The bird you were most happy to see. Anywhere in the world. (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

One special memory for me was sitting at our campsite table with a coffee and scanning the Zambesi River in Zambia when I spotted an African Finfoot. Totally unexpected and eventually there were at least three of them though distant, as you can see from this very, heavy crop.

On the same trip, driving the transit road through Chobe national park in Botswana, chanced on our first ever Southern Ground Hornbills too.

Another highlight after missing them on the aforementioned trip, was finally catching up with Ground Woodpecker in South Africa a couple of years later and on the same trip, Orange Ground Thrush in the murkiest of conditions.

 

[Original PaulE]

I think for me it would be Snowy Owl at Titchwell, after a 3 hour+ drive arriving at dawn to find it was still about and then seeing it in the distance. I almost ran down the path for a closer look!" Almost!!!

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

My first Snowy Owl was the one in Lincolnshire. I parked up several fields away, and could see the white dot in the distance. All the info was that it had not moved all morning, so I had no qualms about scanning the salt Marsh for twite which another birder had seen. No joy, so turned to enjoy the views ... of an empty field! The owl had flown off! Fortunately I was able to head off after it, and had cracking views perched and flying, but I haven’t forgotten the initial sinking feeling. For that day at least, once I connected, that owl was the undisputed number one for this thread! Pleased and relieved don’t even come close!

 

[Andy Adcock]

My first Snowy Owl was the one in Lincolnshire. I parked up several fields away, and could see the white dot in the distance. All the info was that it had not moved all morning, so I had no qualms about scanning the salt Marsh for twite which another birder had seen. No joy, so turned to enjoy the views ... of an empty field! The owl had flown off! Fortunately I was able to head off after it, and had cracking views perched and flying, but I haven’t forgotten the initial sinking feeling. For that day at least, once I connected, that owl was the undisputed number one for this thread! Pleased and relieved don’t even come close!

One of my top UK memories was a Snowy on North Uist, not far from where I also saw my first Gyr. I refused to go and see the oiled individual on a Felixtow factory roof

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

I also saw a Snowy on North Uist when twitching the drake Harlequin Duck.

 

[Oldnintheway]

Probably the Snowy Owl that showed up, without notice, at one of my favorite little spots. Such magnificent birds! And this Banded Pitta in Southern Thailand. I missed them on my first visit. This one nearly ran me over!

 

[Farnboro John]

I also saw a Snowy on North Uist when twitching the drake Harlequin Duck.

I also saw one - a male - on North Uist which was the point of the trip. Then I jammed in on a Greater Sand Plover! Birding, eh?

John

 

[Richard Prior]

I also saw one - a male - on North Uist which was the point of the trip. Then I jammed in on a Greater Sand Plover! Birding, eh?

John

Hmm, my only Snowy Owl was on North Uist too, then I didn’t jam in on any Long-tailed Skuas……..but I can handle it…….nurse, is it time for my Horlicks yet?

 

[DMW]

Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush,

after a very exhausting search through the leech-infested forest getting absolutely superb views of a foraging thrush only a couple of meters away, was the biggest reward you can imagine. Furthermore my first Zoothera at all.

I get to see one most days 😌

 

[CPP Gardener]

Blue-footed Boobies at Lake Skinner. I took half a day off work to see the improbable and found them.
Red-necked Phalaropes in a salt pond in San Diego. I was with an Audubon group for a day trip and never expected them.
The happiest/most thrilling was standing under 250,000 Snow Geese at the Salton Sea. It was like being inside of a noisy snow globe. They were nowhere near my first, but , Oh what a feeling. The 200 Sandhill Cranes that flew over 20 minutes later were icing on the cake of a wonderful birding day.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Probably the Snowy Owl that showed up, without notice, at one of my favorite little spots. Such magnificent birds! And this Banded Pitta in Southern Thailand. I missed them on my first visit. This one nearly ran me over!

Now split in two, yours is Malayan Banded Pitta, the other being Javan.

My memories of both species are now over twenty years old but it seems like yesterday at KNC in Thailand and Carita in Java.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Top UK memory, probably, is having a Sibe Thrush in the scope when the Short-toed Eagle came over off the sea and that was an incredible week!

