AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

Best Year Ever ? As  I'm compiling photos of Category A birds I'm obviously going over old records and photographs, and have begun to wonder "what was the best year ever for twitching in the UK?" Obviously not this year, but it's very much in the eye of the beholder. I would contend that the best year was one in the best era for twitching which was undoubtedely the last two decades of the 20th century. There were far fewer birders then and most twitchers knew each other, but there were birds that haven't occured again, and it was a lot more fun. Obviously a personal opinion, but I think anyone who was birding then would agree. To an extent, the best year will always be the one when you saw the best birds, but hardcore twitchers in those days tended to see everything unless there was a good reason (such as hospitalisation, or possibly your wedding day, although that is open to debate). Work commitments didn't count, as most twitchers were in a position to p...

  Warblers-Marmite birds? I am always working on my website, my current project is to illustrate every bird on Category A of the British List. I am quite a long way in, and have come to "old world" warblers.  Like gulls, warblers, particularly  Phyllosopus, seem to either provide great interest and a challenge, or are something to be ticked and then forgotten. I used to be somewhat in the latter group, but researching for my website has thrown up many interesting facts about vagrants to Britain.  Many firsts for Britain in the 21st century have been warblers, including Eastern Crowned,  Pale Legged Leaf and Olive-tree. Several have been as a result of splits, and older records were rarely assigned to the relevant subspecies. This is rarely important since few records exist, and they can be re-examined, however in the case of Subalpine Warblers it really isn't possible. Adult male birds aren't too bad, but females and immatures can be impossible to assign to one...

  A long time before the next one? As I suspected, my last blog was not the end of the story. Shetland this year was somewhat different, mainly in terms of numbers of birds, but also birders. Having left the queue for the Unst ferry to retrace my journey and continue to Mainland for the Siberian Thrush, I wasn't about to leave Yell again without a good reason. However, I always spend a couple of days on Mainland before taking the ferry home, and, as the thrush was now showing regularly in the garden, I went back and finally managed to get a photo, just like I had returning to a White's Thrush a few years ago. Back home, I have been compiling a new web page attempting to illustrate every British species, and got to Brunnich's Guillemot. For those that have been around a while, this was another of those birds that was always just out of reach for various reasons, and has probably reverted to the same status now. Its similarity to Common Guillemot means that many birds must be...

Two Musings for the price of one I am currently on Shetland, and as I feel I'm entitled at my age to stay indoors when it's wet and windy, I'm working on my website at times. My latest "project" is to show a photo of every Category A species on the British List. Of course, many of these will have been taken abroad, some will have eluded me thus far so it gives me an incentive to continue birding (I will even twitch  something if it's a world tick!)                              One of the species I have a love-hate relationship with is Siberian Thrush. When I started birding the old Shell guide was "the" field guide;  it had a separate section at the back for rarities, and therein was a bird I was immediately attracted to, with three records at the time of publication. One of these has subsequently become "not proven", but of the other two, one was on the Isle of May in 1954, and the other, in Great Yarm...

Brinkmanship   Anyone who has done a reasonable amount of twitching will recognise this, but many people never experience it because they give up, not too easily, but too soon. This is often unavoidable because birders may have other commitments such as work. (To some that is an alien concept, others will have families to return to, or wives). However, to most hardcore twitchers it will happen quite frequently, but staying to the bitter end can often have rewards.    There are two issues here, the obvious one is that if everyone else has gone, and you see the bird, you run the risk of being labelled a stringer. In (g)olden days birders lived by their reputations, or judgement by Lee, usually it wasn't a problem unless you really were a stringer.  I had a great advantage as I was usually with Ann, but it always helps to have backup evidence such as a photo, or another birder. We waited most of the day in a hide at Dawlish Warren, hoping to catch up with a wandering El...

  What Goes Around Comes Around Or does it? There have recently been several articles in birding magazines and posts reminding birders of what they have missed by being born too late. The number of species on your British List is largely dependent on money and how far you're prepared to travel, but the quality of species is dependent on when you started twitching (if indeed you do). I started birding in 1980, a late starter compared to some, but didn't start twitching until late 1984. I was very lucky to have seen the Little Curlew (nee Whimbrel) at Blakeney the following year. The "Big Picture" in Birdwatch magazine invokes similar memories for the writer and myself, in that neither of us quite knew what exactly we were looking at, it didn't appear in any field guides of European species at the time. I had been to see it on the strength of a phone call to Nancy's (more nostalgia), whereas Simon had been on a family holiday in Norfolk (thankfully his parents ...