Give 5 examples of birding gone bad. (1 Viewer)

Here is a 5 question survey but feel free to ad lib:
While out birding have you ever.....?
1)Found yourself in a physically difficult situation such as stuck in mud or falling off a cliff etc.?
2)Got caught birding on private property? What kind of excuse did you use?
3)Lost or broken equipment?
4)Made an embarrassingly bad call?
5)Came in contact with strange, interesting,or scary people?

oh man....

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

details will follow at some point... there are a few!

1). falling off a boardwalk at dusk and into the coldest liquid water on planet earth at the end of a fairly pedestrian session watching Pink-feet coming into roost somewhere in Norfolk.
2). technically on private property but with a letter of permission by the site owner (nesting LRP, wintering Snipe ~ good stuff for my old patch) ... the site was a small wasteground near a security sensitive building (and back toward the end of the IRA bombings in London) ... on booting up a couple of Snipe I was alarmed to hear the words 'turn around' through what sounded like a megaphone; on doing so I was greeted with the site of five police officers from two vehicles, two of which were pointing firearms at me (I kid you not), I was ordered to walk towards them having been told to put my bag down, searched, questioned as to what was on the roll of film in my camera (a Glaucous what?), asked what I was doing there (all whilst handcuffed) and driven back to my house so as I could produce the letter of permission ... sorta put me off visiting that particular spot from there on, however 'legit' I was.
3). dropped an old Nikon fieldscope into the Thames once ... gutted.
4). calling a ringtail Montagu's Harrier rather than a Hen, and may I say, not in a shy way! Did once actually ID a white carrier bag as a Little Egret in Kent (a cliche I know, but sadly I can prove it!).
5). strange, annoying and scary people are par for the course in birding ;-)


and those were only the good times!

Those are some great stories.

1) Dug my car in in the UAE, spent hours walking to find somebody to pull me out. Not much fun as a) it was bloody hot and b) the only liquid I had brought along was beer; well sloshed by the time I got out of that mess.
2) In Viet Nam, all property is public, which means it belong to the government. Thus, I have been arrested more than once for behaving suspicously. Usually involved hours of interrogation, followed by hours of drinking rice wine.
3) Forgot the bins on the roof of the car in Austria a few years back, Have to give credit to the rubber armor: when I realized a few miles later, the bins were still there. Also once forgot to bring bins when going to the Camarque, it was one of the most miserable weeks of my life.
4) Hare as a Shorteared Owl in Northern Germany, only one of many bad calls.
5) I seem to fit right in with those sorts of people.

1) Mere peanuts, really. Went to try to find a Black Grouse lek in the middle of nowhere one fine spring dawn. Heard the birds calling so decided to stop the car on the grass verge. Except that it wasn't a grass verge and the front wheels sank into several inches of bog. Trying to reverse out only made matters worse. No mobile phone and no habitation for goodness knows how many miles. Eventually, having collected some passable ballast, with a lot of patience and slow deliberation I managed to back the car out of the mess. I have never felt so relieved.

2) You kidding? Fieldcraft's not just for the birds!

3) Does an arm count? Slipped while going down some seaweedy steps in search of a Ross's Gull and put out my arms to save my bum. B*gg*r*d up my left arm for two years. Mainly muscle damage. Still get the occasional twinge even now.

4) Every time I go twitching. And sometimes when I don't (One or two "visitors" I met in Cornwall this autumn were so up themselves they'd disappeared up their own arses).

lvn600 said:

Here is a 5 question survey but feel free to ad lib:
While out birding have you ever.....?
1)Found yourself in a physically difficult situation such as stuck in mud or falling off a cliff etc.?
2)Got caught birding on private property? What kind of excuse did you use?
3)Lost or broken equipment?
4)Made an embarrassingly bad call?
5)Came in contact with strange or scary people?

Click to expand...

