The bird you were most happy to see. Anywhere in the world. (1 Viewer)

[sicklebill]

Shoebill in Zambia, saw 27 of them from a small plane over Bangweulu Swamp with Tom Gullick, the top lister at the time.
Geomalia in Sulawesi, something i just never expected to see, let alone out on the track at 1000.
Finding my lifer Gyr Falcon perched on a pole in Hokkaido
Blue Bird of Paradise and Black Sicklebill in PNG and Long-tailed Paradigalla in West Papua
Solomons Nightjar at last on Tetepare
Wryneck at Dibden Bay when i was 15, my first self found scarce bird, and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which I found on the walk to school and Is still a favourite, it was great to see them in Japan and Mongolia too.
Ross's and Ivory Gull in the same field of view at South Shields back in my teens, after hitchhiking from Southampton to get there.
I'd better stop, but some marvellous memories, even more poignant in these times......

 

[Liberty9]

This really looks so beautiful

 

[Farnboro John]

Shoebill in Zambia, saw 27 of them from a small plane over Bangweulu Swamp with Tom Gullick, the top lister at the time.
Geomalia in Sulawesi, something i just never expected to see, let alone out on the track at 1000.
Finding my lifer Gyr Falcon perched on a pole in Hokkaido
Blue Bird of Paradise and Black Sicklebill in PNG and Long-tailed Paradigalla in West Papua
Solomons Nightjar at last on Tetepare
Wryneck at Dibden Bay when i was 15, my first self found scarce bird, and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which I found on the walk to school and Is still a favourite, it was great to see them in Japan and Mongolia too.
Ross's and Ivory Gull in the same field of view at South Shields back in my teens, after hitchhiking from Southampton to get there.
I'd better stop, but some marvellous memories, even more poignant in these times......

No hyphen in Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, its the bird that is lesser, not the spots. Merry Christmas!

John

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

And I thought it was because it was rarely seen!

 

[Ornitomania]

Merry Christmas with a green woodpecker

 

[Andy Adcock]

Shoebill in Zambia, saw 27 of them from a small plane over Bangweulu Swamp with Tom Gullick, the top lister at the time.
Geomalia in Sulawesi, something i just never expected to see, let alone out on the track at 1000.
Finding my lifer Gyr Falcon perched on a pole in Hokkaido
Blue Bird of Paradise and Black Sicklebill in PNG and Long-tailed Paradigalla in West Papua
Solomons Nightjar at last on Tetepare
Wryneck at Dibden Bay when i was 15, my first self found scarce bird, and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which I found on the walk to school and Is still a favourite, it was great to see them in Japan and Mongolia too.
Ross's and Ivory Gull in the same field of view at South Shields back in my teens, after hitchhiking from Southampton to get there.
I'd better stop, but some marvellous memories, even more poignant in these times......

I presume this was after John Hornbuckle died, whose top now?

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

A google search suggests Philip Rostron as top of the list of living birders.

 

[Farnboro John]

A google search suggests Philip Rostron as top of the list of living birders.

Surfbirds has the late Claes-Göran Cederlund 54 ahead of him on 9761 to Mr Rostron's 9707. Top is top: Mr Rostron still may not reach Mr Cederland's total in his lifetime.

John

 

[Andy Adcock]

Surfbirds has the late Claes-Göran Cederlund 54 ahead of him on 9761 to Mr Rostron's 9707. Top is top: Mr Rostron still may not reach Mr Cederland's total in his lifetime.

John

What did JH finish on?

A bit of trivia for anyone interested, I think Ashley Banwell said that John's last tick was Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo.

I just found this nugget which isn't true is it, I though this accolade went to JH? John came with us to Cambodia in 06 and I'm sure he was 9K+ then?

'Tom Gullick of England was the first person in the world to see over 9,000 birds species back in 2012 at the age of 81'

And who knew this about Tom Gullick!

http://www.rosie-nickerson.co.uk/articles/tomgullick.pdf

 

[Patudo]

Seeing birds do cool things does more for me than seeing rarities (just as well as I seldom go beyond Zone 1 these days) and watching an adult male hobby in hot pursuit of a house martin last summer has to be about as cool as cool gets. The chase was about two minutes 30 seconds long (I noted the time just before and immediately after) but seemed to go on for ages. Absolutely incredible breathtaking flying by both birds - I lost track of how many times the martin evaded what to me looked like near certain death. The sort of thing that makes up for a million disappointments.

