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The Dirtier side of Twitching ... (1 Viewer)

dantheman

dantheman

Bah humbug
... or anti-twitching.

A number of recent threads (Short-toed eagle, Siberian Rubythroat etc etc) have touched upon some of the more unsavoury/controversial sides of the birding/listing/twitching game, deliberate falsification or records, malicious suppression, hoaxes and other caddish behaviours.

Stuff goes on/ has gone on since birding started it would seem. Rather than current rarity threads here on bf continually being dragged down and sidetracking into some of these issues and keep some of the notable (and they are relevant to birding as a whole) cans/crates of worms and accusations/counter accusation and leebashing in one place (might link the other threads on here, so anyone who missed out knows where to find them all), thought it would be a reasonably good (eek!) idea to start this dedicated thread. Probably a reaaaallly bad idea ... ;)

Get those malicious rumours flowing ...
 
Hi Dan

I'm sure most people don't kinow where to start!!!

Having said that elsewhere in the world when you get gangs of (mostly) men in camouflage gear roaming the countryside looking for a target there's usually malice, grudge and some idiot kicking off...

Fortunately for my sanity I don't twitch anymore... unless really pressed.

;)
 
This is all rather tame.....where is LaRGEego when you need him....?

Oh I see he's stirring on the Bufflehead forum.
 
Lep Man said:
This is all rather tame.....where is LaRGEego when you need him....?

Oh I see he's stirring on the Bufflehead forum.
Click to expand...

Or claiming to have dipped something. Honestly, some of these people with big dip lists I reckon are sticking stuff on there for which they've had UDV's. They bowl up, and are seen by several unknown inexperienced unreliable observers to be getting a clear look at the bird, under conditions where they must have been able to clinch all the features. Yet STILL they claim to have not quite got enough on it to ID it, and , WHACK, there it goes, straight onto their diplist. When they've clearly had Undippable views. Disgusting. We need this policing.
 
Larry Wheatland said:
Or claiming to have dipped something. Honestly, some of these people with big dip lists I reckon are sticking stuff on there for which they've had UDV's. They bowl up, and are seen by several unknown inexperienced unreliable observers to be getting a clear look at the bird, under conditions where they must have been able to clinch all the features. Yet STILL they claim to have not quite got enough on it to ID it, and , WHACK, there it goes, straight onto their diplist. When they've clearly had Undippable views. Disgusting. We need this policing.
Click to expand...

We'll we've already had several characters claiming to have dipped birds when they haven't even left the house / airport or possibly in some cases not even heard of the bird! Just because you were alive when a bird turned up (and you didn't see it) doesn't mean you dipped it! By that logic I dipped the Brown Thrasher when I was a few months old.

cheers, a
 
Larry Wheatland said:
Or claiming to have dipped something. Honestly, some of these people with big dip lists I reckon are sticking stuff on there for which they've had UDV's. They bowl up, and are seen by several unknown inexperienced unreliable observers to be getting a clear look at the bird, under conditions where they must have been able to clinch all the features. Yet STILL they claim to have not quite got enough on it to ID it, and , WHACK, there it goes, straight onto their diplist. When they've clearly had Undippable views. Disgusting. We need this policing.
Click to expand...

As nobody else is willing to do it and as the George Michael of dipping (in the 80s sense, not public toilet sense of course) I will now be judge, jury and executioner of dippers. The lack of ability in dippers these days is apparent with only TWENTY DIPPERS showing the ability to record inaccurate notes or no notes whatsoever. I blame the lack of APPRENTICESHIPS. When I was a lad in 1969 looking at birds I managed to dip a EURASIAN BLACK HEADED-WITH-RED CAPPED GREEN WOODPECKER. This immediately set me on the path of dipping and I was fortunate enough to to meet a strange man who took me under his wing and we dipped together. My greatest disappointment was failing to dip the PACIFIC WHITE-BOTTOMED SWIFT where I got UDVs. Over the years I have assembled a team of MASSIVE dippers that form my advisary panel from all over Europe with luminaries such as RICK DORSMAN, RADOMAN HIROSHAI & LILLIAN MABLARNEY and as such I feel that I am the only person fit to pass judgement on dipping records. In 1985 I broke away from the BOUDC and set up the BDA (BRITISH DIPPING ASSOCIATION) due to disagreement on the taxonomy of dipping and now we stand as the PREMIER dipping organisation in the UNIVERSE. At present we have over 400 members with dip lists over 400.

Good Birding
 
Hotspur said:
Good Birding
Click to expand...

Surely you mean bad birding Hotspur? What misfortune are you wishing upon us? ;)

And as I write I hear that Sir Dipchard Bagnaffall has returned from Shetland claiming UTVs of the SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT. He claims that even though he saw the glittering red throat in his 2 second glimpse of the bird, he didn't get enough on it to exclude HIMALAYAN RUBYTHROAT. He was even telling people adamant he must have had UDVs,( on his way to the nearby pub) that he'd knock up an *I dipped the Sibethroat" T-shirt to wear at the next big dip.

We need you Hotspur!
 
Last edited:
Anyone claiming to have dipped the Bufflehead while it was actually present yet? Some are saying that the pond is so small that only UDVs were possible until the bird left. Any cold-shots claiming that every time they looked the bird was diving?
 
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