1. My Brother got stuck in a mudhole and could have died - I have vertigo and always feel like I'm falling off cliffs - very anoying.
2. Recently birding on farmland and Mr farmer caught me - was very gruff but soon mellowed when I pointed out the Redwing, LTT and Goldfinches he had on his land - he knew what they were but hadn't noticed them.
3. Grrrrr....heavy metal door on RSPB hide smashed legs off my carbon fibre tripod.
4. Called 3 Ring-billed gulls when I knew perfectly well there were only two.
(Little ringed Plovers that were not little - dozens more similar)
5. Got severely lost despite having maps - asked only human I'd seen all day for directions and he said "you want exercise" - I asked him where the nearest town was...."you want exercise"

1. Once I went plowing thru 3 1/2 feet of snow (I'm 4' 10") to chase after a Boreal Chickadee I was hearing. I went several steps, sank in to past my waist, then fell into a partially frozen ditch. My feet were soaked, and it was about 9 degrees F. My shoes immediately froze. And I didn't have any back-up boots either. I was STUCK. I couldn't get out. My dad did pull me out though.

2. One time we were caught tresspassing at this marsh. There was one small, very worn down and leaning No Tresspassing sign, and we didn't see it. So we walked out there. Saw some great birds, including Red Knot, Red-necked Phalarope, Least Bittern, and American White Pelican. A guy came through in a pickup, and rather roughly told us we had to leave....

3. No.... thankfully not. At least yet.

4. Heck YES!!!! Tons of em. Once I saw a "Worm-eating Warbler" at a spot near my house. I know now that I was definitly wrong...

5. One time a couple drunk guys were kind of hanging around, we got out of there fast..... also, birding downtown Detroit was very scary with homeless people wandering around. Some were pretty mean-lookin.

The local warden Tim decided to open the off limits zone of his patch two years ago on a Saturday in April to the photo enthusiasts. My bud, weather and my wife bit on the offer to hike unmolested on the other sise of the marsh. We forgot about the heavy rains the weeks before. It started out OK we were on pretty good ground. Then the quagmires came. We got so busy trying to find ways around the traps and chasing sucked off shoes we forgot to look at the wildlife. We were so happy to reach the end and get out , As we were walking back to the drier main trails Warden Tim came salong in his Gator ATV " Please next year do this outing in June" we cried. The deal for the pass to the forbidden zone was your best pic submitted as an 8x10 inch print. We shot nothing and submitted the same.
Sam

lvn600 said:

Here is a 5 question survey but feel free to ad lib:
While out birding have you ever.....?
1)Found yourself in a physically difficult situation such as stuck in mud or falling off a cliff etc.?
2)Got caught birding on private property? What kind of excuse did you use?
3)Lost or broken equipment?
4)Made an embarrassingly bad call?
5)Came in contact with strange or scary people?

Click to expand...

Have the dubious 'luxury' of working a night shift, so plenty of time to play!!

Managed to acheive all 5 of 'have you ever' Ivn600, in a single day while on a birding holiday on North Coast of Scotland :king:

