Well blow me down with a feather! (2 Viewers)

Jane Turner · Dec 12, 2003

Ok this is another one of those threads. What is the biggest surprise you have had birding. I'm not talking mega rarities here, but birds in unusual circumstances.

I have two, both relating to the same species. I was seawtching... actually I was looking to record my first non-sandwich terns of the year. It was mid April c. 1978. From up the Dee in calm weather on a sunny day came a Leach's Petrel. It flew right down the tide edge, passing me about 10 feet away. I've never seen one so close...so unbuffeted by winds or in such good light.

Two years ago I was driving through the Mersey tunnel and encountered a Leach's in the Liverpool end of the tunnel! There was another over Switch Island.... a complicated set of roundabouts on the outskirts of Liverpool.

ivewalmer · Dec 12, 2003

One early March I was scanning for waders at Pegwell Bay in Kent having messed up the tide times yet again. Heard a movement down by my feet and out of the corner of my non scope eye glimpsed something scuttling between my legs. Despite being a big bloke I am a bit of a girls blouse where rats are concerned so jumped back only to see said rat take flight like a bullet and land in some more long grass nearby - twas a quail!

Steve Jones · Dec 12, 2003

Jane,
I used to work near Preston Docks alonside the River Ribble in the early-mid ninety's and westerley winds used to bring some nice surprises.
On my dinnertime walks there was an early January Little Gull that stayed for a week and was so tame I could almost touch it as it held against the wind in front of me. Another one I liked was a gannet speeding upriver towards the middle of Preston like the clappers during another strong blow.
Steve.

Jane Turner · Dec 12, 2003

Actually I just remebered the strangest...and it wasn't a bird. A friend came round to see me last year and said... I'm only ever going to be able to say this once in a lifetime.........

There appears to be an octopus on your drive

Andrew Whitehouse · Dec 12, 2003

A couple spring immediately to mind:

Last year I moved into Anstruther on the Firth of Forth. A friend of mine told me of a good spot in the village, just a short stretch of burnside trees and scrub. One day, late September I was walking to the shops and thought I would stake out the area for future visits. It wasn't much good for migrants, with there having been southwesterly winds and dry sunny weather for weeks. I sat for a few minutes on a bench by the burn and heard a funny bird calling from the trees behind. I scanned around with my bins and there was a Yellow-browed Warbler flitting through the trees.

A few years ago I saw a couple of Purple Sandpipers on the shore in St Andrews. Nothing unusual there but these two turned up in the middle of July on the West Sands (the big sandy beach here) where I'd never seen them before (or since). They looked as completely lost as I've ever seen a bird and kept trying to huddle behind lumps of seaweed!

Darrell Clegg · Dec 12, 2003

I remember an incident at Spurn a couple of years ago when my brother and I were eating our lunch on the sea defences by the Bluebell car park. A small flock of Linnets came flying in and sat on a rock right next to us, together with a spanking Ortolan which was happy to hop around our feet for a couple of minutes before flying off up Beacon Lane.

Darrell

Jane Turner · Dec 12, 2003

Ah Spurn.....I was looking for a Dicks pipit somewhere inland of Easington and was surprised to see 8 adult Pom Skua...with spoons coming low over the field from the direction of the Humber

kmonty1950 · Dec 12, 2003

Jane,

Do you want to tell us more about the octopus?

Ken. (Confused & bemused!!!!!!!!)

Jane Turner · Dec 12, 2003

kmonty1950 said:
Jane,

Do you want to tell us more about the octopus?

Ken. (Confused & bemused!!!!!!!!)

I live by the sea.... it was a good year for octopus in Cheshire - 10-15th records ever of Lesser. I reckon that a local gull must have picked one up and dropped it.

I had a dead Great crested grebe and a Razorbill in the same week

Reader · Dec 12, 2003

Yet another Spurn story.

Sept 29th 1998 near to dusk. I had seen what I thought was a Barred Warbler shoot across my path. I gingerly walked towards a large bush where I thought it had gone and - almost stepped onto a Corncrake. The bird flew about 10' feet away, its legs diagnostically trailing behind. I crept towards it again and it flew, this time well away from me never to be seen again. Still the only Corncrake I have ever seen, Oh and I didn't find the Barred Warbler either.

jay1964 · Dec 12, 2003

Whilst on a ferry in Nova scotia a Wilsons Storm Petrel sat down next to me.

Denis J · Dec 12, 2003

I walk my local patch most sunday mornings. a couple of years ago there was a nice nor easterly late summer and I saw my first velvet scoter Phoned the wife to tell her and as I was talking I got my first white winged black tern my wife jumped on the bus and arrived about 40 minutes later just in time for Her first velvet scoter she was just moaning about the tern being long gone when our first alpine swift flew along the edge of the cliff and started doing nice slow orbits around us at about 20 feet we had time to get the book out and check it! probably the best mornings birding ever.

