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Birds you think you saw but didn't tick. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lvn600
- Start date
Frenchy
Well-known member
Jane Turner said:
Blimey! Where was your tanager, if you don't mind me dredging up bad memories?
After reading on the pager that there was a "stork sp" reported somewhere, i naturally scoffed at someones failure to nail the ID of a straightforward species pair. That was until the following week when i walked out of Leeds Castle in Kent to see what was clearly a stork flying low and away from me. Not having bins on me, I couldn't see any colours, and duly added stork sp to my "must try harder" list.
Probably a White though....
Grampy Bustard
Well-known member
Don't be childish.....and I hope it's windy in Chicago....Aquila said:
aythya_hybrid
real name Jonathan Dean
Can't think of any involving me directly that immediately spring to mind. However, my dad (who is not really a birder, but has gained some knowledge from coming out with me) once called me from his boat while working in the English Channel off Dorset and said "Hey, I've just had a bird following the boat for the past 20 minutes..... looks basically identical to Leach's Petrel, but has an all dark rump....no white..... what would that be?" Curses!
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
On a spring trip to Portland years ago I saw both Serin and Tawny Pipit flying overhead calling, identified by more experienced birders I was with - neither made it onto my list at the time (and Serin still eludes me). I'd also had untickable views of both Dusky Warbler (Rocky Hill, St. Marys) and Swainson's Thrush (Lundy) before I saw them both properly some years later. And last Autumn I briefly saw what could only have been a Solitary Eagle in Brazil, but I can't bring myself to use "oh, come on - it HAD to be" as an ID criterion. Too bad.
James
James
stuart winter
My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Cups at WHL
When I was a youngster I was travelling on an RSPB coach trip to the
Forest of Dean when I looked out of the window and saw an Alpine
Swift flying alongside our vehicle. By the time all the cogs in my brain
had got into gear, it had vanished without anyone else noticing it. I just
stayed schtum, too scared to tick it, too scared of being lynched by a
coachload of old biddies!
S
Forest of Dean when I looked out of the window and saw an Alpine
Swift flying alongside our vehicle. By the time all the cogs in my brain
had got into gear, it had vanished without anyone else noticing it. I just
stayed schtum, too scared to tick it, too scared of being lynched by a
coachload of old biddies!
S
John Dixon
Well-known member
Years ago I was on holiday in Switzerland and took the Eigerwand railway up to the Jungfraujoch (11000 feet up or thereabouts.) Scuttled along a corridor, dived into the express lift up another 200 feet to the astronomical observatory, emerged into daylight and got on what was probably my first Alpine Swift. At that second oxygen debt caught up and I collapsed - no tick!
Had to wait three years for the second (first?), at Margate.
John
Had to wait three years for the second (first?), at Margate.
John
edenwatcher
Well-known member
That's a bit harsh on your dad's birding skills, Jonathan!aythya_hybrid said:
Possible tree swallow outside work one morning in early November a few years ago, but hadn't got any bins and I lost it before I could be sure of the ID. Possible pallid swift also outside work in October 2001. 3 of us (including Jules Sykes) saw it the next day but we were stood in the wrong place and it was only ever in silhouette. I was always a bit miffed that it appeared in the Fife report as common swift.
Rob
StuartReeves
Local rarity
Early October 2000 in good fall conditions on my old Aberdeen local patch. A small Crake flushed at my feet, flew a short distance and landed...never to be seen again. Just about the only feature I got was a thin, pale trailing edge to the wing, which I read somewhere is a feature of Baillon's. What's missed is a mystery.
Stuart
Stuart
Jane Turner
Well-known member
Frenchy said:
In the garden on Collins (the publishers) backing onto the Royal Liverpool Golf Club Hoylake - think lots of viewing problems and "Oi" potential. I was just out off hospital and was nursing 24 stables in my abdomen or I'd have been a hell of a lot quicker over the fence after it (it flew in front of the car). The most galling thing is that three or perhaps four different people saw it over three days and no one got a clear view of its head!
I have posted the description on here somewhere - will see if I can dredge it up!
Edit Found it!
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AStevenson
Well-known member
Jings Crivens!! (as no-one actually says in Scotland) How could I forget 18 Oct 2003 with my mate Peter on Barra - that fffff-frustrating flycatcher. Still remember him looking at something and calling me over with 'it's one o' they funny American ones'.
It was an Empidonax but we only saw it briefly and couldn't pin it down - it just flew into one of the trees at Brevig and disappeared - the hobby, 2 yellow-browed warblers, 2 ring ouzels, pied fly and Outer Hebs mega of 1st w Med gull seen that day didn't quite make up for the disappointment of what might have been.
Cheers,
Andrew
It was an Empidonax but we only saw it briefly and couldn't pin it down - it just flew into one of the trees at Brevig and disappeared - the hobby, 2 yellow-browed warblers, 2 ring ouzels, pied fly and Outer Hebs mega of 1st w Med gull seen that day didn't quite make up for the disappointment of what might have been.
Cheers,
Andrew
Fair Islander
Well-known member
StuartReeves said:
Ah, Stuart, I remember it well. The search by Max was fruitless, although he got 10/10 for effort!
StuartReeves
Local rarity
Fair Islander said:Ah, Stuart, I remember it well. The search by Max was fruitless, although he got 10/10 for effort!
Yep, thats right Paul, and if Max couldn't find it then nobody could.
stuart winter
My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Cups at WHL
Jane Turner said:
Jane,
The contrast between mantle and wings in your field sketch and what appears to be white underwings would have me thinking Scarlet T...
S
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Here's one from this morning - had a Golden Plover fly over work at around 08:15. Sum plum, and it seemed to have an awful lot of black round the vent area (although the light wasn't great - sunlight was pretty dissipated by low, hazy cloud). Also the wings looked really long and slender (before I got my bins up I thought it was going to be a Swift!) So - almost certainly just brief views of a Eurasian Golden Plover BUT..., given that EGP would be a work tick, and given I can't altogether rule out the Lessers (however screamingly unlikely that would be) - to tick or not to tick?
James
ps - it was heading east with a single Lapwing if anyone's interested...!
James
ps - it was heading east with a single Lapwing if anyone's interested...!
London Birder
Well-known member
probable Bonelli's Warbler in South Norwood Cemetery in spring '95 ... dropped at my feet whilst I was having a smoke break, I froze ... it shot off into a stand of pines, never seen again, impossible to claim ...
Early Novemebr 2004 I had a small thrush at Lynford arboretum, got brief views of it on the ground before it flew off showing a classic Catharus underwing. It flew out of sight and I failed to relocate it. To make matters worse a grey-cheeked thrush was trapped and ringed at Thetford a few days later...
Marcus Conway - ebirder
Well-known member
Once pretty confident that I saw a great spotted cuckoo from the train as it when through hillside golf course. Cannot think for the life of me what else it could have been.
On my way to school in the early 90's
On my way to school in the early 90's
OwlTalon
Always Watching
The "It had to be" thing can be pretty accurate at times. If you can use the process of elimination to narrow it down to one bird, I say you can tick it. For example, an unidentified raptor, brief glimpse, gone. Later, you narrow it down. Was it a buteo or accipiter? How did, it fly? Did it have broad wings? Could it have been one of these? Is the range right? Eventually you can normally get it down to one or two possibilties. I do this a lot, and most of the time I can bring it down to one bird. Try it!