1) Trouble began about an hour after I set out: Halfway across a very swampy field... after jumping heather tussocks for about 20 mins, I missed one and immediately sank to above my knees into a boggy mess with distinct possibility of sinking further with excessive movement on my part ... with a rapidly descending fog not helping matters ...I rolled a cigarette and smoked it(well I felt a bit stressed really and wasn't going anywhere) ... then with nicotine induced calmness, I finally managed to very slowly extricate myself by lying flat out onto the nearest tussock and dragged myself out backwards... continued on my journey looking like the creature from the black lagoon (but walking boots still attached to legs fortunately).
2) A few hours later, got side-tracked from birding, and was following some fresh deer tracks over fences, cross brooks and into a wooded copse, ignoring all 'Private Property' signs on route - met dubious looking character with shotgun. My excuse? "Err.. excuse me, I seem to have taken a wrong turning back there and Im lost, could you tell me how I get out of here please?" o
3) Left a lens cap and my zoom case on a rock somewhere
4) Arrived at coast, spent an hour climbing on my hands and knees through undergrowth up cliff face to reach area where interesting 'raptors' had been seen circling high above the cliffs - they turned out to be Choughs :egghead: and I turned out to suffer from vertigo - the second bad call later that day was to phone my host on the mobile saying I wasn't going to make it back before supper - refused an offer of a lift to pick me up from the nearest village - didn't realise I still had over 12 miles to walk in the pitch dark and pouring rain.
5) Bending over a cliff-fall dead sheep washed up on beach with its heart gouged out - while I was taking photos, a couple of local farmers arrived at the headland in a 4x4, watched me for a while through binos and started to march accross the tidal flats towards me looking well p*ssed off. I didn't stick around... but the sight of several golden eagles in the distance eyeing up the rest of their dinner more than made up for being 'chased' off by the owners of the sheep.

(plenty more where that came from :girl: )

1)I fell off a substantial drop at Filey wihile trying to get a better view of a Pied Flycatcher that was showing non-standard features..... made a real mess of my knee and spent much of the next year on crutches.....also got a rather angry looking fighting bull between me and my car on one of those raised roads (ditches on both sides) on La Janda

2)Got caught birding on private property? What kind of excuse did you use? In the good old days the only reliable place to see Mandarin Duck in Cheshire was a small sunken pond in the middle of a huge exposed field in the middle of the Duke of Westminster's estate. It was a bird race tradition to see if you could see one before you got "Oiiieeeddd" by the game keeper. No excuse, we just legged it!

3)Lost or broken equipment?
I put a compression fracture in a prism in my Zeiss Dialyts in the above mentioned fall.

4)Made an embarrassingly bad call?
Many. Mostly skua related

5)Came in contact with strange or scary people?

actually no - perhaps I have a hight threshold for strange!

Have you ever...
- Made an embarrassingly bad call?
Hahaha, many! Called Common Redshanks "Racing Pigeons", a Common Buzzard a Short-eared Owl etc... but it's better to call than to let birds pass unnoticed.
- Come in contact with strange or scary people?
Got into a fight in the Dutch dunes once... that was really scary... it was a weekday so not as crowded as usual. I didn't go there for months afterwards.

2) in America on the beach of Ontario lake years ago, I decided not to notice a 'private property' sign because I saw some Caspian Terns about 200 meters away and I had to see them closer.
My excuse to the owner was: I don't speak English!
Question to the Americans: Could I have been fined? (I mean not for my bad English but for going on private property)

3) Dropped my father's bins while riding on a bicycle. It broke into several pieces. I can still see my father's angry face.

4) When I was young and saw my first Golden Oriole (a female) I reported my sighting to my father: "It was singing beautifully". He just answered female Orioles can't sing. I was embarrassed but there was nothing to argue against. I still know that I heard the Oriole's song. Maybe there was a male around that I didn't notice.

5) the most scary people I met while birding in the east of Turkey were some Turkish armed soldiers who wanted to confiscate my camera and my bins, for what reason I don't know. Once more my excuse was: I don't speak Turkish (it is important to look as stupid as you can). It took quite a while before they gave up and let me go (fortunately I was allowed to keep my equipment).

Eckart

1) yes
2) yes
3) yes
4) yes
5) I am strange and scary people!

Tim Allwood said:

oh man....

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

details will follow at some point... there are a few!

Click to expand...

