Biggest tarts (2 Viewers)

[Runcorn Birder]

James,

I had MAJOR problems with Ring Ouzel. Must have dipped at least a dozen times (usually chasing rather than using a bit of nous) before picking them up at Sammy's Point, Easington, in 2003.

I think they're one of the most difficult birds to catch up with on the resident/breeding bird list.

Others which I think are tougher than they look...

Serin (usually fly-by at coastal headlands)

Black Kite (same but anywhere)

Quail (so many hours of frustrated listening)

Melodious Warbler (if you're from Oop North they're not very common)

Great & Cory's Shearwater (not often twitchable, you see or you don't)

Nightingale (have only just managed to see one recently but you don't get them often in Cheshire, and when you do venture south, you don't want to waste your day sat next to a large green bush)

 

[James Lowther]

funnily enough i HAVE seen a black kite (portland)!!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

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!!!

Very true Jules, and it was also my mate's first seawatching in Fife for several years. And we'd only just sat down in the hide.

If it's any consolation I still haven't seen a Sabine's Gull anywhere. Not that I've let the tripartite wing-patterned, grey-hooded tossers get to me or anything

 

[CornishExile]

Somewhere in the mid 400's for me I guess, though stopped counting years ago. I never connected with Corncrake, and couldn't bring myself to make a trip to the Western Isles for it on the basis I'd stumble across one someday. It still hasn't happened, though I guess my chances these days are much improved. Who knows, maybe one'll turn up in my oats next year?

As for Fea's - I had a ticket for the Scillonian pelagic the year they had Fea's, but took one look at the weather forecast and chickened out (I'm just pathetically prone to seasickness), and gave (!) my ticket to a friend of a friend. Needless to say, he was pretty chuffed. I was less so. Given the amount of hours I've spent seawatching over the years, I really deserve one of these.

CE

 

[Bluetail]

Non Monsieur! You are wrong! The White Stork is always a breath-taking bird!

Actually I do agree with you. What I really meant was that, having seen a few (but no wild one in Britain), I wouldn't spend the time and money chasing across country for one. When a twitchable one turns up near home, I'll certainly go for it.

 

[Swift]

About 430+ and never been close to an Aquatic Warbler, keep convincing myself I will go and look at one in Poland same for Great Snipe.

 

[johnraven]

There's remarkably few people responding with UK numbers in the 300s - it's either 400's or 200's. Anyway, as someone who's seen 342 species in the UK (yep, exact number, statistician by trade), I'm missing Little Auk, Corncrake, Gt Shearwater & Rose-coloured Starling in particular. For some reason I much prefer seeing the "tarts" for the first time than some ludicrously rare mega-twitch effort - presumably for the sake of statistical completeness.

 

[Stuart Watson]

400 - only when drunk and wearing someone elses glasses

You can probably guess outstanding howlers with the clues below-

Lifers ticked this month - Guillemot , Razorbill , Kittiwake , Tree sparrow
Lifers ticked this year - Fulmar , Black guillemot , Red brested merganser , Turnstone , Wheatear , Stonechat , Twite , Linnet
Lifer ticked today - Stock dove

Missed out on Puffin this month, but sure that i heard them!
OK, you can stop laughing now - i`m out of my element!

 

[redeyedvideo]

I'm too embarrased to say what my biggest omission is so here's a clue.

1) They are often mistaken for a very similar species which I've seen on numerous occassions both here & abroad.
2) There were 8 on the Isles of Scilly one year when I arrived but all had gone the next day. ( I went to Tresco for a YB Cuckoo)
3) I've dipped three times, all in Norfolk where they are seen (almost) annually.
4) I went to Dunge many years ago & alerted the ringers to a bird they'd left in the trap. They wouldn't let me see it & I read in the ringing report a year later that one had been trapped on this day!!!!!

Dave J

 

[John Cantelo]

Personally I'd say that any species still considered by the BBRC cannot be, by definition, a "tart's tick" (not a term I particularly like, but a useful shorthand term). Not having seriously twitched (other than within Kent) for three decades or so, my UK list stubbornly remains a few birds short of 400. I also think that Runcorn Birder makes an excellent point regarding birds that seem easy "on paper".

My most embarrassing lacunae list wise are Black Kite, Snowy Owl, Lady Amherst's Pheasant and Parrot Crossbill (although I saw the tail of one of a pair that nested in Norfolk aeons back). I've since seen crossbills with very stout bills that were probably Parrots in Scotland, but this brings me on to Scottish Crossbill…… I suspect if we were all rigorously honest many of us would have to add Scotbill to the list of "tart's ticks" since so very few people, me included, are competent to identify them, with certainty, in the field!

It's a bit cynical of me (and very probably sour grapes too), but I suspect that in these days of instant news, the raw total of birds seen has more to do with the availability of free time and cash flow than any great expertise as a birder. Don't get me wrong, some of the most expert birders I know are big time twitchers, but big lists do not necessarily a better birder make. So be content with what you've seen and those "tart's ticks" will come your way in the fullness of time ….. or not!

John

 

[Bluetail]

It's a bit cynical of me (and very probably sour grapes too), but I suspect that in these days of instant news, the raw total of birds seen has more to do with the availability of free time and cash flow than any great expertise as a birder.

I don't think anyone would disagree. I've certainly heard keen twitchers/listers bemoaning the fact that the phone/pager services have devalued the rarities by making them too easy to get - meaning that the birds no longer seem as special as they did in the nail-biting days of the grapevine.

