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

[lockbreeze926]

Just recalled this one from a good few years ago - 1999, in Boston.

60 floors up the John Hancock Tower, on the observation deck, walking round and admiring great city views, when something appeared outside the glass - a Peregrine, easily mastering the updrafts that were clearly quite strong at that height, was gliding around the building at (human) head-height, no more than ten feet away through the window. It appeared to look at the observing humans at close range, but I guess was actually seeing its own reflection.

After a short sojourn at height, moving to the opposite side of the building at one point, it eventually peeled away in a rapid arc, down in the direction of the river towards Cambridge. I reported the siting to (? dunno, Audubon?) at the time and got a reply informing me that there were two breeding pairs in Boston city at the time. I also see now (having googled how many floors the tower had) that the deck has been closed since 9/11.

(Related note, much less vivid - a couple of years ago, in Johannesburg, from a distance I saw a pair of falcons circling the upper floors of the Leonardo Hotel for several minutes. I'd guess they were also Peregrines, but couldn't be sure from range. They seem to like the tallest buildings in cities - which that hotel is.)

 

[qwerty5]

On Sunday I was very fortunate to find a Veery and two Gray-cheeked Thrushes, both of which are uncommon and can be quite hard to find. What was amazing is that I did this without seeing a single Swainson's Thrush, which are quite common.

 

[chickadilly]

I was out birding this past weekend and noticed a grey fox peering at me from a tree near where a cardinal couple was going crazy (which is what originally drew my attention). I tried to get a better look and it completely disappeared into a hollow in the tree. Was a cool sight.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I remember twitching the first, really twitchable, mainland Red-flanked Bluetail at Winsfit in Dorset. When we arrived, there was already a good crowd and getting a view was far from easy. My mate and I found a slightly higher vantage point, on a small bank, looking down, through some bushes and as I leaned further forward to get a better view, the branch I was holding snapped. The result was that I rolled down the bank and landed at the feet of bemused birders, right at the front!

 

[Jon.Bryant]

One May we dropped in to Walsey Hills and I remember the warden saying it was the kind of day anything could turn up.

We proceeded down east bank and checked the marsh - nothing of note.

We climbed over the shingle bank to the shore. The sound of the sea and the warm weather was irresistible and we soon succumbed to the thought to have a nap on the beach.

When we awoke and peered back over the shingle bank, there was a small crowd of birders. We approach and asked what was happening. A Collared Pratincole had been found on the marsh, but had literally just flown off strongly to the west.

We couldn’t believe it - not only had we possible missed the bird on the mud, but we had also slept through a ‘twitch’ happening within a 100m of us!

 

[jurek]

I once had an hour-long close observation of a lynx. Coming back, I realized that less than 50 m further and 10 m downhill there was a hut, where some guy was sitting and lighting a small lamp the whole time, oblivious to the lynx But I was completely silent all this time, and so was the lynx.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

I sometimes feel like I have the power of premonition.

I remember walking around my old local patch near Manchester - I said to my friend ‘this looks like a great place for. Great Grey Shrike’ - literally a minute later I raised my bins and was looking at one. Quite an uncommon bird in the Manchester area.

Another time I was in the Camargue, and somehow thought Western Reef Egret was on the cards. I checked lots of egrets for a pale phase, then on out last day while looking for Purple Swamphen, in amongst a small group of Little Egrets, standing out like a sore thumb was a dark phase. I noted the plumage and subtly different structure, then said to the wife ‘keep an eye on it while I get the camera from the car’. I picked up the.camera and turn round and was dismayed to see the egrets in flight - not a squeak from the wife, who seemed to have been distracted by something else! The birds landed behind the reeds, in a corner impossible to view. After a while we had the leave to catch our flight home. I never submitted the record, given how brief the views were, but I know what it was, and at the time there had been less than 30 French records.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

I sometimes think I have the power of reverse premonition.

Walking around Scilly in late September, the guy I was birding with said ‘I would really like to see a Red-breasted Flycatcher’. I replied ‘don’t be daft, it’s been westerlies the last few days’. We walked round the corner, and I raised my bins to a bird - adult summer Red-breasted fly!

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Just visited a scenic spot in China to try and find a Blackthroat.

When we reached the site, we decided not to take the cable car to the top of the hill, but to climb the thousand plus steps up the hill.

When we got to the top, we were met by a man who said we had been spotted starting the track and that foreigners were not allowed in the county, let alone the scenic spot! We had to return by the cable car (which we then had to pay for), where we were met by a park official. He had not seen a foreigner in twenty years working at the park and asked if he could have his picture taken with me. We were then escorted to waiting police, who interviewed us (very pleasantly).

Meanwhile my non-birdwatcher Brother-in-law and his wife had taken the cable car up the hill (overtaking us on the path), had a walk around on the mountain top, and bumped into 4 photographers who showed them the Blackthroat!

After the police had finished with us, my brother-in-law had to drive us all to the county border with a police escort!

Forgot to mention, my wife and in-laws are Chinese (although my wife has become a British citizen), so it was me who triggered the alarm - my wife keeps saying that she could have seen the bird if it wasn’t for me!

Do the Chinese really think that British Intelligence would send a middle aged 6ft 1 white man to spy in the country? Sounds like a modern day version of Allo Allo to me!

 

[Xenospiza]

Just visited a scenic spot in China to try and find a Blackthroat.

When we reached the site, we decided not to take the cable car to the top of the hill, but to climb the thousand plus steps up the hill.

When we got to the top, we were met by a man who said we had been spotted starting the track and that foreigners were not allowed in the county, let alone the scenic spot! We had to return by the cable car (which we then had to pay for), where we were met by a park official. He had not seen a foreigner in twenty years working at the park and asked if he could have his picture taken with me. We were then escorted to waiting police, who interviewed us (very pleasantly).

Meanwhile my non-birdwatcher Brother-in-law and his wife had taken the cable car up the hill (overtaking us on the path), had a walk around on the mountain top, and bumped into 4 photographers who showed them the Blackthroat!

After the police had finished with us, my brother-in-law had to drive us all to the county border with a police escort!

Forgot to mention, my wife and in-laws are Chinese (although my wife has become a British citizen), so it was me who triggered the alarm - my wife keeps saying that she could have seen the bird if it wasn’t for me!

Do the Chinese really think that British Intelligence would send a middle aged 6ft 1 white man to spy in the country? Sounds like a modern day version of Allo Allo to me!

When I was looking for Lord Derby's Parakeet north of Nyingthri in Tibet, one of the rather ubiquitous Chinese tourists told us we were not allowed to be there.
Our local guide had visited some offices the day before, so we could tell him we had a permit.
In Qinghai, we also had some issues getting a hotel as there was only one place where foreigners could stay.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Do the Chinese really think that British Intelligence would send a middle aged 6ft 1 white man to spy in the country? Sounds like a modern day version of Allo Allo to me!

As a sequel this may have legs... Silver linings and all that. Sorry you were thwarted.

All the best

Paul

 

[Dave Ball]

As a sequel this may have legs... Silver linings and all that. Sorry you were thwarted.

All the best

Paul

Should be OK as long as the RAF don’t bumb Beijing… 😲

…naughty RAF 😉

 

[Dave Ball]

(Younger viewers are permitted to have no idea what that last post is about)

 

[Dave Boyle]

Years ago I took Christy Moore out birding for the day - after finding out he had no head for heights & I probably shouldn't have taken him where I did, we sat down & watched Manxies passing for an hour or so & he sang me a song - The Yellow Bittern which is about a fella who got kicked out his house for drinking too much, finds a dead Bittern & goes back & tells his wife it had died of thirst so she should let him carry on drinking