Still waiting for those details - just a nice subtle hint

1. I've had pleanty of slips and falls (luckily no serious ones), seems I'm often to busy looking at the birds to look where I'm walking. On more than one occassion I've walked out to an area of beach only to be cut of by the tide... one time the water was chest deap, so had to wade through with optics held over head.
2. A few times - pleading ignorance seems to work... perhaps I look just stupid enough to get away with it. I've met more than my fair share of farmers with shotguns and large dogs!
3. I managed to get my tripod knocked over last year, wrote of my camera (300D), fortunately the lens was fine. I once managed to sell my scope while out birding. I bumped into a guy on the beach at Cley, got talking about what the birds were and I let him look through my scope. He went on to tell me that he was looking to buy a scope soon, so I sold him mine... I was on my way to buy a new one that day - perfect timing.
4. made pleanty in my time - was once convinced that I just driven past a dead hoopoe... stopped the car and nipped back to check, turn out to be a particularly mangled lapwing!
5. met loads of nutters - one guy was convinced that ne knew me and that we used to be friends, could not get him to beleive that I'd never seen him before - not the easiest to get away from either, he kept following.
Last winter when the arctic redpool was at Titchwell, myself and about a dozen other birder were standing on the main path watching it. A couple came a long the past and pushed through - heard the lady moaning about the "bloody inconsiderate people blocking the whole bloody path"! Makes you wonder why they were there.

Whitethroat said:

Question to the Americans: Could I have been fined? (I mean not for my bad English but for going on private property)

Click to expand...

Technically, yes. But I seriously doubt in your circumstance anything would have been done if you just agreed to leave the private property and not return.

1 Yes. Fell into a river in Norhthumberland whilst trying to cross rocks to get a better view of some b****y bird or other. Can't swim so luckily the water was only a few inches deep. Soaked to the skin however and off work for a few days with damaged back. Well, every cloud has a silver lineing. I also learnt that I do not look pleasant in jeans cut for woman. Damn'd uncomfortable on the way home.

2 Yes Last time was at Harewood Hose, Yorkshire. The cavalry was sent out to remove my mate and I from private land we had strayed onto, in order to see the Red Kites in close up (accidently of course!) We just acted dumb (not that hard really) and said 'Oh, is this not the path then?'

3 Yes but just my hat!

4 Yes often but quietly!

5 Yes definately. A number of them use this forum so I will say no more on that one.

Cheers

1) Nearly drowned whilst doing a survey on a small island. The hired boat didn't have a bung in the bunghole and didn't have a 'bailer' on board so I took off my Wellington Boot and used that as a bailer. (Got a pic to prove it too).
2)Yes, on another occasion doing the same survey on a different part of the Island, my friend and I were approached by a not very bird friendly local, holding a shotgun in his trembling hands who asked us through his frothing lips what we were doing LOOKING AT BIRDS ON HIS LAND?. He was in a terrible state of pure hatred and I did fear for his state of health!!!!!
3) Lost a beautiful pair of Zeiss binoculars whist during Physical Training walking up and down hills in preparation tor a trip to Nepal. Sat down for a rest and walked off without them. went back the next morning but they were gone.
4) Yes, lots.
5)See 2 above. I've also been hounded by 'Bikeys' whilst birwatching but have found that if you speak to them in a friendly way they will either be really keen to help or will just go away and leave you alone. In fact when driving around the local area on bush tracks in my 4WD they will often come up to me and ask if I am lost and can they help (me being in the 'little old lady' catagory). Really cute!

lvn600 said:

Here is a 5 question survey but feel free to ad lib:
While out birding have you ever.....?
1)Found yourself in a physically difficult situation such as stuck in mud or falling off a cliff etc.?
2)Got caught birding on private property? What kind of excuse did you use?
3)Lost or broken equipment?
4)Made an embarrassingly bad call?
5)Came in contact with strange, interesting,or scary people?

Click to expand...

1]got caught with my man out in the public loo at hickling broad,the lock did'nt work and an old lady walked in while i was doing the bizz
also damaged knee muscles when i jumped off a stile while holding my pushbike over my head,still the odd twinge three years later.
2]no,always asked first
3] not yet
4]i was sure those pinkfeet were cranes at stubb mill,in front of about thirty other birders,every one of them heard :'D
5]so far i think i've been let off lightly,my time will come!

matt