 

[Edward woodwood]

It's a bit cynical of me (and very probably sour grapes too), but I suspect that in these days of instant news, the raw total of birds seen has more to do with the availability of free time and cash flow than any great expertise as a birder.
John

so true JC. If i'd carried on as i was going when i packed up 10 years ago at the tender age of 26 I could have a much larger list (I know people around 27-28 with well over 450) but what would it mean?

getting over it early does mean you have much more time to just go out and relax and enjoy finding/looking at birds.

Tim

 

[Edward woodwood]

I don't think anyone would disagree. I've certainly heard keen twitchers/listers bemoaning the fact that the phone/pager services have devalued the rarities by making them too easy to get - meaning that the birds no longer seem as special as they did in the nail-biting days of the grapevine.

again Jason very true

I remember the RF Bluetail at Winspit.... that was the holy grail for me. And what a day we had. Lots of people seemed to disappear from the scene after that. Nowadays there's no big drinks, chats or cameraderie after a bird, everyone moves onto the next one straightaway.

Maybe after the bluetail it was time to call it a day and look for adventures elsewhere.

Tim

 

[HH75]

Hi Tim,
While the number of rare birds found in Ireland is often sufficiently small for there to be no 'next one' to move onto straight away, or indeed even for weeks/months, there are all too few opportunities for a chat and/or a drink afterwards nowadays, except when a bird is found on Cape Clear or some other offshore island on a Friday or Saturday. Maybe today's hectic pace is just as much to blame as the urge to go for the 'next' tick, though I acknowledge that this would be a factor also?
Harry

 

[redeyedvideo]

I don't think anyone would disagree. I've certainly heard keen twitchers/listers bemoaning the fact that the phone/pager services have devalued the rarities by making them too easy to get - meaning that the birds no longer seem as special as they did in the nail-biting days of the grapevine.

That's because they don't want mear mortals seeing good birds without being in the clique. The value of a bird is what the observer him or herself puts on it. To take the original point, a Wryneck is a cracking bird but when it's on your own patch or you find it yourself it transcends the first for Britain you've driven 6 hours to see. Yes, it's easier now to see 400 species in the UK but there are listers & there are birders. And there are both. Those that don't get the pleasure of seeing a rare bird because they have never 1) heard of it 2) dreamed of seeing one 3) thought they'd see one, could not possibly get the same satifaction as someone who has been birding for years without seeing one. It's all relative.

Does that make sense?

Dave J

 

[Lucky Birder]

I have gone out of twitching altogether, so don't really have any tarts ticks but I guess Gull-billed Tern is my candidate as the commonest bird on the British list I haven't seen. Perhaps I can find my own, that would be better.

 

[Gavin Haig]

......on the basis I'd stumble across one someday

I haven't twitched a new bird since the early '90s, and have seen just over 400 in the UK (and haven't added any for, I think, 10 or more years), but this was the very attitude I employed for a number of species....it's why I didn't see Little Auk until I 'stumbled across one' (well....two, in fact) in Kent in 1994....and why I've never seen Great or Cory's Shearwater! Living for most of my birding life in land-locked NW London and Herts didn't help. It also hasn't helped that I go green at merely the thought of a pelagic!

Now (as a non-twitcher) nothing much has changed.......except that now I peer hopefully and optimistically out to sea on a regular basis (albeit from a bay, not a headland) and see plenty of Manxies, and the odd Balearic, and hope longingly for a Sooty. As for Great and Cory's, well......there's a few places I could go where I'd stand a pretty good chance in the right conditions, but I think I'll just persevere locally.......on the basis that I'll stumble across one someday......

 

[James Lowther]

400 - only when drunk and wearing someone elses glasses

You can probably guess outstanding howlers with the clues below-

Lifers ticked this month - Guillemot , Razorbill , Kittiwake , Tree sparrow
Lifers ticked this year - Fulmar , Black guillemot , Red brested merganser , Turnstone , Wheatear , Stonechat , Twite , Linnet
Lifer ticked today - Stock dove

Missed out on Puffin this month, but sure that i heard them!
OK, you can stop laughing now - i`m out of my element!

Hey Stuart,
nothing to be embarrassed about, everyone has to start somewhere right? However if you do get to 400 and still haven't seen a puffin, something's wrong!
James

 

[johnraven]

Was there every really a time in the past when one could see a large number of species (in the UK or elsewhere) without having a large amount of time and cash? Did rare American vagrants use to be commonplace on any "local patch"? Of course not, you always had to go to the Scillies or somewhere similar, surely. Being able to identify a crossbill species from a single tweet, or some other feat of IDing prowess, doesnt get you far unless you've got the cash and time to hangout in Abernethy. Fea's Petrel requires spending months sat on a cliff top (with the finances to afford to do that), more than it does being an ID genius.

 

[Edward woodwood]

Was there every really a time in the past when one could see a large number of species (in the UK or elsewhere) without having a large amount of time and cash?.

kind of, yes John.

needed a bit of bravado as well. Not many people would drive overnight and sleep in a frozen car park or the Beach Hotel / Barn at Cley. That often got you the birds.

easyier without cash than time - i managed it on a shoestring. And i mean shoestring.

it's an attitude / approach thing for me and something i've said many times. Back then the younger birders were so passionate, talk would be of magical siberian vagrants and how you could get to see them overseas. Nearly all of those people (a pretty large number) went on to do things with birds, setting up the regional clubs, illustrating or writing field guides, leading tours, working in conservation. That isn't there any more. It's a numbers game now. Twitching/listing has become the dominant genre in birding.

There are a few young passionate birders over in Norwich still - i think it will always be that way here though.

Tim