple were young and fit enough to do it. Long story short after lots of hard work got plane loaded and took off. The plane then burst a tyre and damaged a wheel on take off - we circled the airport for a couple of hours burning fuel as emergency crews assembled on the ground, we were even on local TV, saw it on the phone, a couple of locals on board were praying etc as we practiced brace position but of course we landed safely and awoke in the Drake Passage with huge seas and hurricane force winds (everyone from our late arriving group of 40 being sick)
The hardest bird ive worked for is a Great northern diver. I heard there was one on a nearby lake so i set off to find it. However it was a miserable wet winter day so the ground was soft, slippery mud. Im in a wheelchair so this is not ideal conditions, not only making it much harder to go over but the mud sticks to my wheels and gets on to my hands which makes gripping the wheels harder and my binoculars needed a wash after that. To make matters worse i decided to bring my dog with me who was attached around my waist and pulling towards every goose on the lake. She is well trained to not pull but with all the geese distracting her that training was out the window.
I make it all the way to the other side of the lake which isnt the smallest and get blisters on my thumbs for the effort. I got the Diver, after at first thinking it was an immature Cormorant. I also saw my first Mipits on my way, making for 2 lifers that day. It is then i realise there is another car park nearer the bird but i didnt know it was there or how to get it but it would have been about 3-4 times easier to get there, but wouldnt have passed the Mipits so every cloud...
The next day i go to my local reserve, with nice hard paths making for an easier ride. I happened to turn up coincidentally at the exact same time as a certain Diver, i managed to see it for a fraction of the effort! But then i wasnt to know my earlier voyage was to be unnecessary.