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Disgusted behaviour (1 Viewer)

I think Barred Warblers often get a hard time - I was waiting with a group of birders on Spurn for a Barred Warbler to come out of a large Elder tree - one of the 'regulars' came up and asked what was going on - his response was "Gerrit bricked", I presume referring to the rudimentary field technique described at the start of this thread.

I am sure he was joking .... and it didn't happen, but someone did walk inside the tree and the bird flushed out the other side. A number of regular Spurn birders were present as well as others and no-one objected, including myself. Not particularly proud of it, I wouldn't have done it, but don't feel that bad either ....

The identity of the 'flusher' was ..... interesting .....

On the other hand I'm afraid I flush birds every time I go out birding, no matter how careful I am. Does it make a difference that these are common birds?

Bonsaibirder
 
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Bonsaibirder said:
On the other hand I'm afraid I flush birds every time I go out birding, no matter how careful I am. Does it make a difference that these are common birds?

Bonsaibirder
Click to expand...

Good point. Watching people beat the crap out of a bush to get a bird to fly is deeply depressing and certainly not what I want to see when birding. But gotta keep this in perspective - we flush birds accidentally all of the time, everytime we go birding, it's just inevitable as we are no.1 hunter and extremely scarey.
 
I twitch but only on a county level (gave up national twitching after having my fill of the Oxon Balti Oriole) so I'm in no position to criticise others for doing what I did for c.20 years and thoroughly enjoyed (for the most part) ... I've seen some real crap behaviour but by a long chalk people have almost always been sensible, as would be expected ... why anyone would wade through vegetation after a Wryneck or (possibly tongue in cheek) threaten to brick a Barred Warb is beyond me and, I imagine, most of us ... when really they should be out trying to find their own (not exactly great rares are they) ..

there are pillocks in all walks of life whether it be in birding, politics or the guild of dinner ladies, and forever it shall remain so ..
 
Bonsaibirder said:
On the other hand I'm afraid I flush birds every time I go out birding, no matter how careful I am. Does it make a difference that these are common birds?

Bonsaibirder
Click to expand...

just to play devil's advocate a bit, i think there's a difference between deliberately flushing a bird (rare vagrant or otherwise) to get a look at it, and accidentally/incidentally flushing a bird in the course of your normal birding. You can't reasonably be expected to turn about heel and back track cos you see a woodpigeon sat in a tree at the side of the path a few yards ahead, but on the other hand I think we should all be able to refrain from plunging into the undergrowth to scare something out into the open.....
 
James Lowther said:
just to play devil's advocate a bit, i think there's a difference between deliberately flushing a bird (rare vagrant or otherwise) to get a look at it, and accidentally/incidentally flushing a bird in the course of your normal birding. You can't reasonably be expected to turn about heel and back track cos you see a woodpigeon sat in a tree at the side of the path a few yards ahead, but on the other hand I think we should all be able to refrain from plunging into the undergrowth to scare something out into the open.....
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I dont think anyone is arguing about that. The point was one about perspective - there are greater evils, such as people wasting rare breeders with guns or chainsawing away our natural landscape. The point was not that smashing up bushes is the right thing to do, cos it isnt.
 
I agree with you about 'plunging', but what about a bit of pishing .. ?

James Lowther said:
just to play devil's advocate a bit, i think there's a difference between deliberately flushing a bird (rare vagrant or otherwise) to get a look at it, and accidentally/incidentally flushing a bird in the course of your normal birding. You can't reasonably be expected to turn about heel and back track cos you see a woodpigeon sat in a tree at the side of the path a few yards ahead, but on the other hand I think we should all be able to refrain from plunging into the undergrowth to scare something out into the open.....
Click to expand...
 
Bonsaibirder said:
I agree with you about 'plunging', but what about a bit of pishing .. ?
Click to expand...

If you want to be purist about this, may be pishing is bad too. You bring out the hapless birdie in its bemusement at the bizarre noises, and then scare the shit out of it when it clocks you at close range.

I dont know though - it seems too moronic to be evil and in my experience the birds just stare at me as if I'm an idiot, which presumably I am.
 
Perhaps we all should give up birding altogether although sea watching may be OK. Personally I feel that a bird hanging upside down in a mist nest and then being placed in a small bag prior to processing must be just as distressing as being flushed. Roger
 
devon.birder said:
Perhaps we all should give up birding altogether although sea watching may be OK. Personally I feel that a bird hanging upside down in a mist nest and then being placed in a small bag prior to processing must be just as distressing as being flushed. Roger
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Fair comment and refreshing to read amongst all these pathetic ex-twitcher confessionals.
 
On the topic of accidental flushing: Last January I was walking the local marshes when I accidentally flushed two teal up from a dyke. They flew off the marsh and over a local wood - I had them in my glasses when bang bang and they dropped like stones. I'd sent them over the local wally's woodpig shoot.
I went home rather than risk giving them something else, but it spoilt my day. I felt like I'd been made an accomplice.
 
I don't normally need to flush anything (not that I would, either) as the local dogwalkers do that for me.
I digiscoped a Dartford warbler a month ago and got a mild ticking off for photographing Schedule 1 birds at breeding time (it was from a footpath and at 40 yards...). What they didn't know is that at the same time, a lot of birds were being flushed by some guys dogs who were bounding through the heather as the man was chucking sticks into it for them.
The dogwalkers we have round here are usually pretty militant. We've even been to get off the common as we don't have a dog.
We get stonechats, Dartfords and wood larks in this heath, but in a way, there's no way of protecting them as it's also an army range and is often populated by soldiers in dug-outs in the middle of it all.
Ah well...
 
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