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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Which three birds do you most want to see? (1 Viewer)

1 - Great Auk, 2 - Dodo & 3 - Passenger Pigeon. Can you imagine the excitement the discovery of any one of the three would make? OK it's impossible, but if you're going to dream I favour dreaming in style!
 
John Cantelo said:
1 - Great Auk, 2 - Dodo & 3 - Passenger Pigeon. Can you imagine the excitement the discovery of any one of the three would make? OK it's impossible, but if you're going to dream I favour dreaming in style!
Click to expand...

Maybe not, wasn't there talk of cloning using dna of dead birds on here?
 
Fozzybear said:
Good luck Andy, hope you get to see those soon! I've yet to see a Merlin either. Hobby and Stock Dove are both really nice birds, the few times I've seen a Hobby it's been really amazing and I remember getting a really close view of stock doves on a feeder at my local reservoir and really enjoyed that.

For me… difficult really to say but at this specific moment probably:

1. Little Owl - as I've heard them and seen a tiny glimpse but would LOVE to see one properly
2. Crested Tit - because they're just fantastic :t:
3. Storm Petrel - a bird I've really loved for years but not yet seen (I don't spend that much time at the coast)
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Thanks Fozzybear, this is the time of year where I see Crested Tits in stands of conifers, but they are not that common here. I think I'd leave the Storm Petrel until it gets a bit more pleasant to go out in a boat though and good luck with the Little Owl too.
 
Andy Hurley said:
Thanks Fozzybear, this is the time of year where I see Crested Tits in stands of conifers, but they are not that common here. I think I'd leave the Storm Petrel until it gets a bit more pleasant to go out in a boat though and good luck with the Little Owl too.
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You're lucky to have a few Crested Tits around, beautiful little things. :t: I will have to go to Scotland and be lucky I think if I am to see one in the UK.

I really hope one day to see Storm Petrels, they are a really special bird and I will be really excited to see one! But it's also one I'm prepared to wait and see 'in the fullness of time', I'd like to go somewhere that I can get a real experience of them rather than go out and get a fleeting glimpse.

Little Owls I've a good chance of seeing properly, my brother sees quite a lot in Suffolk and I know there are some within a few miles of where I live - it's just a matter of time. I heard a large number (going absolutely crackers!) gathered together in Suffolk last spring and I could 'just' about make out one on the ground but I don't really class it as really having seen one - I really would like to see one in daylight.
 
Pink-headed Warbler
Banded Cotinga
Scarlet-breasted Dacnis

And seeing these would put me in a position to see a lot more that could easily merit being on the list.
 
I'm on 5 week birding tour of Spain, had some cracking birds (see the blog) but sofar dipped out on these 3

Dupont's Lark

Wallcreeper

Little Bustard

Extramadura to come so ever hopeful!
 
OK, well, let's see....

World:
- Emperor Penguin
- Emu
- Cassowary
Big enough to see from a distance, and surely even I could ID them correctly...

Europe:
- Great grey owl
- Lammergeier
- Any bustard!

UK:
- Bittern (perhaps the commonest missing species)
- Ptarmigan (especially in its winter garb)
- Goshawk
 
Two lists

David

Resplendent Quetzal - missed twice
Palawan Peacock Pheasant (hopefully Jan/Feb 14)
Wilsons Bird Of Paradise (saw most of PNG birds of paradise so don't know if we will make it to Western Papua)

Sarah

Great Grey Owl - (possibly next August / Sept)
Kagu
Gurney's Pita (tentative travel plans to go back to Thailand.

and for both lots of Chinese / Taiwan Pheasants
 
Be nice to see one of these in the wild
Great Grey Owl.jpg

Other I would like to see

Short eared Owl
Goshawk
White-Tailed Eagle
and many many others
 
Mainly in Costa Rica

Peter C. said:
Hi David;
I know they're stealthy creatures (for something so, um, astonishing); just out of curiousity, where did you look?

Peter
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Mainly in Costa Rica including Monteverde, Los Angeles Cloudforest and Tapanti , we were even guided for a couple of days but unseasonable torrential rain that lasted for days and flooding made it really difficult.
Really annoying as my Brother-in-law who isn't even a keen birder on a similar trip at the same lodges a couple of weeks earlier saw 6.

Nicaragua and Southern Mexico on another trip was more of an off chance as we didn't have any known stakeouts.
I will try again in a couple of years and I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
 
Bananafishbones said:
Wow, wow wow

Superb Effort John :t:

I hunted for many hours while in Finland earlier in the year and dipped, dipped dipped
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My view of the channel has always been as our defensive bulwark - a difficult obstacle. Yesterday showed me that with the benefit of the Channel Tunnel, we now have instead a springboard that lays open the entire continent of Europe to us. The Hawk Owl twitch cost us about £70 each including the train ticket: cheaper by far than going to Shetland or Fair Isle. It was also a 26 hour round trip from home.

If it truly is the birds rather than the list one is interested in, the inference is obvious.

John
 
Farnboro John said:
My view of the channel has always been as our defensive bulwark - a difficult obstacle. Yesterday showed me that with the benefit of the Channel Tunnel, we now have instead a springboard that lays open the entire continent of Europe to us. The Hawk Owl twitch cost us about £70 each including the train ticket: cheaper by far than going to Shetland or Fair Isle. It was also a 26 hour round trip from home.

If it truly is the birds rather than the list one is interested in, the inference is obvious.

John
Click to expand...

Careful now...Before you know it you will be popping over to Spain or Greece for vagrants :p
 
Mysticete said:
Careful now...Before you know it you will be popping over to Spain or Greece for vagrants :p
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Ha ha... perhaps not, but if I think back a few years, there was a MacQueen's Bustard in Belgium, a Wallcreeper on the Channel coast... anything of that quality turning up that close is likely to generate interest in future.

John
 
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