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="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1585817" data-attributes="member: 36432">Of the three examples you listed I would have said the following:Richard's Pipit: probably don't tick it.  Call is good (though apparently it is very similar to that of Pallas's Bunting - very very very outside chance in Britain though!) and flight silhouette overhead is very distinctive - more of a "pregnant wagtail" or thrush than a pipit.  However both these things are experience judgements and like many things in the Kama Sutra are "learned only by practice".Balearic Shearwater: tick it.  You sounded happy with it, you could pick it out from the Manxies even when it changed position in the flock, presumably you saw some features that allowed you to say "it looked different"?Black Tern: I don't think you can have this one unless you can come up with something a bit stronger to excuse a really obvious wrong feature.Fortunately none of them are birds you will have to wait long to see again!Incidentally what ferals have you removed?  Feral Pigeon is OK as long as you don't try to tick Rock Dove separately, and Mandarin (as long as its not clipped and on a duck pond) is fine.  Check your list against the BOU British list.John</blockquote>