 

[Jawaharlal Merlin Roth-Re]

Northern hawk owl

 

[cafe birder]

Mine was also a Snowy Owl. I heard a rumour of one in the Cairngorms while at Aberdeen Uni. Within a month !! three of us found a way to get there and climbed to the plateau. A mere 5 hours later I realised one of the snow drifts had eyes. 40 plus years on and I have never seen another or forgotten that moment.

 

[louisthedog]

Nice question and lovely little bunting, thank you! mine was a nightjar that had decided to take its diurnal nap in my Durban garden along the fat branch of my jacaranda. From my study window about 4 meters away I could see down on it. this memory will be forever in my mind as the appearance of this bird coincided with the disappearance of my husband, so it will always be a bitter-sweet memory.

 

[MJB]

Noisy Scrub-bird, sauntering across the road at Cheynes Beach, Western Australia, just as I had decided to wait on the road and scan a a short, tree-lined access track to the beach. Instead of dashing across this track as the briefing had suggested, it had slowly emerged from cover to my right: I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye, but was so enthralled that I didn't even reach for my bins or my camera. Needless to say, any subsequent sightings were of birds running at top speed into thick cover... I heard them several times shortly after daybreak...
MJB

 

[John Cantelo]

Shoebill in Zambia, saw 27 of them from a small plane over Bangweulu Swamp with Tom Gullick, the top lister at the time.
Geomalia in Sulawesi, something i just never expected to see, let alone out on the track at 1000.
Finding my lifer Gyr Falcon perched on a pole in Hokkaido
Blue Bird of Paradise and Black Sicklebill in PNG and Long-tailed Paradigalla in West Papua
Solomons Nightjar at last on Tetepare
Wryneck at Dibden Bay when i was 15, my first self found scarce bird, and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which I found on the walk to school and Is still a favourite, it was great to see them in Japan and Mongolia too.
Ross's and Ivory Gull in the same field of view at South Shields back in my teens, after hitchhiking from Southampton to get there.
I'd better stop, but some marvellous memories, even more poignant in these times......

I've yet to see the first seven birds you mention, Phil, and I managed to dip the Wryneck you found at Dibden Bay (probably one of the few trips there that I wasn't with you). I well remember you telling me all about the LSW on Southampton Common and then going one better and later showing me the bird one day after school. Still a favourite for me too. The wait for Ross's Gull to reappear in the wake of the tanker (behind which it disappeared immediately after you spotted it) remains the longest five minutes in my life and seeing the two iconic gulls together was extraordinary!

 

[ovenbird43]

So hard to choose, but one that stands out in particular is Great Hornbill in India. Simply majestic, watching a pair fly into a nearby tree one evening at an overlook, with the Western Ghats in the background, and the sound that they make in flight, like a small airplane even as they glided gently in for a landing. It was also that moment that inspired me to purchase a "real" camera, after taking irredeemable photos with my point and shoot.

 

[bittern]

Without a doubt my first Picathartes (White-necked Rockfowl) in the forest at Assin Fosa in Ghana in February 2007, after a long hike and laying on the ground with the ants made it all worthwhile when one finally was heard scratching about in the undergrowth before appearing for a few moments before flying up to its nest.

It has since become a much easier bird to see as a different site even has seating for the comfort of visitng birders!

Mike

 

[JefO]

My "happiest to see" moment has to be when I was taking pictures of a female Marsh Harrier flying towards me across a marsh close to where I live. I was using the camera set to take bursts of shots, taking four or five at a time and waiting for the camera to load the images to the SD card. So I was getting a view through the lens of each shot in turn frozen for a moment, then the next.
As the harrier approached over a reed bed in one set of five glimpses, I saw just her in #1, then her and another bird in #2 which I assumed was a male Marsh Harrier which had popped up out of the reedbed, then in #3 it had moved swift and low towards the path of the first bird, in #4 it appeared to have dived back into the reedbed again, and in #5 the female at the same place, braking as if about to dive on top of the male.
When I got home, I found the second bird was in fact a Peregrine that had swooped in and presumably nabbed her prey. So, I had two snaps with a Marsh Harrier and a Peregrine in both frames. I was absolutely elated, despite them suffering from poor light!!!