Do you ever remember seeing a bird, that you think you have a good idea of what it is now, but you didn't have a clue then because you were not a proper birder, or really a birder at all...
I remember seeing a wader sp. at a local pond, the water level had dropped, and this bird had flown down onto the pond edge walked a couple of metres and was then stirred by a passing car. My guess now: Wood Sandpiper
Another one, two brown ducks on the sea in late August about four years ago, I was trying to swim out to the buoys, with some people, and remember seeing two brown ducks on the sea. My guess now: Difficult, but perhaps two eclispes Garganeys?
Last one, another sea one, I remember swimming out to an island, I think I was a birder then but not a very good one, at all. On West Wittering Beach, and I remeber seeing a real wierd looking bunch on gulls with dark red beaks, black legs and black headed gull like primaries. My guess now: I don't know, most resembling Slender-Billed Gull I know of but almost certainly not!