BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="string boozel" data-source="post: 3258992" data-attributes="member: 124353">As a child with a newly discovered love of birdwatching I gleefully ticked everything. I can remember listing both Raven and skuas without ever seeing a Carrion Crow or an immature gull! Thankfully reality interceded at some point but I still relied on my birding betters to ID many of my new birds. The pitfalls of this were demonstrated some years later when I was watching a Richard's Pipit at Salthouse. A group of birders arrived, replete with guru who went on to pick Lapland Bunting, Twite and even Snow Bunting out of a small flock of what seemed to be Skylarks. I was tempted to point this out but everyone seemed pretty happy with their bag and I didn't want to be the cloud on their silver lining. Nowadays I have to be confident that I can ID a bird based on the features that I see, if I'm not happy with a view I don't tick it.As for call only records I will write them down in my notes but I won't tick 'em, after all I regard myself as a birdwatcher. Luckily I've seen all the birds I've heard although if I hadn't accidently flushed those Quails in France ... Either way as others have said it's your list and your rules, if you want to tick a silhouette or a dodgy, brief flight view then go ahead and do it but keep a bottle of Tippex handy, just in case.James.</blockquote>