What’s your nemesis bird? (1 Viewer)

[opisska]

If the island were accessible, I would find it a bit disappointing

 

[KidChino]

Dunno if I'd call it my "nemesis bird" yet, but Western Swamphen is definitely my most annoying fluke so far. Missed them on two different occassions in s'Albufera, Mallorca where they are supposed to be one of the more common birds. Ironically, Red-knobbed Coot, which is supposed to be more rare, I could've literaly picked up from the ground and carried home if I wanted to.

 

[01101001]

It was Little Bustard - we dipped the Christchurch area bird way back when, always being not quite in the right place every time it was flushed on that rainy New Year’s Day. We even saw a small group of people pointing frantically and when we caught up with them, they explained it had flown straight over us!

Now it is probably Inaccessible Island Rail. We had beautiful weather when in Tristan da Chuna and approached the island twice with high hopes. On the first visit the seas were a bit too rough, but the second time the seas looked calm and the chance is landing seemed high. As a scout zodiac approached the steep beach, we could see all was in vain and alas the breakers were still far too big. A few people tried to scope the shore, but it would have been impossible to spot this diminutive rail.

I did promise to go back, but I probably never will - January is the best time for the seas, but the only transport then is the monthly boat to TdC. So a lazy month on an island with not a lot of birds, then chartering a ride to Inaccessible Island when the seas are flat calm. Once onshore the rail is meant to be quite common and easy to find!

The Atlantic Odyssey provides a very small chance in April. When I was on the 2016 trip, only 1 in 11 trips had managed a landing (and I don’t think they have managed a landing since then).

It must surely rate as one of the most difficult birds to see on the world!

According to one estimate, anywhere from 440 to 1,580 species of flightless rails went extinct after humans started colonizing islands in the South Pacific.

(from How Did the World's Smallest Flightless Bird Get to Inaccessible Island?)

Imagine you went for them all (and I know Inaccessible Island doesn't lie in the Pacific, but still).

 

[Shane3004]

This summer for me it's been Ring Ouzel, and Hobby. I think it's safe to say I'll have to wait until 2024 now for both those.

 

[snowyegret24]

Pink-footed Goose is my nemesis bird right now but I’m pretty confident I can get it this coming weekend with a trip to Massachusetts as long as they stick around for another week

Sadly after going searching for it the Pink-footed Goose remains my nemesis bird, they were there for over 2 weeks but the day I finally get the chancer to go see it is the day they leave, They left a couple hours before I got there and haven’t been seen since.

 

[snowyegret24]

Sadly after going searching for it the Pink-footed Goose remains my nemesis bird, they were there for over 2 weeks but the day I finally get the chancer to go see it is the day they leave, They left a couple hours before I got there and haven’t been seen since.

Actually amazing news! They were resighted on my last full day in Massachusetts and I got to see them!!!

 

[Euan Buchan]

Mine would be The Jay I’ve never seen one in Edinburgh.

 

[angusmcoatup]

Osprey was a real nightmare for me as a young birder in the 80’s.They’d either just left or turned up just as I’d left. Even had one seen by a group of birders flying over my head whilst I sat watching Scoters along the beach from Cley, nearest I got for some time was a dodgy untickable rear view of something an angler claimed as an Osprey flying away from a small lake in the Midlands.

 

[opisska]

Another bird goes off our nemesis list as we have finally seen a Long-billed Dowitcher in WP (even though it took quite an effort to confirm that it's not a boring Short-billed one). Not sure whether Baltimore Oriole should be nominated now after we just narrowly missed it for the second time.

Oh yeah and Sabine's Gull may be another nominee. We tried to twitch one in Slovakia in September (admittedly a bit half-heartedly because we really wanted to go canoeing instead) and then another appeared close to Prague while we were in Brittany - but we can never see one in Brittany, ever, for the second year in a row we were there in a good time, reports of them from seawatchers left and right, but we never get them.

 

[Bewick]

Adding to my nemesis list- Artic, long tailed skua and Pomarine skua- have sea watched a couple of times for them but have no been successful with either. Also the siskin is still on the list, still no luck.

 

[SlowLowFlyingTurkey]

Adding to my nemesis list- Artic, long tailed skua and Pomarine skua- have sea watched a couple of times for them but have no been successful with either. Also the siskin is still on the list, still no luck.

