Embarrasing moment (1 Viewer)

Hi all

ElAnnie has put a photo in the gallery of a Long tailed Tit and it reminded me of an embarrasing moment early on in my birding life.

I had probably been birding only for a couple of months and was very naive in certan things. I chose a lovely day to visit one of my favourite reserves, Upton Warren. As I got out of my car, in the car park, I noticed a net strewn across a gap between two hedges with a Long tailed tit in it. There was nobody about and at the time I had never heard of, or seen, mists nests before. Thinking that someone was trying to catch these birds illegally I proceeded to try and release this little bundle of fluff but only succeeded in cutting it away with bits of netting tangled around it. Panicking I rushed with it to the nearest hide but there was no one there. I gingerly picked away at the netting and eventually managed to release the bird, possibly slightly traumatised, but generally unhurt. It gave me an amazing feeling having this delightful bird in my hand for a short while and I marvelled at its beauty and smallness.

After a very short while I released the bird through the front of the hide and watched it disappear into the trees at the side just as the door opened by a chap who was mumbling about some idiot cutting his mist nets. "Was it me", he asked. Sheepishly I said yes but explained why I had done it. Thankfully he saw the funny side of it and roared with laughter but I still felt totally embarrassed about it. Thankfully I ran into this chap on a few occasions when he was with other people and not once did he mention it whilst in company, but every now and again he would give me a wink to me let me know that he hadn't forgotten.

What was your emarrassing moment?

I expect a few of you have done what I am about to describe or in some way similar and for those who haven't, it will happen to you eventually.

Picture the scene, a field with long grass, tussocks and unkempt hedgerows. Lots of places where birds can hide or be partially hidden. It is quiet with not much bird movement when suddenly a dark object catches your eye but it is amost all hidden by vegetation and you cannot make out the details. It could be a Jackdaw or is it a Blackbird or something else. The enclosed habitat would, maybe, rule out the former. It's probably the latter hunting for insects in the thick grass/shrubbery but it could be some other species. You wait for it to move to get a better look or at least see a clinching feature even if it is only a fleeting glimpse. It appears to hardly move but you are convinced that it has done so slightly. You wait and are maybe surprised when a rabbit, say, passes quite close and there is no response from either rabbit or unidentified bird. Eventually, it dawns on you what it is or you put another birder onto it and they immediately say what it is.......a small black plastic bag!!!!!




Colin3

Colin

Two things spring to mind. The first was at Spurn about 3 years ago. The pager had alerted us to a Wryneck near the canal scrape. My mate and I was close by so rushed up to where a crowd of birders were standing. We approached and straight away was put onto it. We looked and at first thought yes but it wasn't moving. Another chap put the message out on the pager that the bird was still there but to a few of us it didn't look right. after about 10 motionless minutes one of the birders walked around the side and walked along the fence until he came to the bird and duly picked up a mottled ROCK. A few embarrassed faces sloped off.

The 2nd was in Majorca in 1998. I don't know if anyone has been to any of the Graham Hearl nights in Puerto Pollensa but they were actual log nights where birders logged their sightings twice a week. Anyway a few excited birders had reported a Scops Owl in a small open window on a small old brick building by the hide at the Albuferia Waterworks. We hadn't enough time to go after it as we were staying on the other side of the island so left it to do another day. By the time the next log meeting had come we still hadn't gone for the bird but at this meeting more birders came in confirming the Scops Owl in the same place. A few of us left early to find the bird. One of the birders who had seen it had followed us to put us onto the bird. We all formed a line of scopes. Luckily I had the most powerful scope and could pick out better what we were looking for. I zoomed up to 60mag, aimed it to where the birder was pointing, looked at it, beckoned the birder who had seen it to look at it again and watched his reaction. His face was a picture (of horror). It was a ROCK. Needless to say that at the next meeting there were a few red faces.

Aye John, most of use have done something like that at some time.

Not an embarrassing moment but an illustration of a 'trick of the scope'. A couple of years ago I was in the Robbie Garnett hide at Slimbridge when I noted a sheep stuck in some mud. The scrape in front of this hide forms a wide channel which runs away from the hide for maybe 100 or so metres and this channel is in a 'cutting' with a 3 or 4 foot 'cliff' lining it. At the far end a sheep was lying on its right side at the bottom of this tiny cliff. Its two right legs were stuck and just a part of its body was showing and its head was to its left and over its shoulder with just an eye, ear and a nostril showing. It was in a dire predicament.

I scoped it to see if it was still alive. On 60x I thought I saw it blink and I also thought its ear moved but the latter could have been wave action. While someone went to find a warden with waders, I continued to look for signs of life but it was difficult to assess this. The warden turned up and went out to possibly rescue the animal. How was this person on his own going to reach down this little cliff and haul this sheep back onto the grass, bearing in mind it was stuck in mud and its wool would be sodden with water? The weight would be far too much. It needed probably three people or even a tractor with a sling.

The warden marched to the said animal and we watched through scopes since none of us had wellies or waders. I was amazed to see the warden, kneel down, reach down the 'cliff' and pull the sheep out. He then picked it up in his arms and carried it back. It was alive and it was just a tiny lamb. With nothing in the scope view for size comparison the scope had caused an optical illusion. What we thought was a full grown sheep was only a new lamb.


Colin

Sounds like your trying to pull the wool over our eyes, Colin!



Gotta go; I feel another cartoon coming on . . .

