Iffy Ticks (1 Viewer)

James

I'm losing it!

• Jul 3, 2003

• #1

I was going to start by saying we all have the odd iffy tick on our lists but I bet lots of you good people out there don't.
I'm afraid I have one that I don't want to let go of but should do.

Spurn - some years ago - Demoiselle Crane.

Okay now the rest of you confess!!!

James

 

Alastair Rae

London birder

• Jul 3, 2003

• #2

Little Bunting in Surrey about 10 years ago. It was present with a Rustic in a big flock of Reeds. I definitely saw the Rustic but now I'm not so sure I actually really saw the Little.

I'm not saying the Little was iffy. My ticking it was.

Then there's the misidentifications. In hindsight, I think my first Grasshopper Warbler was a Dunnock.

Don't get me started on wildfowl. How many Brits have Red-crested Pochard on their list?

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 3, 2003

• #3

Hi James,

I went to see the Demoiselle Crane as well! Didn't tick it, but I'm very glad I went, as I also got a Great Snipe and a Red-throated Pipit for lifers (and still the only ones I've seen) on the same say

I used to have dodgy Sabine's Gull on my UK list, and dodgy Gullible Tern** on my European [Danish] list, but took them off (in both cases, before I saw another 'real' one - have seen several Sab's in UK and Gullible Tern in Bulgaria, since).

Michael

In case anyone's wondering . . .
** = Gull-billed Tern. You have to be Gullible to believe anyone who's seen one in Britain

 

James

I'm losing it!

• Jul 3, 2003

• #4

What a day that was when the crane came in Michael! Bluethroats (plural) ,yellow browed warbler, barred warbler, odd buntings and more redstarts than you could shake a stick at!

James

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 3, 2003

• #5

When I think back on it the Short-toed Eagle I saw in Turkey was dodgy as I saw for a split second from the coach a large raptor with a very pale underside and reasoned that it couldn't be anything else. Fortunately, I saw plenty in Spain in April. I also had Capercaillie on my list for a while as when I was on holiday in in Scotland as a kid I was walking through a forest and something huge flew up from the undergrowth in front of me. I again reasoned that something so big must have been a Capercaillie, albeit a female (definitely not a male) but I've since come to my senses, crossed it off and have still never seen Capercaillie.

Aren't all Scottish Crossbill "crosses" considered very dodgy these days?

E

 

Tannin

Common; sedentary.

• Jul 3, 2003

• #6

We don't keep a list.

But we still come home some days pretty sure we have seen an X, and then a while later we start to wonder if it was really a Y instead. This new photography habit is good for that: you can look back at the pictures and even if they are no good as pictures, at least you can make sure you were not dreaming after all. Mind you, the bird has to stand still long enough first!

 

Charles Harper

Régisseur

• Jul 3, 2003

• #7

I am sure I must have birds on the lifelist that I misidentified-- especially after having failed a few i.d. challenges here!-- but what haunts me are the other ones, the ones I still feel were damn well what I thought they must be, but was afraid to tick because I couldn't be sure, didn't see them well enough.

 

N

Nick-on

Well-known member

• Jul 3, 2003

• #8

Saw the Demoiselle but didn't tick it. shame really, it was such a good bird it deserved a tick. Like everybody has been saying, it really was a good day though, a really good 'fall' of migrants.

Only dodgy tick(s) are birds that have been trapped/ringed, when are trapped birds tickable? Sometime, all the time, before they're trapped (obviously), after release, never. occasionally, on days with a T in them??. I remember many moons ago being at Hengistbury Head looking for my first ever Pallas' Warbler. Somebody trapped it and it was shown to the nearby throng. comments were passed that now it wasn't tickable? Later when it was released it was only tickable by those who hadn't seen it released (Total b*ll*cks I thought at the time-and still do). So back to the dodgy question.........Lanceolated Warbler at Spurn, saw it in the hand, saw it released, watched it for 2 minutes crawling around on the floor, watched it vanish in the grass.....was never seen again. Can I tick it???????

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 3, 2003

• #9

Charles Harper said:

But what haunts me are the other ones, the ones I still feel were damn well what I thought they must be, but was afraid to tick because I couldn't be sure, didn't see them well enough.

Click to expand...

Yes, Charles I know 100% what you mean. In April I saw a Sylvia warbler in some isolated bushes in Spain which I thought was Spectacled Warbler but couldn't rule out Whitethroat! I went back to the car to check up in Collins but could not find it a guide. I spoke to a guide who knows the area intimately and he said these bushes are prime Spectacled Warbler territory but I haven't ticked it because it could have been migrating Whitethroat...
I think my own personal rarities committee will be reviewing it again...

