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Birds You've Only Seen Once (1 Viewer)

A quick tot up shows that there are 66 species that I have only seen once in the UK, of which 41 I have seen elsewhere in the world. Surprisingly though of the 25 that I have only seen once anywhere the majority, about 18, I would consider to be European birds. E.g. Little Crake, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Western Bonelli's Warbler, Marmora's Warbler, Thrush Nightingale. Perhaps a sign that I moved from UK birding to World birding without ever visiting central Europe or Spain.

There are a few embarrassing ones in that 26 though European Storm-Petrel, Leach's Petrel, Capercaillie and White-tailed Eagle. Particularly when I think I have seen two of each Lesser White-fronted Geese, Desert Warblers, Pied Wheatears and Black-throated Thrushes
 
Black Tern! 14 at Belvide back in the day!
Whimbrel, 7 at same location
Wheatear, Staffordshire, 1980s (hard to believe, I bet you lot see Wheatears all the ruddy time!)
Theres a few waders I've seen once at Rutland-Bar Tailed Godwit being one of them.
Oh Hen Harrier, also Belvide. Stayed behind till it got near dark to watch that one!
Water Rail, Belvide again, one brief sighting.

Oh and of course Gannet and Razorbill, both at Scarborough 2006!
 
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As far as regular ABA area species go...and not including things I've seen for the first time this week in California... Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Mangrove Cuckoo (actually dont' have it for the ABA yet...), Spotted Owl, Long-eared Owl, Connecticut Warbler, Ferruginous Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel, Northern Fulmar, Horned Puffin, Common Redpoll. No doubt a few other western species can make that list.
 
Northern-Hawk Owl (Eden Vermont), Glaucous Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull (Both Intervale Compost Vermont),. I'm sure I'll think of more.
 
I'm going to base my list on birds seen only once within the ABA region. Quite a lot of these go off the list if I count them seen elsewhere (Marked by an X). And I'm not going to attempt to do it for my world list.

Arctic loon X
Herald petrel
Bermuda petrel
Flesh-footed shearwater X
Ashy storm-petrel
Red-footed booby
Little egret X
Western reef-heron X
Pink-footed Goose X
Common black-hawk X
Red-footed falcon X
Chukar (I'm counting an adult with 5-10 chicks as 1)
Sooty grouse
Dusky grouse
Montezuma quail
Yellow rail
Northern lapwing X
Northen jacana X
Wood sandpiper X
Black-tailed godwit X
Little stint X
Rock sandpiper
Curlew sandpiper X
Ross' gull
Ivory gull
Thick-billed murre
Spotted dove X
Flammulated owl
Whiskered screech-owl
Ferruginous pygmy-owl X
Boreal owl
Antillean nighthawk X
Buff-collared nightjar
Mexican whip-poor-will
Green violetear X
White-eared hummingbird X
Plain-capped starthroat X
Am. Three-toed woodpecker
Cordilleran flycatcher
Nutting's flycatcher
Fork-tailed flycatcher X
Gray vireo
Mexican chickadee
Red-whiskered bulbul X
Pacific wren
Bluethroat
Bicknell's thrush
Bendire's thrasher
LeConte's thrasher
Sprague's pipit
Colima warbler
Hermit warbler
Connecticut warbler
Flame-colored tanager X
Baird's sparrow
Nelson's sparrow
Smith's longspur
 
Dodge!

halftwo said:
The River warbler got me thinking: that is one bird I've only seen once (Roydon Common 1981) and there are many more.

Despite being fairly well travelled there are several UK rarities that I've seen only once - even though I've been to places where they occur "commonly".

These incude:

Savi's warbler, Citrine wagtail, American bittern, Yellow-breasted bunting, Steller's eider, Surf scoter, Little bunting, Rustic bunting, Pine bunting, Black-faced bunting, Arctic redpoll, Ross's gull, ?Franklin's gull, Sabine's gull, Nutcracker, Gyr falcon, Aquatic warbler, Sandhill crane, Caspian plover, Black-winged pratincole, Black lark, Black-throated thrush and (strangely) Stilt sandpiper.
Even worse: Grey phalarope.

I've seen as many American robins here as in the Us (1)!

Something else: now that Little egrets are so common here - I saw Squacco and Purple herons and Cattle egret before I saw Little egret here!
Click to expand...

