Biggest tarts (4 Viewers)

[Edward woodwood]

Hi RB

I stopped twitching as i decided to work abroad and do my birding on my travels. I had twitched a lot but as a kid i'd long wanted to see some of the birds my older birding/twitching mates had seen on their travels such as Pittas, Broadbills, Trogons, Antbirds and Cochoas etc. So i packed my bags and went tropical. I returned and moved to Norfolk and got involved big time with conservation and OBC. I figured it was the best part of UK to be in and I'd always wanted to live here as a kid lister too.

The birds i want to see now are the exotic/tricky/threatened foreign stuff like Koslov's Bunting, Tibetan Sandgrouse, Relict Gull etc which i'm after this summer. Teaching allows me the time to see these marvellous birds

I don't have anything against twitching, just the attitude of some of today's twitchers. It was something spiritual/mystical to see a RF Bluetail or Sibe Thrush in UK and then go to Thailand and see them there. It's no longer a stepping stone to anything but an end in itself.

maybe less a numbers game, more aesthetics?

Tim

 

[jtibbetts]

438 but still need such amazing ones as Black Guillemot, Spotted Crake and Leachs Petrel, all of which im going to get this year!

 

[Edward]

I'm at 400+ on my Euro list and consistently manage to dodge incoming Great Spotted Cuckoos and Grey Phalaropes.

Touty, as someone who has done two spring trips to Spain in the last three years, seen 220 odd species there, had cracking views of birds such as Spanish Imperial Eagle, Wallcreeper, Dupont's Lark etc. I still, despite a lot of time spent in suitable areas, have not seen (or so much as heard) an effing Great Spotted Cuckoo and it is now my most wanted West Pal bird by a mile, so you have my every sympathy. Grey Phalarope I see every year of course, but only those bright red ones, not the lovely grey ones you get elsewhere in Europe.

Pomarine Skua is my biggest Icelandic omission. I was otherwise engaged when 3,000 turned up just off shore only 45 minutes' drive away in 1999, and numerous sea watches since have failed to turn up a thing.

E

 

[Tranquility Base]

How on EARTH do people reach 420+ without seeing Tysties, Leach's, BW Prats etc etc?????? I got the 'tarts out of the way' before I started twitching. Now I just 'need' a few 'blockers' (Wallcreeper, Hudsonian Godwit, Little Whimbrel, Fea's, South Polar Skua, Mag Frigate Bird, Chinese Pond Heron and Black Lark) to get me past Tim A! Mind, I still 'need' a couple of semi-tarts: Ross's Gull and Spectacled Warbler. C'est domage: I don't twitch any longer, so it may not happen.......

 

[Edward woodwood]

Hey inspector, don't include Leach's and Black guillies with BW Prats

different class of bird entirely and year ticks surely for a twitcher?

Tim

 

[Tranquility Base]

C'est vrai, Tim......... But there WAS a time a few years back when it was impossible to go into the field in Norfolk and not get a BW Prat stuck in your hair! You must have been in China, I expect!

 

[sylvia staffs]

My biggest omission is Paddyfield Warbler!! Do these birds exist? i have dipped 3 including the Cornish Marizion bird where i spent 6 days of my holiday looking for it, it did not help having my car pinched whilst i was down in St Ives which had my scope in and i had to travel the short journey every day by bus!!!!! It has certainly put my wife who was my girlfriend at the time off twitching as she shivered in the cold every day looking at am empty marsh and pool. The closet i got to the bloody thing was being stood next to someone who had it in there scope briefly but could not put me on it.

I missed the Herts 99 bird getting up at 3am the morning it was there only to get back in bed because i couldnt face the drive and going onto work straight after until 10pm, obviously forced myself to go next day and dipped.

Stayed in Cornwall for my annual October bash and had one surpressed 7 miles from where i was stopping-only put out locally to phone a friend.

I also managed to dip 4 speices of Slvia warbler in a year(1992) hence the nick name Sylvia, but managed to pull 3 back but still need Ruppels Warbler.

I suppose i musnt grumble as i have seen 6 American wood warbler sp in Britian!!! My British BOU list is in the 440s!!!!

Phil.

 

[Pie Face]

C'est vrai, Tim......... But there WAS a time a few years back when it was impossible to go into the field in Norfolk and not get a BW Prat stuck in your hair! You must have been in China, I expect!