Denis J · Dec 12, 2003

Or the time we decided not to go birdwatching and just had a slow walk up the field and back ..about half a mile whe saw 4 dots in the distance and thought ah..geese they headed straight at us and as they got closer they were white ah..swans. then they flew over our heads at about 40 feet ..common Cranes!

StevieEvans · Dec 13, 2003

I vaulted a barb-wire fence at a small pond which i had n't visited for ten years.
It was a surprise to see it half infilled with rubble & waste, BUT even more of a Shock to have a Bittern fly up from my feet!
My first Bittern & self found, but it did frighten the ---- out of me as it was so close! One i wont forget.
(PageBankPond nr Spennymoor)
Ste.

jada dulo · Dec 13, 2003

My first trip to Norfolk !! I was 15 and my Dad took me there for my birthday , I was so excited as we pulled up at Titchwell , I got to the first part , an open path over-looking a large area of water , set my scope up and scanned out over the expance of water and saw just one bird , blinked , looked again ... and yes , it was a solitary Greater Flamingo !! ... later we learned it was an escape and had been on the reserve for a couple of weeks ... it was 1985 I think ... some-one out there may remember it .

Jane Turner · Dec 13, 2003

I stood..well nearly stood on a Hoopoe once. I was climbing a bank to check out some gulls at frodsham and a small firework display went off just in front of me.

I suffered a complete brain - mouth bypass and as I recall managed only to shout obsenities to my birding companions.

seb salas · Dec 13, 2003

ivewalmer said:
One early March I was scanning for waders at Pegwell Bay in Kent having messed up the tide times yet again. Heard a movement down by my feet and out of the corner of my non scope eye glimpsed something scuttling between my legs. Despite being a big bloke I am a bit of a girls blouse where rats are concerned so jumped back only to see said rat take flight like a bullet and land in some more long grass nearby - twas a quail!

The same thing happened to me twice in Cyprus. I used to walk the same way from my hotel to the headland at Paphos that crossed a field. I stood on something that moved and also being a big girl's blouse I jumped back and saw a tiny brown thing fly about 20 yards and then just disappear - assumed it was a Quail. It was the first I'd ever seen. Then the next day walking the same route at almost the same place the exact same thing happened. I stood on something and it moved and then flew 20-30 yards and then vanished!
Later in the holiday seawatching from the headland, we saw a tiny brown "auk" coming in off the sea following it from about a mile out. I was completely baffled as to what it was until it landed on the rocks about 2 metres infront of us and was a Quail!! It rested there for about 10 minutes then flew up and to the side of us heading to the grass where I had stood on the the other bird/s. Then out of nowhere a Kestrel just smashed into it and decimated the poor little thing and that was that.
I've seen 3 Quail in my life: I stood on 2 (well probably the same one) and couldn't ID the other until it sat right infront of me!!!
Seb.

Nancy · Dec 13, 2003

Mine was a Manx Shearwater at Holyhead (Anglesea) as we were lining up in the queue to board the car ferry to Ireland. I saw this bird fluttering on the ground beneath a light and jumped out of the car and picked it up. I had been hoping to see one, a new species for me, but didn't expect such a close encounter. I put it into a bag and carried it to the top deck where I released it after the ferry had got well out to sea. Very rewarding to see it fly away strongly.

Jane Turner · Dec 13, 2003

I nealy ran a Manxie over...coming off Skye. I think it might have mistaken the wet road for water... like yours it was fine once it got its bearings!

jada dulo · Dec 13, 2003

I used to be a forester and working in quiet out-of-the-way locations often brought up the odd surprise .. like my first encounter with a Larch Fly !! it looks like an enormous Hornet ... it only requires the odd tattoo here and there to complete the overall look of " hard " !! . Because they are so big they can barely fly plus you can here them coming from a mile off !! anyway , one day one of these things landed on my sandwich as I was about to eat it ! were it not for my in-built fascination of all things weird I would probably have required ressusatating !
I also once saw an Otter sunbathing by a stream ... fantastic !!! And I've had more than one to-close-for-comfort expierience with a Mink !
But best of all is I once hand fed a fox !!! it was watching me for a couple of days whilst I was falling in the Wyre forest and wether it was a build up of trust or it was a capture that had been released or had escaped but after a day or so it began to come and see me more and more frequently until one day it came in so close I held out half my buttie and it snatched it from my hand and ran off ! It still monitored me for a few days but never came that close again . A week later with work complette I left the Wyre for another job in Wales ... I never returned to see if my friend was still there or would remember me .

I saw Dances with Wolves sometime later and it was so weird seeing the the part where the wolf takes food from Kevin Costner ... it was a reminder of my red friend ... although ' Dances with Foxes ' is a name most young men would like to think they could have !!

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