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

Best/Favourite "Self-found" bird. (1 Viewer)

I also get a great deal of pleasure from finding scarce birds when on foreign trips, epsecially when some effort is required and you haven't paid a guide.

Still one of my most memorable is Moutain Serin in Java, I don't think many people connect with it there? I even have crappy photos. Another fav one is African Finfoot (3) on the Zambesi from our camp as we sat having coffee at breakfast!

We enjoy a wonderful hobby, not sure there's a better one.

If my wife comes to live in the UK, I might start twitching again, it's a great way to show her the country.


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Stonefaction said:
Which is why I included "favourite" in the thread title. They don't have to be firsts, or rarities, just the ones that you enjoyed most for whatever reason. Not everyone will find a first, or a second, third whatever, but we will all chance upon unexpected birds that make our birding day/week/month/year/lifetime, from time to time. Those 'favourites' are as interesting as the 'bests'.
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I think I'd go for Kingfisher and Hawfinch - both birds that as a kid I'd never expected to see, let alone find for myself in my local suburban city park. More vivid memories of those than of any self-found rarity since.
 
Nutcracker said:
I think I'd go for Kingfisher and Hawfinch - both birds that as a kid I'd never expected to see, let alone find for myself in my local suburban city park. More vivid memories of those than of any self-found rarity since.
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I still vividly remember my first Blackcap in a local park.


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Probably a Striped Crake which appeared unexpectedly being chased by Jacanas while I was watching a Shoebill in Uganda. In the UK, finding a Red-backed Shrike at a site just about to host an RSPB migration event. And as the semi-opposite, being with one other birder at Holyhead Harbour, who said "I think I've got a White-billed Diver"; which i talked him out of, as it lacked the characteristic bill shape. However, as the winter progressed, and the fully adult shape developed......
 
Nutcracker said:
I think I'd go for Kingfisher and Hawfinch - both birds that as a kid I'd never expected to see, let alone find for myself in my local suburban city park. More vivid memories of those than of any self-found rarity since.
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Iconic - I can remember both of my firsts of those - somewhere near Hull for the Kingfisher- flying up a ditch and hawfinch at Holkham.
 
Stonefaction said:
Which is why I included "favourite" in the thread title. They don't have to be firsts, or rarities, just the ones that you enjoyed most for whatever reason. Not everyone will find a first, or a second, third whatever, but we will all chance upon unexpected birds that make our birding day/week/month/year/lifetime, from time to time. Those 'favourites' are as interesting as the 'bests'.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clarifying that. It allows me to add :

Western Capercaillie a 'singing' / popping / whatever you like to call it bird at the top of a fair-size pine, before dawn one morning near Loch Morlich, Speyside, Scotland, around 1988. Not even my first Caper but still a magical sight and sound.
 
This is an easy one for me to answer. Self-found, and a lifer, Roseate Spoonbill. Found July 15, this year, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

It is the first spoonbill seen in Pennsylvania since 1968.

Pics here and here.
 
For me, Olive-backed Pipit!...found by my dog "Barney" (he found a few), he dragged me out, thinking I might come in useful for ID purposes. ;)
It had always been high on my "want" list, flushed by "himself" from the edge of a horse ride (Epping Forest, London), watched it drop into a small (3' high) Crab Apple sapling, mostly obscured at that point, then morning sun shafted through and lit up (from the rear) a tail pumping bird. As I mouthed "what the ####"...it "right-angled" it's head showing the already "indelibly etched" facial pattern. It's fair to say that the adrenalin rush lasted a long time, as has the record, first and only London record in 25 years.

Cheers
 
Best I have found is a Thrush Nightingale at Spurn. I probably don't even go down as the finder but I was the first one very early morning, I located it on song, and pulled up and tried to see it for two hours. I alerted another birder, and then a warden who was driving past. I also found a wintering American Golden Plover in Lincs by Donna Nook, tho that bird had already been seen sporadically that winter.

Also found 8 stunning Waxwings 100 metres from my home, several Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (Ive actually got a good record of finding them) - including 1 at Belvide, 1 at Aqualate Res, as well as 4 birds at well-known LSW sites. Turtle Dove on Cannock Chase was one of my favourate finds as was unexpected.

The Thrush Nightingale is my stand-out bird though, even if I only got to see it in the hand once it had been netted.
 
In the Uk, Richards Pipit 30 years ago at Spurn. First self found (with my brother) scarcity on a cracking first autumn trip.

Bengal Florican, from a roadside in Cambodia. Our bus had stopped whilst two Water buffalo were fighting in the road. Great bird in memorable surroundings.
 