I had an embarassing moment as well,

about four years ago i had to do an assignment for biology (at highschool). So i decided to walk around at an educational childrens farm in my homeplace for one day. They had set up several educational routes through the forest, and at that moment they had the autumn one running. Primaryschool classes would visit and do those routes in small groups. So i had to accompany one of those groups (8 year olds) in search for mushrooms and other autmn delights. We found many interesting things such as a birds skull and i was telling far more than necessary, being a nature freak anyway. And then suddenly i saw it. There was a pellet lying on the ground. Probably from an owl or so. So i showed it to the kids and ofcourse they were very excited. We decided to take it along, but only the children with gloves could carry it in turns.
When we made it back to the farm the kids went inside but me and my classmate stayed outside. Afterwards, when the kids were gone, the guy from the farm approached me and asked whether i had given order to take that pellet. When i confirmed, he smiled and told me it was a piece of dog crap.

Are we allowed to say 'c**p' on this Forum?

Anyhoo, here's my story ...

Six years ago when I was living in the wilds of North Wales, I was in the local park doing some birding and generally minding my own business. I had already seen some Wood Warblers and I was looking around for Pied Flys and Redstarts. I knew they were around, but found neither.

On my way back, I met an elderly gent with whom I conversed now and again. He was giving his dog its daily run, and the dog was having a high time dashing in and out of trees. We were having a general chat about things going on in the village, and after a few minutes I noticed the bottom of my left leg was getting warmer and warmer. I looked down in sheer horror to see the dog 'relieving itself' against my leg. I didn't know whether to laugh/cry/kick dog, but the old gent was mortified and couldn't be more apologetic. I just went home to a not-very-understanding girlfriend who spent the rest of the day laughing.

In case we aren't allowed to, my apoligy for doing it.
That's the problem with a second language when you don't know the weigh of some words.

I can't find a comparing smilie so let's describe it as a blushing one

Erik,

Attached.

now that was just how i feld

thanks alot

Keep the stories coming. They are fun to read and somehow the last two were linked (slightly). One with dog c**p and one with dog pee.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when your girlfriend burst into laughter Ralph.

Embarrassing moment - the long-lasting variety

Thanks to all for sharing theirs - here's mine :

As some of you may know, I've been birding since 1988, and joined a bird club in 1989. I also took out a subscription to British Birds, and received their official British List. In February 1989, a Golden-winged Warbler took up residence for a while in a supermarket car park in maidstone, Kent. At the time, I was living in Surrey, the adjoining county, and about an hour from Maidstone by train. However, I did not go to see the bird.
Why Not ?? I hear you cry. Well, I looked it up on the British Birds Official British List, and it wasn't on there, so I though there was no point in going. Ho hum.

Tony

I have too much fun reading this stuff...
Here is my story and only one as there really are quite a few!
One day late in summer a call went out to local birders that halfway up the local ski mountain a WHITE HEADED woodpecker was seen... well never having seen one we decided to go up early one morning as it is only about 45 minutes from our home... we clocked the exact mileage and stopped... OMG! There were seven cars, two trucks and all sorts of hats and bins and scopes.. folding chairs and the whole nine yards.
We saw nothing that even resembled what I had in my field guide, so away we went.. I was to return many many times and spends endless hours sitting and waiting or walking through big timbers but alas no luck. I felt it was a conspiracy. Seemed everyone but me had seen this elusive whw!
I said on the 10th go round that IF I did not see it I was doomed forever to only imagine it.. Now Lee and I have a signal.. I softly wolf whistle IF I find something..
He went his way and I mine and lo and behold I spotted this bird.. one I had certainly never seen and right where the birders said the woodpecker had been spotted.. I had my glasses off as I was walking with my bins on.. I whistled and stopped dead... praying Lee was close enough to hear my call. He was and came.. as he was coming towards me I was proceeding to walk towards this birds area. slowly and not taking my bins off it... Lee stopped and I sensed him no longer moving and I turned to say something and he was doubled over laughing.. almost bloody crying...
I said SHHHHH you will scare that damned bird away and I will probably never see it again.
The man could not talk... I thought well golly this must be a really special first sighting for him, by now I was quite close to where this White Headed Woodpecker was on the tree.. and to my great dismay(at the time) I saw a beautifully cut out wooden bird nailed to the tree.. saying that this was the spot the White Headed wood pecker was last seen.
I whirled around to hide my disappointment and my husband was just getting himself back to a reasonable sense of decorum... after all rolling around laughing your self sick simply will not do!!!
I laugh now and every time we go by this place I look with amazement at the woody that to this day is nailed to that Ponderosa Pine... took someone a long time to cut out and paint and nail this sucker on that tree.. as he had it about forty feet up and this was not somewhere you go to easily or quickly!!!
I never did see that white headed woodpecker but somehow it no longer matters.. I was so embarrassed for the longest time. Now I laugh heartily as I realise these things happen to all of us.

Great story Gaye 3 3 3

Oh thats so cool, I'm gonna have to go out and embarras myself bigtime.

My best so far is mistaking a cornrake for a partridge, very boring indeed.

a few years ago spotted something blueish in a bush upriver of where i was watching a dipper. waded across and sneaked up on a mc ewans lager can empty of course

Could've been worse, Mike! It could've been that elusive creature the gardenrake!

You mean, lying low, like a rake in the grass.

Tony

Glad you enjoyed my ridiculous mistake,,, imagine thinking a wooden bird the real thing??? Honestly!!!

coulkda bin worse and the other way round too!