• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Has anyone been lucky enough to be the person to spot a raritee? (1 Viewer)

devilbirder

Well-known member
I have never been lucky enough to have spotted a raritee and been the first person to see but have any of us?The closest to a raritee that i have seen if i recall correctly is a Red crested pochard! :h?:
 
Last edited:
I haven't got a large list but so far the ones I can recall (and I am doing this from memory as I am work) are:

Pallid Swift at Sizewell Power Station. I think it was 31/10/99.

White Billed Diver a couple of years ago at Loch Eriboll which is the far north west of Scotland.

Barred Warbler in 1999 on the Farne Islands

Corncrake at Spurn, I think in 1998.

Abroad my list includes:

Black browed Albatross near to Amricao de Pera on the Algarve in Portugal.

Slender billed Curlew on the Greek Mainland near to the Albanian Border. (before anyone shouts, Birdlife International agree that it more than likely was a SLB,from my notes, but would never be able to officially accept it without supporting evidence)

Rock Martin near to the Spanish border in Portugal

I also found a certain Lesser Sand Plover on April 26th (2002 I think) at Tarifa, Spain. Two weeks later the same bird (or a very similar one)turned up at Rimac in Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, as with most birds sighted by a lone birder, it was not accepted by the SEO.

There are probably more but I can't recall them just yet.
 
o:) We had a pair of hawfinches visit our garden every day for a whole week.I am told its unusual for them to visit, but they scared the life out of the other birds.They bullied
and chased them from the bird baths etc.Then they went off to warmer places down south. o:)
 
Never found a real rarity (only been looking two years!) but I'm gonna keep working my local patch until I do!

It's always the self-found birds that bring me the most pleasure - not real rarities, but uncommon or harder-to-find birds, particularly when they are local.

Last year, two Little Owls, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Cuckoo that I found for the first time on my patch brought me as much if not more pleasure than the Montagu's Harriers and BlackTerns that others helped me find (although I'm certainly not ungrateful for all the help I receive from other more experienced birders - thank you to any of them reading).
 
Haven't really found any rarities as such but I was once in a hide at Leighton Moss with Neil and two other birders and I was the one who saw a Bittern emerge from the reeds first!

As to 'real' rarities....I normally just dip out on them LOL

GILL
 
Crazy Birder said:
I have never been lucky enough to have spotted a raritee and been the first person to see but have any of us?The closest to a raritee that i have seen if i recall correctly is a Red crested pochard! :h?:

I have an Irish finders list of 236 species which includes some very rare birds.
some of which are
Crag Martin 1st Irish Record
Red Necked Stint 1st Irish Record
Great Snipe
Semi Palmated Sandpiper
Bairds Sandpiper
White Rumped Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
American Golden Plover
Red Eyed Vireo

Phil.
 
Years ago, I had a Common Redpoll at my feeder for one day. I lived in Southern Missouri, so it was a rarity there. In fact, it was the first one spotted there and recorded in 20 years. A bunch of people from the Audubon society came out to see it, but it never showed its face again. I took at least two pictures of it, but it was at the beginning of a roll of film that did not advance properly at first, needless to say, I did not even get a photo of it.

That's all I have as far as a 'rare' bird.

Elizabeth
 
I had an odd encounter for my corners this past Fall.A mate and I were finishing the day at a small patch on the Lake Erie shore.We looked down on a breakwall and saw a "large duck" We didn't immediatly recognize the bird and my friend went back to the car to get a guide.As I waited for him I kept looking at the bird and solved it.I had seen it before out of the state.As Mike strode back with book in hand ,I said look up brant.There it was and a real poser.Brant is not that much of a rareity here but they don't blanket this area as they do in other statesThat evening Mike posted the sighting to the state website.I was a little surprised to learn he and I had the same last name.The next day I read in the site that a gaggle of eleven brants were being observed down the coast a few miles.I went to the patch to see them and found several other birders on site who rushed to ask if I was there for brant.Yes I am.They pulled out guides before me as an aid.We all five walked together looking around the park at the large flock of Canada geese.We spotted the small grey,black and white geese in a small herd and all ticked them just before they flew off over the lake I wrote to the website the next day to have my name corrected in the original sighting to which they complied.It was fun at Thanksgiving to meet up with my friend and his brother who is also is a birder and explain how the three of us were brothers for a while.
Sam
 
I hooked onto a Bee Eater in Marloes, West Wales whilst on a weekend trip with my local bird club.

Got a fair bit of stick from the lads who had left early to catch the Black Lark at Anglesey (especially as they were half way there when we rang them on the mobile!)
 
Crazy Birder said:
I have never been lucky enough to have spotted a raritee and been the first person to see but have any of us?The closest to a raritee that i have seen if i recall correctly is a Red crested pochard! :h?:

If you want to find a rarity yourself there are a few things you can do to increase the chances.

Go birding at places that have not been covered by anyone else recently, or places where there are birds but not other regular birders.
Go out midweek.
Look at all birds properly if you have chance.
Pay attention to the weather and try to work out what you might see - this is the most difficult of the four.

Another one is go birding on your own. That way you don't get distracted by conversations but you have to balance that with having just one pair of eyes (but you are trying to find your own rarity anyway) and the problem of a possible single observer record - mobile phones have helped here.

Good luck!

Steve
 
A friend and I once found an aquatic warbler at the local patch.

abroad: not a true rarity, but the montezuma's quail that practically walked over my feet in Arizona was a great find.

cheers,

filip
 
My best spottings are probably Glossy Ibis and Eurasian Spoonbill on Lista Birdobservatory,Norway. Besides this I have spotted two American thrushes together with other birders on Utsira Island on the westcoast of Norway: Swainsons Thrush and Grey cheeked Thrush. Last summer we had White rumped Sandpiper on Lista .
 
I've only found a BBRC rarity twice, and both times I only got there first by accident. If I hadn't found them someone else would. The first was a Rustic Bunting at St. Abbs, at that time the earliest ever seen in Britain (7/4/79). That record didn't take long to be beaten.

The second was an American Lesser Golden Plover at Musselburgh in Sept 77. I literally walked towards it as it stood on the edge of the water.That bird stayed around for a couple of weeks. Since then all my rarities have been second-hand.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 19 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top