Amazing bird finds by non-birders? (1 Viewer)

streatham · Mar 5, 2005

I was wondering if anyone has some good stories of good finds by non-birders. I heard a good story the other day from a birding friend about the time a friend rang him up to say that a Mockingbird was going crazy and killing all the Chickadees at their feeders - when he got round there was a Loggerhead Shrike sitting in the Garden (of course) - a pretty rare bird for CT.

Is it true that the first? RB Nuthatch found in the UK was initially found by non-birders?

Luke

Bubbs · Mar 5, 2005

streatham said:
I was wondering if anyone has some good stories of good finds by non-birders. I heard a good story the other day from a birding friend about the time a friend rang him up to say that a Mockingbird was going crazy and killing all the Chickadees at their feeders - when he got round there was a Loggerhead Shrike sitting in the Garden (of course) - a pretty rare bird for CT.

Is it true that the first? RB Nuthatch found in the UK was initially found by non-birders?

Luke

My next door neighbour who shoots pheasants on/in and around an eastern coastal conifer plantation told me about a bird that none of the shoot could identify.

His first description was how approachable the bird was " we walked up to it and it was quite reluctant to fly " He then described the birds overall plumage appearance and it's jizz. " The bird was chocolate brown with white spots and a long black pointed bill". I showed him a photo and a field guide plate of Nutcracker...that's what it was!

I have no doubt that what he and others saw that day was the above species. Sadly it never made the rarities commitee...but it did fly off to see another day.

John.

Stephen Dunstan · Mar 5, 2005

A Lancs farmer who found a Black Stork described it as 'like an Oystercatcher on steroids'.

As mentioned elsewhere on BF (unless it didn't survive the crash) a lady in the South Shore area of Blackpool had a Yellow-browed Warbler in her house. She caught in a bottle and showed to Ed Stirling who does much of his birding in urban Blackpool. For such a (relative) rarity to turn up in someone's house in Blackpool was unusual enough, so the odds of it ever being identified were pretty long.

Bubbs · Mar 5, 2005

The second record of Eleonora's falcon for GB was found dead by a farmers son at Patrington, East Yorkshire, UK, in 1981. The bird was set up as a mount and identified by the one and only Barry Spence (Spurn).

Full details can be found in Mather: Birds of Yorkshire, 1986.

JB.

Nutcracker · Mar 5, 2005

Anon person who rang up the RSPB office in Newcastle
"there's a strange little bird with a short, cocked up tail here . . . what is it?"

RSPB: "That'll be a Wren"

Anon: "Er, I don't think so"

RSPB: "Yes, a Wren, your description is exactly right"

Anon: "Its on the edge of the pond"

RSPB: "Wrens often visit water edges"

Anon: "err . . . no, err . . it doesn't look like a wr.."
RSPB (interrupting) "and Wrens are common in parks"

Anon: "err, no, it looks more like a tiny Water Rail"

RSPB: WHAT!!!
"I'll be right down! Don't go away!

Baillon's Crake . . .

Gill Osborne · Mar 5, 2005

LOL Peter

o

A few years ago I was getting ready to go to work...didn't start until 12.30pm...when my husband Neil rang me up. He was working for Telewest at the time and driving up to their Brunswick site when he saw a big 'ginger' bird flying above him. So he stopped the car and rang me up. As he described the bird I kept trying to fob him off with Buzzard or even Kestrel but I DID have this awful gnawing feeling in my stomach as to what it was! And when he said it had a great big FORKED tail :eek!: ....well, I told him I was going to divorce him!!!!!
And as one of his fellow Telewest workers was following behind him in another car (who just so happened to be a birder) he was able to verify it as a RED KITE!!!!!!! :C
Oh the shame....gripped off by my own husband, and a non-birder to boot! :C Neil STILL reminds me, on a fairly regular basis,that HE has seen a red kite...and I have not!

GILL

Ruby · Mar 6, 2005

.....Not any sort of rarity....but....

About 2 years ago, my own personal nemesis was the Bearded Tit... I knew what they looked like, where to find them, what they sounded like, that they liked still, sunny days... I had all the gen, but could I see one - could I heck!!

Anyway...Mrs Ruby and I were out having a nice walk around Stodmarsh reserve nr Canterbury - she likes a nice walk in the country, but doesn't do birding - when we decided to have a little sit down in the Reed hide.

Idly watching a Grey Heron in the hope of seeing it catch a fish and sharing a single pair of BINs....

You guessed!!

It's her go....

"What's that pretty little orange bird that's just flown out of the reeds??" says Mrs R....

Grrrrr.... It took me about another 9 months and countless hours camped in front of empty reedbeds!!