Yesterday I was out on the Gower in Wales when a peregrine falcon swooped at me, if I hadn't of dodged it would of hit me - Definitely my favourite bird i've only seen once!!!
 
on my (now rarely added to) British list, 80 spp (19%) are those I've seen only once - most embarrassing are Ptarmigan and Scottish Crossbill, then Short-toed Lark, others include Semi-p Sand, Pacific Goldie, Laughing Gull and Lesser Scaup (I have no desire to see another one of the latter).

Others that I have seen once and would not want to see again would definitely include D-C Cormorant!
 
gandytron said:
on my (now rarely added to) British list, 80 spp (19%) are those I've seen only once - most embarrassing are Ptarmigan and Scottish Crossbill, then Short-toed Lark, others include Semi-p Sand, Pacific Goldie, Laughing Gull and Lesser Scaup (I have no desire to see another one of the latter).

Others that I have seen once and would not want to see again would definitely include D-C Cormorant!
Click to expand...

Tell us now, why don't you want to see those 2 species again?
 
gandytron said:
on my (now rarely added to) British list, 80 spp (19%) are those I've seen only once - most embarrassing are Ptarmigan and Scottish Crossbill, then Short-toed Lark, others include Semi-p Sand, Pacific Goldie, Laughing Gull and Lesser Scaup (I have no desire to see another one of the latter).
Click to expand...
Why embarrased? I've not seen either of them (except maybe lesser scaup)
 
Many... many birds, but my top one is the Lewin's Rail that I saw for two seconds diving into the reeds, or the Australian Owlet-Nightjar which I got the torch onto as it was flying off
 
I've not seen any super-rare birds so nothing terribly exciting here but I've seen a lot of birds only once even though I don't do twitching... just part of only having been a birdwatcher for a few years and doing most of my watching locally I think.


I've only seen a Bittern on one occasion (have heard one subsequently), but did see it about four times that day so not sure it really counts. Red Crested Pochard I've only seen once in the wild, and Short-eared Owl (I 'barely' saw that though!). I've only seen Puffins, Guillemots, Kittiwakes and Razorbills once too, they're not species I'm exactly likely to see on my wanders here in mid-Essex so a trip to Skomer Island in Wales was my first and to-date only encounter with them (lovely too even though I wasn't very well that day).

My only encounter with a pair of Goldeneye and a Black-necked Grebe was at my local reservoir earlier in the summer and I've seen Purple Sandpipers and Curlew Sandpipers once, at Walton-on-the-Naze and Cley respectively. The Purples were feet away (superb!) but with the Curlews I had to rely on the ID of a birder who'd seen them closer up (when I saw them they were off in the distance, backlit and masked by heat haze!), so would be nice if I could see some again and get a proper look at them - in the photos I've seen they look really nice.

I've seen Spoonbills and Spotted Redshanks once, both at Cley this summer, and last winter there I had my first view of a White-fronted Goose amongst a fair-sized flock of Brent Geese (there were around 600 of those). I also have only seen a Mediterranean Gull once, on Southend Pier last winter.

Edit: oh, and I've 'only' seen Nightjars once - earlier in the summer in north Norfolk standing by a gorse bush at 4am on Wiveton Downs listening to them one flew out of the bush right in front of us and circled around us before perching in a nearby tree and carrying on churring - we'd had no idea it was so close!
 
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timmyjones said:
Interesting thread, I make mine 48 out of 244. The most embarrassing common birds being Manx Shearwater, Woodcock, Guillemot, Turtle Dove, Ring Ouzel and Crossbill and the only real rare bird that I've seen more than once is Black-winged Stilt (2)
Click to expand...

After 2 weeks in Cornwall where I saw Manx Shearwater everyday I think I can take that off the seen once only list as well as Guillemot but add on Puffin.

Also probably the first time for a loong time that I saw a lifer repeatedly over an extended period of time. Balearic Shearwater (7 times) Storm Petrel (3 times) and Sooty Shearwater (twice) all in the 2 weeks.

So thats 47 out of 248
 
Allen S. Moore said:
Tell us now, why don't you want to see those 2 species again?
Click to expand...

Do you really need me to tell you? Let's just say that the Cormorant at Billingham was perhaps the dullest 1st for Britain ever, and I think the Lesser Scaup I saw was equally exciting (my mind was elsewhere...were were on our way for the Myrtle Warbler in Bristol!)
 
Cyclops said:
Why embarrased? I've not seen either of them (except maybe lesser scaup)
Click to expand...

Yes Dear Cyclops, but I've been birding for 32 years - so I ought to have seen more, whereas I am guessing that you are newer to the game (I note you just saw your first razorbill and gannet - aren't seabird cliffs fantastic!)
 
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