Jane Turner
Well-known member
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.
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.