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Birds you have seen but not COUNTED (1 Viewer)

Mysticete

Mysticete

Well-known member
United States
continuing on the recent threads...

By seen but not counted I am referring to birds that you "saw" but were unable to ID. Maybe you got to a twitch just as the bird was flying away. Or you were on the wrong side of something and all you got was a silhouette in glare. Or perhaps you didn't scan through a flock thoroughly enough only to find out some other rare or interesting bird was present.

My list includes the following.

Xantus Murrelet - distant obvious murrelet on a pelagic out of Santa Barbara, however the light was bad by the time I got onto it and I didn't get a good enough look at the underwing when it took off

Bridled Tern. Wrong side of the boat on a pelagic in NC; by the time I got onto it the bird was back lit and just a silhouette.

Seaside Sparrow: Brown Jobs flying off...at least a couple were probably Seaside Sparrows, but I couldn't be 100% sure.

Yellow-browed Warbler. Had one at Holkham...other people got great looks but the bird didn't cooperate for me, and I wasn't able to get any views that would allow me to distinguish between other more common Phylloscopus.

Swinhoe's Storm Petrel? I had a small all dark storm petrel from a ferry off of northern Honshu, that seemed smaller than Tristrams, but couldn't fully rule out a dark-rumped Leaches.
 
Mysticete said:
continuing on the recent threads...

By seen but not counted I am referring to birds that you "saw" but were unable to ID. Maybe you got to a twitch just as the bird was flying away. Or you were on the wrong side of something and all you got was a silhouette in glare. Or perhaps you didn't scan through a flock thoroughly enough only to find out some other rare or interesting bird was present.
Click to expand...

Loads of them, inc some painful ones: Northern Cassowary (West Papua - naked eye), Mountain Peacock-Pheasant (Malaysia - naked eye views only on trail), Rajah's Scops Owl (Sumatra - flew over to tape but not perched), Markham's Storm-petrel (Galapagos), Juan Fernandez Petrel (Chile), Gray-breasted Crake (Brazil - naked eye only to tape)...loads more I'm sure; also many heard onlys. Still..there's always next time B :)

cheers, alan
 
My list is as follows
Fieldfare (seen plenty but all have been identified months after sightings)

Goshawk (a probable one, this bird has teased me twice with this sighting and when i heard one calling)

Mistle thrush (identified two years after sighting)

Golden plover (confident they were but it was a group who just took off all at once and was only a blur of wing flaps)

A POSSIBLE vagrant bittern up here in scotland. We were just about to leave from a fishing centre when a large brown bird flew past with a long neck but was too blurred to make out clearly. It probably wasn't anyway.

A POSSIBLE Ruddy duck in Stirling (but their range isn't known to stretch this far west.

I have a question. Is i saw a bird or two before i started getting into birding is that a tick? I have two: white stork and shelduck both in france in 2005, but only started birding in 2008. Does this count?
 
I've a probable goshawk from a site in Yorkshire, I'd no bins on me on the day so couldn't get a positive id. If it was a female sparrowhawk then it was the biggest one I've ever seen.
I've had goshawk out of county a few times now but not being able to id the bird in county still hurts.
 
Lmc3598 said:
I have a question. Is i saw a bird or two before i started getting into birding is that a tick? I have two: white stork and shelduck both in france in 2005, but only started birding in 2008. Does this count?
Click to expand...

Well I'd count them :)

Mine must be a ring ouzel - to this day I don't know if it was a ring ouzel or part leucism blackbird
 
Two very painful ones spring to mind.

First, several years back I saw a large accipter soaring over (very) distant woodland then heading off towards a local reservoir. Everything about it suggested Goshawk, but having never seen one I didn't feel able to claim one on those views. Later that day I learnt that a group of observers at the reservoir had excellent views of a Goshawk at the same time as "my" bird. So it is pretty certain that what I saw was one, but I didn't tick it and I still "need" Goshawk to this day. They are very scarce birds locally, but I still live in hope.

Second, more of a painful near miss than seen but not counted. Upon hearing news of a Terek Sandpiper on my local patch I jumped straight in the car and broke my all-time record for getting to the site. As I arrived I drove past a couple of birders on their way back, smiling and giving me the "thumbs-up" to indicate that it was still there. As I got within 100 yards I saw everyone looking skywards into the distance. Yes, the Terek Sand had flown off just before I arrived. No, it was not seen again, and yes - I still "need" it!
 
Lmc3598 said:
My list is as follows
Fieldfare (seen plenty but all have been identified months after sightings)

Goshawk (a probable one, this bird has teased me twice with this sighting and when i heard one calling)

Mistle thrush (identified two years after sighting)

Golden plover (confident they were but it was a group who just took off all at once and was only a blur of wing flaps)

A POSSIBLE vagrant bittern up here in scotland. We were just about to leave from a fishing centre when a large brown bird flew past with a long neck but was too blurred to make out clearly. It probably wasn't anyway.

A POSSIBLE Ruddy duck in Stirling (but their range isn't known to stretch this far west.

I have a question. Is i saw a bird or two before i started getting into birding is that a tick? I have two: white stork and shelduck both in france in 2005, but only started birding in 2008. Does this count?
Click to expand...

i would definately count them, you still saw he bird didn't you? i would say the same about your mistle thrush and fieldfare.


my one would be a GN diver: it was almost dark on a winters day last year and it was sleeting and almost gale forse winds were blowing across a large piece of open water into my face, and i saw a blur of a diver shaped bird and on reflection it i am sure it was one but cannot count it because i didnt id it on the spot (which would normaly be fine for me but i had no pictres or notes to make a conclusive id.:-C
 
Saker in Turkey but to far away for positive id. Eagle Owl again in Turkey but just a silhouette in the half light of dawn. I'm sure there are others.
 