Long-tailed and Pom Skuas are amongst the most embarrassing gaps in my British list. I've had great views of both abroad (even been dive-bombed by Long-tailed in Abisko National Park, Sweden) but never managed to see them in the UK. Arctic Skuas are easy enough on the Norfolk coast in Autumn.

 

[qwerty5]

The only list I keep that is remotely close to being complete is my county list (and it's not very close) For that my biggest nemeses would be Sharp-shinned Hawk, which is uncommon but present during winter and migration, Philadelphia Vireo, a not-that-uncommon migrant, and, probably most of all, Greater White-fronted Goose, which is irregular but always shows up a few times each winter.

Also, last summer (in late July) I spent three days in prime breeding territory of Swainson's Warbler, and didn't get so much as a sound of one.

 

[hookem2010]

Took me 6 years of birding, including 3 spring migrations in pretty good territory for them, for me to finally connect on Philadelphia vireo. And now I've probably got 6 records from the last 2 springs, including a yard bird and one at my neighborhood park.
It's time to gear up to face one of my other nemeses, thick-billed longspur, as they return to the agricultural fields of Central Texas. I did finally connect on my first longspur of any kind this March, chestnut-collared, so fingers crossed that this will turn into the year of the longspur. I'll take a Lapland while I'm at it!!

 

[Edward]

The most common bird in Europe I've never seen is Common Quail. Thought I heard lots in Gozo last summer before realising they were just tape recordings to lure birds to hunters...

Most common bird missing from my Iceland list is Great Shearwater but I'm not a great sailor these days and I find seawatching to be on a par with watching paint dry (even though there are plenty of birds out at sea normally) so it's entirely my own fault.

 

[opisska]

Common Quail is tricky. Very easy to hear at many places in central Europe - they are even surprising tolerant of large-scale agriculture, so they inhabit even areas where Corncrake has been driven out. But to see one, you have to be either lucky or patient - if you sit on a hill above a field/meadow where they call from, you can sometimes see them taking short flights around when disturbed, but it can take hours.

 

[Edward]

Common Quail is tricky. Very easy to hear at many places in central Europe - they are even surprising tolerant of large-scale agriculture, so they inhabit even areas where Corncrake has been driven out. But to see one, you have to be either lucky or patient - if you sit on a hill above a field/meadow where they call from, you can sometimes see them taking short flights around when disturbed, but it can take hours.

Yeah, I've heard them calling just metres away in Spain but they remained well hidden. I thought I'd see them on spring migration in Israel but didn't even hear them on two spring trips.

 

[pbjosh]

Only place I've seen Common Quail readily is on Graciosa Island in the Azores. If you ever go for Monteiro's Storm-Petrel you can take a walk around at dusk or dawn and you'll likely be able to see it singing from the low rock walls in the little farm plots. Most of my sightings aside from Graciosa have been flushed birds when tromping around in fields.

 

[Farnboro John]

Common Quail are tough to see (one of the birds I regularly invoke the right to year-tick on call) but odd individuals sing from either perches (Martin Down has occasionally had ones singing from ant-hills) or along the edges of crops, enabling twitches for views. In Mallorca one May I remember seeing a couple that were in a field that had been cut for hay while they were in it and they continued to behave as if they were still as invisible as before the cut.

John

 

[hookem2010]

Green-tailed towhee is becoming my Texas state nemesis. I got one in Colorado a couple months ago, but have now dipped 4 times in the last couple years here in central Texas.
It appears they are being seen frequently well east of their normal range this winter, so hopefully I can turn one up, or finally successfully chase one of the nearby finds.

 

[Bewick]

I’ll start with mine which is undoubtedly the Siskin, have birded throughout the England, Wales and Scotland and have never managed to get one- they seem to be pretty numerous but I just haven’t been extremely lucky.

We went on a walk to a local nature reserve on Tuesday and while there we were told that the alder trees along a certain path occasionally had siskins. Though we did look for a few hours on the day, we had no luck and decided that we would have another attempt the next day (the constant rain on Wednesday pushed it to today). We arrived relatively early and were immediately blessed with siskins. Some came quite close but the dense foliage made it hard to get any great photos. We stayed until the evening and even managed a yellow legged gull in the fleeting light.