Your silliest/most entertaining/unlikely birding accomplishments (2 Viewers)

[pbjosh]

I’m talking about things like getting a mega vagrant while going to the bathroom or otherwise jamming something ridiculously good in a bizarre manner, statistically ridiculous occurences, laughable holes in your lists, etc. IE I have a friend who got his lifer African Paradise-Flycatcher inside of the Addis Ababa airport. Here are some of mine:

- I saw Northern Fulmar in the S Hemisphere before I had ever seen Southern Fulmar.

- My lifer Striolated Bunting landed nearly on my foot, inside of a cafe, while having a beer. It was struggling to find its way back outside so I picked the poor thing up and put it near a water drip outside. It drank some water and flew off into the desert.

- I’ve seen every owl in S America and almost all owls in N America. Along with a couple Boreal species I’ve never been in range of and Cinereous Owl in W Mexico there is one more I need: Eastern Screech-Owl

- I’ve previously lived in Europe and been living in Europe again for a few years. Yet I managed to get my lifer Eurasian Nightjar (and still the only time I’ve seen it) in Pakistan of all places. My friend that was with me on the trip had a hell of a laugh when he found out it was a lifer for me.

I’m sure there are far better stories out there so feel free to share, I like this kind of birding BS

 

[hookem2010]

While scouring a canyon from an overpass for my state canyon wren (successfully!), a police officer stopped and questioned me. I don't know if a passing motorist notified the police out of concern that I might jump, or if he just happened upon me. Regardless, I got to show him my ID and explain why I was suspiciously peering over the bridge to the long drop below.

 

[Xenospiza]

Keeping things Texas: my first parulid was Golden-cheeked Warbler.
While Birding Santa Ana in July I drank seven litres of water, which I think is a record I will never break.
Later that summer, I was given a lift by two beer-drinking construction workers whose first question when they heard I was Dutch was if I knew IJmuiden. This was one of my favourite birding locations at the time! They worked on oilrigs so they knew the port.
(When Americans hear I travelled Texas by bus they can hardly disguise that they think I am an actual lunatic).

 

[pbjosh]

Keeping things Texas: my first parulid was Golden-cheeked Warbler.

I love these kind of silly things. A friend of mine and I organized a remote Sumatra trip last year and another keen young friend joined for his first time in Asia. The number of hard/rare birds he saw before seeing mundane stuff was absolutely hilarious.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

I once saw seven owls in North America in a single weekend. And they didn't include Eastern Screech, Great Horned, or Barred.

FTR they were Saw-whet, Boreal, Long-eared, Short-eared, Snowy, Great Grey, and Northern Hawk.

 

[jurek]

I saw more Great Horned Owls in a few short trips to North America than Eagle Owls during lifetime in Europe.

I first saw a Black Swan as a category C bird from a bus in England. I seen it so poorly that I did not count it. Then I saw one in the Netherlands, where it is also a category C, and I had to make a special trip to find one. Then I saw a Black Swan in the middle of the night, in spotlight in Australia. I went to Australia, and the first day I went spotlighting at night. As I spotlighted along a small pond, my light shined on something black on the water - two Black Swans. Only next day I finally saw the Black Swan properly, during the day in Australia.

 

[Nightjar61]

I saw my first Swainson’s Warbler in Colorado and my first Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Illinois.

The warbler is generally scarce anywhere within its southeastern range and hardly ever shows up in the west. The woodpecker is a non-migratory bird of the southeastern pine woods that shouldn’t be found anywhere outside its range.

Dave

 

[wheatearlp]

I may have put this on another thread some years ago, but I managed to see (in Britain) Dusky (4), Radde's, Hume's & Pallas's (2) Warblers before seeing a Yellow-browed...

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Most unlikely was finding a first for Belgium when I've never even spent a night in the country.

 

[01101001]

Of the three pipit species on my list (Tree, Meadow and Tawny), I only ticked Tawny in Warsaw.
I still haven't found a Marsh Tit in my region, but I have ticked Willow Tit (on call), even in central Warsaw.

 

[pbjosh]

I saw more Great Horned Owls in a few short trips to North America than Eagle Owls during lifetime in Europe.

Yeah GHOW is borderline a trash bird. A good one though!

The reverse could be true for Snipe. I have likely seen more Common Snipe in one day in Europe than I have Wilson’s in several years in the US. But maybe somewhere in the midwest or east it happens that you see 100’s of Snipe in one day?

 

[hookem2010]

I found my lifer MacGillivray's warbler in Houston during my first spring migration, only the 2nd record for heavily-birded Harris County at the time, and still one of my best self-found rarities.
The only reason I found this bird is because I stepped off the main loop at my favorite migrant trap to avoid a long conversation with a friendly, but sometimes excessively chatty fellow birder heading my way. And there it was!