 

Last edited: Jul 3, 2003

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 3, 2003

• #10

By the way what was "wrong" with the Demoiselle Crane?

E

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 3, 2003

• #11

Hi Edward,

It had escaped from a Dutch zoo a day or two earlier.

Michael

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 3, 2003

• #12

I see, Michael, thanks.

Let it go James, lad, let it go.

E

 

HokkaidoStu

occasional moderator

Staff member

Supporter

• Jul 3, 2003

• #13

I'm ashamed to say I have a few dodgy ticks on my list. Most of them are from my younger days when I was less strict on myself. A couple stick in my mind-a Roseate Tern on my old local patch probably wouldn't have been ticked now but I haven't taken it off my list yet ( I was pretty sure at the time ).

There were also a couple of rather badly seen birds that I ticked ( my friend who was with me both times had a better view...)...step forward Spotted Sandpiper ( my only UK one ). And escapes..well I have Red Crested Pochard like everyone else on my UK list ( Seaforth 1987 ).

My first Barnacle Goose was in a feral flock ( the warden at the reserve said SOME of them were wild! ). Luckily I've seen real wild ones since.

I'm not 100% confident on some birds I've seen in more exotic countries so last winter I purged my lifelist-if I couldn't remember it clearly or if there was any doubt it had to go ( but not the Roseate Tern! ). I lost about 30 or 40...Oh well.

On the flipside I also remember my first "Swallow". The only reason I identified it as a Swallow was that it had a forked tail. I had no concept of size. I was about 7 years old. When I actually started identifying Swallows for real I realised my first "Swallow" was something else...it definitely had a forked tail but had been bigger than a crow. It may have been a Red Kite but of course it's lost in the midsts of childhood memory and even aged 8 I didn't have the gall to say I'd seen a Red Kite....and Red Kites have still eluded me to this day.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 3, 2003

• #14

Hi Stu,

In Britain & NW Europe at any rate, there's so many Red-crested Pochards breeding out there now, that I reckon they're safe to tick as category C birds, like Little Owls, Pheasants, etc.

Michael

 

S

StevieEvans

Well-known member

• Jul 3, 2003

• #15

dead birds...

I'm sure i can remember reading , that some USA birders even ticked birds that were DEAD, so long as they touched them....!.....?

Bizarre ! Is this correct..?

Stevie

RIP
o

 

andythomas

Well-known member

• Jul 3, 2003

• #16

The only Little Auk I've ever seen was at the WWT reserve near Llanelli. Someone had picked it up nearby and brought it to the reserve to be released. When I saw it it was swimming around in one of the pens being chased by all the captive wildfowl. Still ticked it though

I've removed a few from my life list recently including Quail (heard only) and an American Wigeon I saw on Lindisfarne years and years ago which must have been an escape.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 3, 2003

• #17

Hi Andy,

How many years ago? (the American Wigeon) - there's at least five records of American Wigeon from Lindisfarne, and I've never heard any of them being doubted.

Michael

 

G

Goshawk

Guest

• Jul 3, 2003

• #18

In my early birding days my first encounters with Shearwaters and some gulls (Sabine's spring to mind) had to be considered as dodgy so I had removed those from my lists. Fortunately I have replaced them with firmed up ticks as I have had close encounters with them on pelagics and various sea watches. Even now my sea watching days are very infrequent and I still can't ID most of these distant birds with confidence. Close up isn't so bad but how many times do you get close ups on land. That is where the Pelagics score.

BTW. Michael. What is wrong with Gull billed Tern in Britain. I have seen hundreds abroad but I had one at the Cotswold Water park about 5 years ago, and it was a good close up of one. No mistaking the ID on that one.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 3, 2003

• #19

Hi Gos,

I'll allow you that one , it's in the books (BB 93: 538, 2000). Four years ago actually, not five!

But suffice it to say, that BBRC are on record as saying this species has among the highest rejection rates of any

Michael

 

Andrew

wibble wibble

• Jul 3, 2003

• #20

As some of you will know I have been tidying up my records and deleted all my iffy ticks. I had a column for 'sureness', I either put Y or N and all the Ns were deleted thus taking six birds off my small British list which is now 172 birds. Thought it best to be honest to myself, but I bet I pick up a few more iffy ones after this clean up. Some were salvaged though, I was not sure of a Little Gull last August but rescued it recently.