Just like your name sake Clouseau you too are indeed without a clue . Can't recall any Bl-W Prats in Norfolk in my birding life time. The last B-w in East Anglia was in Suffolk about 12 years ago. The only Prat's in Norfolk have been the Oriental and a couple of Collared's.

Mark

 

[Edward]

The only Prat's in Norfolk have been the Oriental and a couple of Collared's.

Surely there's room for a joke with that line. Anyone?

E

 

[postcardcv]

The last B-w in East Anglia was in Suffolk about 12 years ago. The only Prat's in Norfolk have been the Oriental and a couple of Collared's.

Mark

I'm fairly sure there was a bw prat in Norfolk in '99, first found at Cley, but moved about a bit. It stick in the memory as a friend called from the hide at Cley minutes after it was found telling what a cracking bird it was - typically I couldn't get over for it. Then as if to add insult to injury another friend managed to get both the black winged and the collared (that was also around) in the same day. I'm left feeling totally gripped and still without a prat to my name....

 

[postcardcv]

As for 'tarts ticks' - my county list is just over 300 but I'm still missing red kite, hooded crow and nightingale (must put that right very soon).

 

[Pie Face]

As for 'tarts ticks' - my county list is just over 300 but I'm still missing red kite, hooded crow and nightingale (must put that right very soon).

I stand corrected apologies Clouseau :flowers: , found at Cley and ended up at Titchwell August 99.

Mark

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Never seen a hippolais warbler of any kind in Britain, or Ptarmigan, or Sea Eagle. Got Paddyfield on Fair Isle in 1997, but little else that visit other than a Citrine Wagtail.

Stephen.

 

[Bluetail]

Only ever been an occasional long-distance twitcher - I rarely stray more than a couple of hours from home - so I've never passed the 400 mark (maybe I would if I used the UK400 list). Out of the regulars I still need

Corncrake
Mealy Redpoll (don't regard it as a good species anyway)
Bee-eater (why, why, why has there never been a realiably twitchable one near here?)
White Stork (too many escapes to make it exciting)
Snow Goose (ditto)
Lady A (a bit too plastic for me)

"Commonest" rarities still missing (in descending order):

Arctic Roll
Parrotbill (is that still a BBRC bird?)
Wilson's Petrel
Great Snipe
Black-headed Bunting

 

[dan pointon]

I've reached 255, don't sound like many, but i'm only 14 so plenty of time yet, i have most of the tartier tarts (if that makes sense)! Still need a Temmincks Stint and Little Auk, the first my BIG target this spring - missed one this afternoon at Carsington.

Dan

 

[Julian Sykes Wildlife]

Hi Guys

450+ in the Uk, only breeder required is Lady Am's Pheasant (ask me if I'm bothered).

Proper birds would probably have to be Izzy Wheatear or Little Shearwater (even after hours & hours of sea-watching), can't believe the luck of Fea's guy.

Although Andrew Whitehouse had the 2nd or 3rd (I think) Great Shearwater for Fife with a lady who had never sea-watched before!!!

 

[Tranquility Base]

I stand corrected apologies Clouseau :flowers: , found at Cley and ended up at Titchwell August 99.

Mark

Saw it.......... videoed it........... But vous avez raison: I was thinking also of one at Great Livermere: this is, of course, in Suffolk. But I seem to recall another BWP also...... Seen by a chosen (or Choseley!) few only!

 

[Tranquility Base]

White Stork (too many escapes to make it exciting)

Non Monsieur! You are wrong! The White Stork is always a breath-taking bird! I have 450+ on my (non UK400) list, and I would ALWAYS enjoy watching a White (or Black) Stork. I even enjoyed watching a Maribou Stork near Reedham many years ago. It did not have enough friends among local birders, or else it might have been taken more seriously as a vagrant from Israel...... It eventually flew into wires and was found to be immaculate and unringed. o

 

[Edward woodwood]

Inspecteur...

450 is tres bon (bet that includes an albatross...) and a soaring stork is a spectacle indeed...

did you see the vulture that was flapping round Norfolk a few years back....?

I'm going to have a lazy morning watching the hunnies tomorrow (after finishing my marking of course), so get ready for some dodgy White/Black Storks from the Wensum valley.

atb
Tim

 

[James Lowther]

Got a meagre 220ish, so don't feel too embarrassed at missing fea's petrel, paddyfield warbler etc. Of those I am missing, ring ouzel, black tern, osprey, great skua all stand out for me. Have seen 2 great spotted cuckoos however (adult and first winter in Spain this february)

James