 

[hookem2010]

While birding the USVI during my babymoon, my number one target was bridled quail-dove. I got a quick view of one while hiking on St. Thomas.
I guess I had shown my non-birding spouse what I was looking for at one point, because the next day while hiking the national park on St. John, she said "There's that pigeon thing". And indeed, feet from the trail was a bridled quail-dove giving smashing views.

 

[KenM]

Circa 20 years ago mid April when Bullfinch was scarce but not as scarce as they are now.
I had one calling behind back grdn.fence, (being a good mimic) I replied, this went on for several minutes before the male Bullfinch flew into the garden bringing it’s “mate” in tow….which morphed into an even rarer male “Hawfinch!”

 

[hookem2010]

Sorry, one more! While backpacking in Lassen Volcanic NP with my little bro, I was almost certain I had a Williamson's sapsucker at the top of a tree. I put down my bins to get a better angle only to see a large black bear 50 feet away.
Distracted from the bird, we proceeded to watch the bear wander to our campsite, where it played with our backpack, peered in our tent, and generally loitered around the area for half an hour. We decided to pack up and move the tent a couple of miles away, not that sleep came easy that night.
Still haven't officially recorded a Williamson's sapsucker.

 

[Mysticete]

I love these kind of silly things. A friend of mine and I organized a remote Sumatra trip last year and another keen young friend joined for his first time in Asia. The number of hard/rare birds he saw before seeing mundane stuff was absolutely hilarious.

Not quite that extreme, but I think Kirtland's Warbler was among the first 5 species of warbler seen for my lifelist.

 

[qwerty5]

My rarest observation ever is Tennessee Warbler. Having seen tons in migration every year, this year I also found one in late June in my local patch in Ohio, hundreds of miles from any suitable breeding habitat.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was my very first empid, even though they are the rarest in my area besides Alder.

My only Ruddy Turnstones were seen on a puffin/seabird boat tour in maine, flying over the water out of sight of any land.

 

[Bewick]

Found my first great grey shrike, spoonbill, Sardinian warbler, Kentish plover, Spanish sparrow and citrine wagtail at a nudist beach in Gran Canaria... we were not aware that the beach was that sort of beach until we arrived (a male Sardinian warbler was seen feeding in a palm tree next to the entrance of a hotel). The amount of embarrassment me and my brother experienced trying to navigate through the crowds of nude people with a pair of binoculars and a camera was depressing. Especially when my brother decided to go swimming and I was left with the camera, my face deeply planted into my hands in complete shame. I eventually decided to ditch the family and explore deeper into the dunes to go looking for shrikes. Thinking that less nude people would be in the dunes area... I was wrong, I saw some disturbing shit. Though, when a great grey shrike decided to show the embarrassment dissipated and I ran to get my brother. We managed to re-find it and get some pics of the bird which seemed relatively tame.

We decided to continue exploring the dunes and eventually found ourselves looking at a small lagoon, where I managed to get a few more lifer species (Spanish sparrows, spoonbills and a Kentish plover). Though we were apparently in an area that you were not supposed to go to and got told off by a Spanish birder. So we moved to the accessible side of the lagoon. When we arrived we rescanned the lake and did not find anything that looked out of the ordinary. A short while later, we got into a conversation with a local. While talking, the local noticed that a small bird was wading just below us. He pointed it out and we looked at it for while, taking plenty of pictures. He was not a birder and asked if we knew what it was, so I had a short look through my guide and mentioned that I believed it was citrine wagtail- which I moronically thought was common species (did not read the range description). When I got back, my dad would tell me that the species was an extremely rare vagrant and he decided to post it on the identification thread to see whether we had correctly identified it or not. Turns out it was citrine wagtail and I would find out later that the wagtail had been in the area for a while.

My mission to escape the nudists got me 5 lifers, and a local pointing out a wagtail got me my rarest self find.

 

[pbjosh]

Bewick that whole story is gold 🤣

 

[birdmeister]

I was famously bad at putting effort in to get rails for my Pennsylvania lists, especially for my county. Two years ago, on a misty April morning that brought some locally rare Laughing Gulls to my patch, a friend called. "Hey, I'm in the parking lot and there's a Virginia Rail on the shoreline!" I sprinted over from a different part of the park, eager to get my first PA rail. A minute later and we were enjoying the bird at close range, poking out of a bush at the lake's edge far from any good reed habitat. After I got home, word eventually got out that this was a CLAPPER RAIL. One of the first chaseable state records and a new county record! I was mortified but thrilled at the same time. Having moved away since, Clapper remains my only rail actually seen in Pennsylvania.