Probably not the rarest bird I've found, but my absolute favourite was a Pallas's warbler at Burnham Overy Dunes late in the afternoon on 13/10/2013. It was an abhorrent day, with heavy downpours and a biting north-easterly wind - ideal weather for a fall. There were stacks of birds coming in off the sea, and best of all, very few people about. My non-birding partner pointed out a knackered Yellow-browed warbler sitting on seaweed on the beach. Goldcrests seemed to hang off of every blade of grass. Various thrushes and finches called as they shot inland overhead. We got absolutely soaked and headed back toward the car when something yellowish flashed across the path in front of me. I looked down from the sea wall into the suaeda and there was a hovering Pallas's warbler, fully living upto its name of "seven-striped sprite". I stayed with the bird for 5 minutes or so, but it really deteriorated and we headed back to the car. I think quite a few others saw it after we left. I've found another 2 since then, but that first one really sticks in my memory. Radde's (2014) and OBP (2016) were also great to find, another story for another time perhaps.
Another good find was in Poland in 2015, we visited a lesser known site for waders one day and found a cracking Terek sandpiper. A lot of vodka was consumed celebrating that evening. Went back the next day with a serious hangover and the Terek had cleared out. Set up the scope and the first three birds I saw were summer-plumage Broad-billed sandpipers. Watched them for a bit, then went back to celebrate with more Żubrówka.
 
angusmcoatup said:
.

Bengal Florican, from a roadside in Cambodia. Our bus had stopped whilst two Water buffalo were fighting in the road. Great bird in memorable surroundings.
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Did you report this, where was it, not many sites in Cambodia for this. Think I know of two sites and the only one with chance from a roadside would be Tom Greys old study area but that would be extremely fortunate.

When we went to a well know site for them, (so well known that I forgot the name!) it involved hiring motorbikes and working a massive area of paddies and agricultural land well away from any roads.


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Can be hard to choose such things.

In Ireland I would probably rank 2

Pallid Harrier https://www.birdguides.com/articles...stbusters-pallid-harrier-ballyvergan-co-cork/
Because Pallid Harriers are superb, and Madeiran Petrel as an awesome seawatching experience.
https://www.birdguides.com/articles...-finders-magic-madeiran-galley-head-co--cork/

Here in Finland I would say the first (of two) Short Toed Eagles I found. Apart from just being one of those "WTF am I looking aHOLY ****" moments, the bird was interesting as it was tracked pretty much all the way to the Russian border.

Owen
 
For me, as self-found birds go, one of the finds that got me the most excited was finding three Red-throated Loons at my local reservoir in a rainstorm. Several are usually seen in Pennsylvania each year (often in similar circumstances), but they are often singles. My count of three was pretty unusual for Montgomery County, I think.

I am yet to find a true rarity, but I'm still looking... :eek!:
 
KenM said:
Seek....and ye shall find, birdmeister.

cheers
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Thanks, Ken.

I thought I had really got a good one last fall with a possible "White-winged" Dark-eyed Junco. It turned out that the bird was one among a small percentage of "Slate-colored" with white wingbars!

I guess my misfortune at finding rarities can only last so long! I still get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of birding, though.
 
Olrog's Gull, Black Crown Monjito, Yellow Winged Blackbird, Grassland Yellow Finch all 1st for the Falkland Islands.

Flesh Footed Shearwater 1st for the South West Atlantic (not heard of any other records)

White Cheeked Pintail 2nd Falkland Islands record (1st for 150 years!!)

Finding Red Shoveler, Greater Yellowlegs and a couple of Rosy Billed Pochards all on the same day (All very rare vagrants to the Falkland Islands)


Cheers

Alan
 
Think my favourites are still birds seen as a teenager near my home in the eighties. Surf Scoter in 1984 was still a rarity and I remember running back to get on the phone ! In 1985 saw Lothian's first, reported, Nuthatch since 1865, just five minutes from my house and amazing views.

Of course both are now regular but it is all about set and setting !
 
anderson10 said:
Think my favourites are still birds seen as a teenager near my home in the eighties. Surf Scoter in 1984 was still a rarity and I remember running back to get on the phone ! In 1985 saw Lothian's first, reported, Nuthatch since 1865, just five minutes from my house and amazing views.

Of course both are now regular but it is all about set and setting !
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Yes for me...it's about lighting, specimen (gender), posture and proximity, throw in an average point and shoot (mine's a bridge)....and fire, irrespective of whether it's common, rare or otherwise. 👍
 
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