 

[chowchilla]

So many...

Respendant Quetzals in Costa Rica; A flock of thirteen Andean Condors in Chile; Steller's Sea Eagles in Japan...

But often, it was seeing otherwise common birds for the first time. I will always remember my first Stonechat ever at Rainham Marshes in my first proper year of birding, and my first Short-eared Owls on the same day.

I remember my jaw dropping at the sight of my first Northern Oriole in Costa Rica; the stunning spectacle of seeing nesting sea birds in Shetland from a dinghy, including huge Gannets hovering just above our heads; my first Cassowaries just up the road from me; my first ever Bee Eaters (Little) in the Gambia; my first ever Golden Bowerbird on a magnificent bower, again just inland from here. So many memories...

 

[dandsblair]

My top three would be Raggiana Bird of Paradise (the first BoPs we saw lekking), White-necked Rockfowl (yellow-headed Picathartes) and Blakison's Fish Owl

 

[David Ferguson]

A migrating male Blue Swallow flying at eye-level down a line of ponds on a golf course in a suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe. A bird I never expected to see.

 

[Euan Buchan]

The Ruddy Duck when i used to volunteer at RSPB’s Loch Leven Nature Reserve when it was known as Vane Farm. Sadly it’s a bird you don’t hear often now . I celebrate 20 years of birding next year but I believe I last saw a Ruddy Duck was 19 years ago or so . I’ll have to go through my notebook and see when I saw it.

 

[angusmcoatup]

Too many to pin down as “the” bird. Palm warbler in Cuba as confirmation I’d finally got out of Europe and had the wonderful challenge of I.D ing birds not in my much battered Peterson,Mountfort,Hollom.
As a kid- cycling to Pennington Flash, there were many hard worked occasions that paid off with the sort of birds that make you realise you’re a birder. Black Tern, Green, Wood & Curlew Sandpiper, Glaucous gull, Grey Phalarope. All proudly written up in my notebooks.

 

[davercox]

Fuente Dé / El Cable :
We went up in the cable car on June 4th, in glorious weather: there was still some lying snow at the top. We didn’t walk far, only up to the Horcada de Covarrobres, where we were deterred by avalanche warning notices and snow up above the top of our boots. But we had a wonderful time.
* WALLCREEPER *: superb views from an individual down at eye-level, no more than 40 metres away, just below the Horcada de C., at only about 1900m asl. Couldn’t believe our luck, never seen one before. Wow Wow Wow. I’ve always doubted the existence of this bird, having searched many times in many places. OK, it exists. Wonderful.

My only Wallcreeper is the absolute standout.

 

[Lerxst]

Marvelous Spatuletail, last week, at Huembo in northern Peru.

 

[Dortmundbirder]

Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush,

after a very exhausting search through the leech-infested forest getting absolutely superb views of a foraging thrush only a couple of meters away, was the biggest reward you can imagine. Furthermore my first Zoothera at all.

 

[Swindon Addick]

The actual happiest I've been to see something would have to be white storks in Belgium, because they were nesting and doing the bill-clacking display which is something I'd heard about but assumed I'd never see.

Most other highlights would be about behaviour rather than rarity, but in terms of species I've only seen once the stand-outs would be ridiculously-close views of something you'd expect to see at a great distance (the albatross at Bempton Cliffs) or the special experience of seeing something from a train and therefore having no way to go back for a second look (alpine chough in Switzerland and purple heron in France).

 

[YuShan]

Not sure about the most happy one, but it is usually the ones that I don't expect to encounter, or the ones that make me feel completely immersed in nature. One that comes to mind is a Snowy Owl on my Kungsleden trek in Sweden. Or an Ecuadorian Hillstar buzzing around my tent when camping at 4100m in Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador.