Embarassing ID moment again! (1 Viewer)

senatore · Apr 23, 2005

I was at my local patch the other day and as I walked between hides my ultra keen birders eyes spotted what looked like a very interesting bird in the far distance.

It was a across a lake and at the far edge of a meadow next to a hedge that bordered a wood.It is not accessable over there so getting closer was not an option.

I got very excited as through my bins I could see a large white bird ....a Spoonbill? a Great White Egret? a Stork ? WOW!!!

Luckily for me another birder was nearby and I lured him over with excited waving.He saw what I was looking at and quickly set up his scope.

He stepped back and invited me to have a look.What I saw was a Sainsbury,s plastic supermarket fluttering gently in the breeze trapped against the hedge. OH DEAR !!!!!!!!!

Please say I am not alone in having an embarrassing ID incident.

MAX.

Ruby · Apr 23, 2005

Definitely not!!

I have had a number of experiences at getting excited over things that are not, and have never been, alive! Thankfully never having blurted out anything I'll live to regret!!

Some of my pals, who are excellent birders, tell the story of the time that they spent ages and ages scoping something and trying to figure out what it was - which in this case, was Tescos I think...

Nightranger · Apr 23, 2005

I think we all have but prefer not to remember but I have to admit to a recent gaffe that went totally unnoticed because a non-birding colleague was sat next to me at the time. Anyone else out of my colleagues in the Lee Valley hide at the time would have noticed so being told that confession is good for the soul, I admit that I called a long-tailed tit as a beardie. In my defence, I thought I heard a beardie call just before the LTTs flew out of the reeds but surely I have not got to the stage that a year tick is that desparate. :eat:

Ian

snowyowl · Apr 23, 2005

I've tried to turn more white garbage bags and fishermen's floats into
Snowy Owls than you could possibly believe.
One of the worst id. errors occured a couple winters back. Five of us were in my van when someone spotted a bird perched on top of a pole on the other side of the harbour. It was snowing fairly hard so we couldn't see much but it was very owly in shape and we could see it moving. I had to drive quite some distance to get to bridge that would allow us to reach the other side. I know I set some land speed records getting around there (I still get teased about that drive). You guessed it, I'm sure! Pastic owl on a swivel base. :C

Bubbs · Apr 23, 2005

Don't worry. I know iv'e posted this before but the cowpat - aka Nighthawk -on Scilly some years ago takes some beating. The sad part of the story is it's all true.

Those who don't make gaffs are lying.

John.

Stranger · Apr 23, 2005

I called two Grebes and the lady next to me said "yes and they are doing the courting ritual" meanwhile I had got my bins properly focused and realised the grebes were in fact the top of a submerged tree.After scanning the lake in case I had missed something I was left wondering,do I admit my mistake.To my eternal shame I bottled out and she probably thinks to this day she saw Grebes.

Stuart Watson · May 19, 2005

Had been pointing out various birds to a friend at the seaside when we decided to stop by a freshwater RSPB reserve further inland. Amazed at the sheer numbers and variety of wildfowl i commented "There`s absolutely hundreds here" - to which my friend bellowed "Aye- but there mostly all Eiders". I got the reddy and left. I was too humiliated to point out the difference between Eider and Tufted.

delia todd · May 19, 2005

I went through a phase of not being able to say "puffins" and kept calling them penguins!

Returning home from Forfar one day I saw a large bird on an electricity pylon at a small village. Stopped the car quick look through bins "long-eared owl". Out with the scope set it all up focussed. Erm er it's a model one. We still laugh about it and point it out when passing.

D

David Pedder · May 20, 2005

Not an ID gaff but a painful one nevertheless - my partner and I were watching a pair of nesting Little Grebe from a hide full of "serious" birders when a stalking Grey Heron appeared in the reeds. "I think that Heron is nesting in there," she said. There was an audible tut from one of the birders, "Herons nest in trees dear," he said!

Zulu Merula · May 20, 2005

hehe, me and my Dad were once by a pond watching this heron- we were sharing the binoculars and marvelling at how still it was standing, waiting for it to strike a fish from the water, as it was obviously hunting, because it was standing so still. We too stood still, for a long time, and the bird didn't move a muscle. Nor did a feather blow in the breeze- because, it was in fact, a plastic model of a heron! lol.

Now, this is the opposite kind of story, but I want to tell it anyway, coz it was a proud moment. When we were on holiday in Mallorca somewhere, near this nature reserve called Albufera park, I spotted a wading bird in the shallows. We weren't actually in the park at this point, but a lot of the surroundings are boggy and reedy- so we crossed this really busy road to get a closer look at the bird. I was about 10 at the time, and looking through my binoculars I was excited to recognise a black winged stilt! It was the first time I'd seen one, so I excitedly told my Dad and he laughed at me and said 'there is no such thing, you must mean black winged stint'. I said no, there is a bird called a stint, but this bird is DEFINITELY a black winged stilt! He was having none of it- he's quite often wrong but utterly convinced he's right and will not back down. I was getting pretty cross by this point, saying 'I'll show it you in my bird book when we get home, but I KNOW FOR SURE it's a black winged stilt!' Anyways, luckily for me at this point, some experienced birders with big telescopes came by- I marched over to them and said- 'Could you please tell my Dad what that bird over there is'. Luckily they were English, and they said 'yes- it's a black winged stilt'.

Take that, Dad! lol. I guess it WAS an embarrassing ID moment for him!

Lucky Birder · May 20, 2005

john barclay said:
Don't worry. I know iv'e posted this before but the cowpat - aka Nighthawk -on Scilly some years ago takes some beating. The sad part of the story is it's all true.

Those who don't make gaffs are lying.

John.

I once claimed Quail from the West Bank at Cley and that turned out to be a cowpat. Funny thing is, I was certain I'd seen it fly!

Zulu Merula · May 20, 2005

Lol!!!

Stuart Watson · Jul 23, 2005

Double whammy - sat watching a piece of seaweed flapping in the wind for 15 minutes before convincing myself that it wasn`t actually a Mandarin.

IanBrown · Jul 24, 2005

A few weeks ago I was out with my camera at a local network of reservoirs and came across a dipper perched on a log in shallow water. I took a few frames. I moved around the corner to get some shots from a different angle and was sure I could see its white chest moving around (from the distance I was at I couldn't see the rest of the bird against the log).

I realised afterwards - when zooming into to 100% on the camers LCD screen - that while the first few shots turned out ok, the second set consisted of a piece of white plastic bag caught on a stick attached to the log.

KnockerNorton · Jul 25, 2005

Driving along the A14 a few months ago at 70mph, 2 second glance of a 'traffic cone' way off in the middle of a wheat field. Bit odd, I though, why would anyone put it there? Not there the next day. Just a very real White Stork in the immediate vicinity (seen by others, naturally).

I'll never know, but, to be honest, a stork is more likely in the middle of that field than a transient traffic cone...

buckskin hawk · Jul 25, 2005

I keep a list-Stump bird, rock bird, leaf bird, stick bird, and oh it gets better--airplane bird, WalMart plastic bag bird (blue), grocery pastic bag bird(white), ear of a cow bird, etc.

While driving to the stable to feed my horses one day, I passed a pond that had an interesting bird at the far end. I stopped and got out my bins only to id another stump bird but while out of the car I hear an unusual song. It was a Vesper sparrow so stump birds can be a good thing!

mrpjdavis · Sep 23, 2005

My wife (a strictly fairweather and "It's got to be pretty" birder) and I often go to Spain. Sensibly, I scan every cliff with my binoculars. Conversation goes like this:- Me "That could be a peregrine." Wife "No, it's a rock." Me "No, I'm sure it's a peregrine." Wife "No, it's a rock." I get out the 'scope - "Yes, it's a rock."....... Except once, when it was my first Bonelli's Eagle! I keep on trying and my "bird/rock ratio must be up to about 1 to 10!

I've also had things the other way round. Standing at New Fancy Viewpoint, looking for Goshawks, one of the other birders called out a probable, sitting in a very distant tree. I scoped it and decided it was a schedule D plastic bag. Thirty seconds later, the "bag" flew towards us and we had stunning views of a juvenile Goshawk.

Gregory Sargean · Sep 24, 2005

I almost always interchange "Tropical Parula" for "Northern Parula" when reporting them to other birders, especially when they are members of the records commitee. Doh!

birdpotter · Sep 24, 2005

I've told this one before, but it seems appropriate here. Going into to a small coastal reserve to spot a Snowy Owl, my husband, son and I were driving along to the parking area, when we saw this tremendously huge white bird flying directly towards us. I was driving so it was my husband who confirmed it was a Snowy. We were so giddy, laughing and excited. I took the bins from him when I found a chance to stop and just at that moment the bird turned giving us a profile of its extremely long neck...a Tundra Swan...ah well, at least we only felt like fools amongst each other.

Another time we were at a roadside rest stop, the kind on toll roads with the small fast food restaurants inside one large building. We noticed an owl perched in one of the outside rafters and were amazed at how it could possibly sit there with all the human traffic...you can guess what it was...

senatore · Sep 25, 2005

I was at one of my local patches the other day ( the grounds of a Nat. Trust property) and had just entered the walled garden area when I heard this unusal bird song.I spent the next few minutes trying to locate it which was difficult as it was very intermittent. I was getting more excited as it was a song had not heard before.

I finally tracked it down............It was the hinges of the gate at the entrance to the walled garden !!!!!!! Thank goodness I was alone.

Max.

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