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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew Clarke" data-source="post: 1251216" data-attributes="member: 2008">Great, albeit slightly gruesome thread! Can't think of too much in the way of personal irresponsibility to think of.. so here's my secondhand contribution.An old birding friend was once on a mission to see Jack Snipe on some old coal spoil tips near Sheffield. If you've ever birded in such glamorous surroundings you'll know that the wet depressions on the tips which hold the birds are also covered in oozing thick black coal slime. So instead of trodding through (and soiling his white trainers = getting a bollocking from his parents) he was in the habit of practising his overhand swing with rocks, bricks etc in order to flush the birds. OK, so maybe one or two of them did not fly off (anywhere again)...So he was busy throwing rocks when he noticed out of the corer of his eye a now very famous birding businessman leading a group of birdspotters across the site. As they approached, intent on their quarry, he was stupid enough to ask when they approached if they'd seen him trying to flush the birds... they had not so he made himself look extra stupid!</blockquote>