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Bogey Birds!!!! (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mattwhite
- Start date
Monahawk
Well-known member
Bah! Damn! Drat! :C Just back from Portugal. Never saw a friggin' hoopoe despite looking in some likely areas. I'm now convinced they don't really exist at all. :-C
Si.
John B (not the sloop)
Don't blame me I didn't vote for 'em
If it's any consolation, I almost never see them in France at this time of year. Late April/early May is invariably best. I had two parading photogenically around the lawn over there one Easter. |8)|
Mysticete
Well-known member
Ruddy Ground Dove in the US. searched for 10 times, no luck though. The last time I had a probable distant bird but it flew before I could get a scope on it, and the time before that I had "just missed one" at a feeder in Arizona.
Pectoral Sandpiper might have to go on the list...never was able to score a vagrant in Socal, missed them on their breeding grounds in Alaska, and haven't found one in migration yet in Wyoming.
Pectoral Sandpiper might have to go on the list...never was able to score a vagrant in Socal, missed them on their breeding grounds in Alaska, and haven't found one in migration yet in Wyoming.
gus guthrie
gus guthrie
Just got one of my bogey birds yesterday ! Mediterranean Gull, not that unusual I know, but they have always eluded me.
Took my daughter to see it today and there are now 2 birds there !
Now if only that Iceland Full would show up....!
Fozzybear
Ich bin ein Vogelbeobachter
Med Gulls are not uber-rare but if you don't get to the right places then they're easy to miss out on and Gulls can be a bit of a nightmare to ID too!
I've come to the conclusion that I have a deterrent effect on Peregrines and Hobbies as I've not seen either* but on the day I went away on holiday a Peregrine turned up in town within walking distance of me! :-O I've had one local birder look at me as though I was an idiot because I'd not seen a Hobby, which wasn't nice! I think it's partly because I spend so little time at places where Hobbies are found - I don't drive and I don't travel away from my local town very much!
On holiday I've seen quite a few widespread panics of the birds at Cley that could have been due to Peregrines but never seen the bird that caused the disturbance. It's irritating in a way but one of those things where I know eventually I'm going to see them, it's just a matter of time. I don't really want to go off hunting for them based on other people's sightings though, even though that would be a way to scratch the itch as it were. Even if it takes me a long time I'd really prefer to stumble upon one myself as that would feel much more special. Hopefully I've got many years of birdwatching ahead of me so plenty of opportunity to find one!
I always think that a bird you've not seen isn't really a bad thing, although the 'currency' in birding circles seems to be your life count the person who has seen them all doesn't have the anticipation and the joy of that first sighting to look forward to!
*apparently when I went to Skomer in 2007 (on one of the holidays that first got me interested in birdwatching) there was a Peregrine zooming around the cliffs but I was pretty sick that day due to a combination of a bout of lactose intolerance and the heat and a lot of walking so I don't remember seeing it, although my brother did.
I've come to the conclusion that I have a deterrent effect on Peregrines and Hobbies as I've not seen either* but on the day I went away on holiday a Peregrine turned up in town within walking distance of me! :-O I've had one local birder look at me as though I was an idiot because I'd not seen a Hobby, which wasn't nice! I think it's partly because I spend so little time at places where Hobbies are found - I don't drive and I don't travel away from my local town very much!
On holiday I've seen quite a few widespread panics of the birds at Cley that could have been due to Peregrines but never seen the bird that caused the disturbance. It's irritating in a way but one of those things where I know eventually I'm going to see them, it's just a matter of time. I don't really want to go off hunting for them based on other people's sightings though, even though that would be a way to scratch the itch as it were. Even if it takes me a long time I'd really prefer to stumble upon one myself as that would feel much more special. Hopefully I've got many years of birdwatching ahead of me so plenty of opportunity to find one!
I always think that a bird you've not seen isn't really a bad thing, although the 'currency' in birding circles seems to be your life count the person who has seen them all doesn't have the anticipation and the joy of that first sighting to look forward to!
*apparently when I went to Skomer in 2007 (on one of the holidays that first got me interested in birdwatching) there was a Peregrine zooming around the cliffs but I was pretty sick that day due to a combination of a bout of lactose intolerance and the heat and a lot of walking so I don't remember seeing it, although my brother did.
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
Monahawk, you ought to visit NE Spain. I have seen hoopoes on most of my holidays in Spain, and the region where I see them most of all is Catalunya in the far NE. I even saw one over the top end of La Rambla, the famous street in Barcelona. It was the call that alerted me to it, audible despite the buskers. To be totally sure, book a trip with a guide. There are a few excellent guides in NE Spain, those that I have been for trips with and which I can whole heartedly recommend are:
Catalanbirdtours (Stephen)
Ebrotours (Rob & Marg)
You will also see lots of other fine birds that will make you forget that the hoopoe was ever a bogey bird!
I suppose that I have a few bogey birds myself, species that I have missed or not identified for various reasons. The oldest is the bulwer's petrel, which I looked out for on a few boat trips in Madeira and the Canaries. Most of these were in April and, therefore, too early in the season. In the very hot August of 2003 I went to do a boat trip from Puerto de Tazacorte on the west coast of La Palma (Canaries), but there were not enough people to do the trip and they asked me to come back in 4 hours. It was too hot to hang around, so I gave up. I count marsh sandpiper as another bogey bird as in 2004 I saw what might have been one on the Ebro Delta, "That's a thin looking greenshank!" but I wasn't really aware of the existence of marsh sandpipers at the time. I'm still looking for them. Also, I stayed 3 nights at Cassowary House above Cairns (Australia) in 2008 and "dipped" on the cassowary that had been seen on the morning before I arrived there. I'm giving it another try!
Allen
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Zoogoer2000 - Packwatcher
Well-known member
Belted kingfisher is one of my big ones, I visit a local lagoon several times a week, but never see them although it is the correct enviroment
alexcropper83
Well-known member
I've not been birding all that long, but so far my bogey bird has to be the redstart. The thing is mythical, not far removed from a phoenix. Last friday when out on a wildlife walk I thought I saw one... only turned out to be a BLACK Redstart, damn and blast! I can't get the allegedly common one but can get the scarce one!
gus guthrie
gus guthrie
can I swap you a redstart for a black redstart !
Tiraya
San Diego CA
Shorebirds. Every one except the Masked Lapwings (which isn't even a shorebird in my eyes). Been to countless locations when Red-kneed Dots, Curlew Sands, Red-caps etc. have been seen in hundreds yet when I go there the next day there is nothing. What is this about 40~ relatively common shorebirds? They all hate me.
Arbu
Well-known member
Er, I've managed 17 countries. But then I've never seen a dotterel or a roseate tern.
northernloon
swimming in a virtual sea
When I first started birding in Liverpool the Albert Dock was a dead cert for black redstart, then the area got redeveloped. The old lighthouse at Flamborough used to be a shoe-in as well.
As for redstart, I'm afraid must confess to being a little blase having lived in the Yorkshire Dales for several years.
My bogey has to be Sabine's Gull. Lost count of the hours of seawatching I did off the northwest coast (Hilbre, Red Rocks, Seaforth). I think they are just aberrant kittiwakes