Steve Lister · Mar 6, 2005

john barclay said:
The second record of Eleonora's falcon for GB was found dead by a farmers son at Patrington, East Yorkshire, UK, in 1981. The bird was set up as a mount and identified by the one and only Barry Spence (Spurn).

Full details can be found in Mather: Birds of Yorkshire, 1986.

JB.

I was the farmer's son's A Level Chemistry teacher at the time but did not pay much attention to his story about a dead hawk in the garden!!

Steve

Bubbs · Mar 6, 2005

Steve Lister said:
I was the farmer's son's A Level Chemistry teacher at the time but did not pay much attention to his story about a dead hawk in the garden!!

Steve

I don't understand this. Forgive me if I sound dimmer than usual.

The young son was called Greenside.

John.

John Butler · Mar 6, 2005

john barclay said:
I don't understand this. Forgive me if I sound dimmer than usual.

The young son was called Greenside.

John.

I think Steve means that he was the teacher of the boy who found the bird.

Regards from Doñana.

John.

Bubbs · Mar 6, 2005

John Butler said:
I think Steve means that he was the teacher of the boy who found the bird.

Regards from Doñana.

John.

Have put brain in gear and it all makes sense...it's been a long day..DOH!

John.

jurek · Mar 6, 2005

One fisherman talked about "swans perching on a tree". He was given a bird book and he pointed at Great White Pelican!

Last spring, I, in Berlin, read the online edition of Polish newspaper and turned to local news from Warsaw. Here was a title "Pelican in Raszyn", with superb photo of immature GW Pelican taken by non-birder! So I alerted birders in Poland, who promptly refound the bird. Pelican stayed over a month, waited for me to return to Poland and see it, and, among others, featured in "Dutch Birding"!

Aracari · Mar 7, 2005

My partner found a large harpy-eagle a few years ago while fishing a remote tributary of the Rio Negro in Brazil. Unfortunately I wasn't in that trip.

Rasmus Boegh · Mar 7, 2005

A good friend of mine - who knows next to nothing about birds - told me about a "beautiful mainly yellow blackbird with a red bill" he had seen in the local woods. I failed to relocate the Golden Oriole...

Blackstart · Mar 7, 2005

Last summer, a non-birder found Israel's first Masked Booby while photographing a surfing competition.

-Adam

Bluetail · Mar 7, 2005

streatham said:
Is it true that the first? RB Nuthatch found in the UK was initially found by non-birders?

Not really, Luke. It was first seen by a husband and wife who were birders (or at least the husband was). They knew it was some sort of nuthatch, but couldn't ID it so they telephoned their son who is a very experienced birder down here in Plymouth to say that they'd seen a nuthatch with a white supercilium and didn't know what it was. There weren't too many options as to what it could be, but RBN seemed the most likely possibility so the son alerted other birders on the grapevine and the next day RBN is exactly what they found.

Richard D · Mar 7, 2005

I think it's Bill Oddie that points out Hoopoes are only ever seen by vicars and little old ladies.

CJW · Mar 7, 2005

Wasn't the Anglesey Black Lark first seen by non-birders? RSPB vols, certainly. Same thing really...

Andrew Whitehouse · Mar 7, 2005

An RSPB vol in Islay went for a walk shortly after arriving on the island, which was apparently very enjoyable. The vol was delighted to be able to tell others the next day about his first Ravens, which he'd had excellent views of. He rounded his tale off with a perfunctory "Oh and I saw an Ivory Gull too". Unlike many other such claims, this turned out to be quite genuine and various others (myself not included, not that I'm bitter) managed to see it later on that day in the same area.

John Butler · Mar 7, 2005

streatham said:
I was wondering if anyone has some good stories of good finds by non-birders.

A true story from Doñana which happened a couple of years back.

I was at El Rocio marshes with several clients when a minibus arrived and about 8 avid birders got out, complete with top of the range 'scopes and binos, and began scanning the marsh.

The conversation went something like "I think I've got one - Oh no, it's not"
"Is that one"? -Oh sh*t, it's just a common one"
"What's that there? - no, thats not it"

This went on for about 10 minutes.

Then an obvious "non-birding" lady, who had remained on the bus writing postcards, joined the men and borrowed the binoculars of one of the men who was frantically scanning the marsh with his scope.

She put the bins to her eyes and within 10 seconds exclaimed "There's one of them silly coots with the funny red bobbles on its' head"

Oh, the shame of the male group as they all followed her directions to their target bird, the only Red-knobbed Coot amongst over 1,000 Common Coots.

PS. I must admit that I hadn't seen it, but then again, my group were looking at Curlew Sandpipers, Dunlins and Little Stints, in a different direction.

Regards from Doñana.

John.

Amazing bird finds by non-birders? (1 Viewer)

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