Too many to count (but then I have very strict standards ;)). Probably the most galling was a Yellow-throated Warbler in southern Nevada. I'm morally certain that's what it was but it flitted off, never to reappear, before I could fix the retinal image in memory securely enough to lay to rest all doubts. Oh well, something to shoot for next trip back east.
 
Ian,

Just out of curiosity, do you only count birds that you have seen through binoculars, and that is why you "missed"? I would imagine that even a rather distant Cassowary has to be rather distinctive?

On birds seen before the start of birding:

I count them, but only if it seems really obvious that they are not likely to be a misidentification. So Kori Bustard and Secretarybird (from a study abroad in Africa) are on there, but not various larks, etc. So far I have managed to knock off almost all my "relifers" for ABA, with only one bird left that I have only seen prior to the start of birding, Swallow-tailed Kite.
 
Honey buzzard - not a lifer but would have been a good patch and county tick but the bird was seen flying over a main road when I had no binoculars with me.

Indigo bunting - the Norfolk bird in the late 80s but was later rejected.

Black-eared wheatear - found by me but not identified for four days and subsequently rejected by the rarities committee.

Bar-headed goose - the three at RSPB Marshside had to be escapees (possibly from the Isle of Man) but they were not ringed.
 
Keith Dickinson said:
I've a probable goshawk from a site in Yorkshire, I'd no bins on me on the day so couldn't get a positive id. If it was a female sparrowhawk then it was the biggest one I've ever seen.
I've had goshawk out of county a few times now but not being able to id the bird in county still hurts.
Click to expand...

I have never had a good view of goshawk but saw one flying over The Lodge at Sandy a few years ago. I would not have counted it but for the fact that it was being mobbed by a very brave sparrowhawk at the time.
 
I definitely have a large list of species that I'm almost positive about but didn't quite get a good enough look to add them to my list. The most recent I can think of is a Green Shrike-Babbler in India that ducked away before I could be 100% certain on the ID.

One of the most frustrating personally is Oilbird. As a monotypic, and just plain cool, family I would love to have this species on my list but have never connected with it quite to my satisfaction. Despite hearing its distinctive call overhead and seeing movement on numerous occasions while working at a lodge in Ecuador, I was never able to get my spotlight out in time. I'm hoping to get down to Asa Wright over the next year though so hopefully I won't have too much longer to wait!

Cheers,
Benji
 
jc122463 said:
One of the most frustrating personally is Oilbird. As a monotypic, and just plain cool, family I would love to have this species on my list but have never connected with it quite to my satisfaction. Despite hearing its distinctive call overhead and seeing movement on numerous occasions while working at a lodge in Ecuador, I was never able to get my spotlight out in time. I'm hoping to get down to Asa Wright over the next year though so hopefully I won't have too much longer to wait
Click to expand...

Oilbird’s a can’t miss for Asa Wright alright & is where I had my one & only encounter with the species some years ago. And scoping the tree tops from the lodge balcony with rum punch in hand after a hard day’s birding, my idea of heaven!
 
Nightranger said:
Honey buzzard - not a lifer but would have been a good patch and county tick but the bird was seen flying over a main road when I had no binoculars with me.

Indigo bunting - the Norfolk bird in the late 80s but was later rejected.

Black-eared wheatear - found by me but not identified for four days and subsequently rejected by the rarities committee.

Bar-headed goose - the three at RSPB Marshside had to be escapees (possibly from the Isle of Man) but they were not ringed.
Click to expand...

Why didnt you count the honey buzzard? My first common buzzard was seen flying at the side of the road and I have never used binocolars to identify any bird. Just count it

Also, my first and only osprey was seen at the side of a busy main road
 
Last edited:
Mistle thrush seen today, added to list.

I was thinking about unticking a bird, a gold crest, due to the poor quality of the sighting and uncertainty as to wether it was a gold crest or not. All I saw was a tiny plump silloetue flying between two conifer trees, uttering a very high pitched peep noise. Should I untick?
 
Lmc3598 said:
Why didnt you count the honey buzzard? My first common buzzard was seen flying at the side of the road and I have never used binocolars to identify any bird. Just count it

Also, my first and only osprey was seen at the side of a busy main road
Click to expand...

It took a bit of research to get anywhere near what the bird was likely to have been. I subscribe to Oddie's Rule to assume it is something common(er) before thinking about rarities. Common buzzard would have been an obvious candidate given they are common round here these days but the shape was wrong and there was no v-shaped wing despite the fact that the bird was gliding. It was also wrong for osprey or marsh harrier despite the timing and I originally thought it could have been an early rough-legged buzzard. I looked up what I remembered about the plumage and found that honey buzzard was a better fit. the sad postscript is that a honey buzzard was gennuinely recorded on the Lancashire coast a few days later and the bird was heading west from my position in east Lancashire. DOH!
 
Lmc3598 said:
Mistle thrush seen today, added to list.

I was thinking about unticking a bird, a gold crest, due to the poor quality of the sighting and uncertainty as to wether it was a gold crest or not. All I saw was a tiny plump silloetue flying between two conifer trees, uttering a very high pitched peep noise. Should I untick?
Click to expand...

Probably not, firecrests are the only conflicting species and they should be heading east by now. ;)
 
Lmc3598 said:
I was thinking about unticking a bird, a gold crest, due to the poor quality of the sighting and uncertainty as to wether it was a gold crest or not. All I saw was a tiny plump silloetue flying between two conifer trees, uttering a very high pitched peep noise. Should I untick?
Click to expand...

Depends if you know the repertoire of Coal Tit enough to rule that out. It's just as likely in that scenario as Goldcrest

Jan
 
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