AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

No rEgrets Excuse the awful pun, but all the best bird mags seem to be doing it. I never even considered going for the Western Reef Heron in Wales earlier this year, mainly because I've seen plenty and I'm sure there will be more. But the genus Egretta has much interest, and quite a few possible taxonomic changes, among other things. It doesn't include all Egrets, several are in the genus Ardea, which also includes large herons such as Grey, but I'm not discussing them here. The Western Reef may not have been Britain's first, but being dark phase it was easily identified. But there was the infamous "Stanpit Egret", which caused much controversy back in 1998. It looked different to accompanying Little Egrets, and was eventually recorded as a Little (or possibly hybrid). Little Egrets were not the common species they are today, it was about 1985 that I had twitched one in Devon, and they first bred in 1996.  I have tried to do some superficial research, and ...

  Citizen Science, AI, am I too old for this? The answer is emphatically no, but I had until recently been a bit disturbed by some of the "progress" in the birding world. But, speaking to the ebird people at the Birdfair, I realised why most of my issues were irrelevant. There are many reasons why information on websites such as irecord and ebird are not always accurate, but the truth is it doesn't matter, it's the overall picture that's important. My main issues with ebird were that the "checking systems" were based on computer algorithms. and many records were probably erroneous. There are humans involved, but not all parts of the world are covered, and many adjudicators live nowhere near the area they cover. The reality is that a record will always be accepted (unless it is obviously an error) and most are never seen by a human. But, anything important, such as rare breeders or endangered species, and vagrants, will be assessed, that is actually a qui...

  Changes and my website. I fell off the wagon the other day, and have finally given up trying to give up. Of course, I'm not talking about alcohol, smoking or drugs, but twitching. What is great is that I don't need to be in denial, or harm anyone else, nor feel guilty. In fact Ann was glad to get me out of the house.  In truth I just wanted a day away from an overgrown, parched garden, still not fully restored after I burnt the summerhouse down with my moth trap, and a better photo of Long-tailed Shrike. I have long since stopped having any interest in how many ticks I have in the UK, I think it was my first for two years, and the last one before it was a world tick, so I had a reason to go for that. The shrike was first reported on 19th July, the message  "belated news of 1st-summer at Macaroni Farm from 8-16 July but no sign since in extensive search." Back in the heyday of twitching there would have birders at the site almost immediately, despite the non-appeara...

  Godwit Musings Most birders like Godwits, and the current appearence of a Hudsonian Godwit has brightened up a summer for those in the south-east. The species has an amazing pattern of vagrancy, and I have an interesting personal history with them. It began in 1981;  I had started birding in 1980, but hadn't done any twitching. On holiday in Devon we saw a crowd of birders with telescopes trained on something, but as it wasn't a birding trip and we were with friends we didn't investigate. A few years, and integration in to the twitching fraternity, made me realise that I had driven past a Hudsonian Godwit, the long-staying (and returning bird) which was the UK's only record at the time, and was also recorded at Blacktoft Sands. Of course, that species (for me anyway), immediately joined the "most wanted" list. It was to be a long wait. I've never worried too much about my British list, although I did a lot of twitching I travelled a lot as I had a good j...

  Guide to guides No, not that sort, human bird guides. In fact the title is a bit arrogant on my part because I haven't known that many, but I do have a lot of experience of foreign travel, so have come across several. Most people aspire to a foreign birding trip eventually, in fact it is far more rewarding for many than birding in the UK. Many twitchers discover quite soon that for what it cost them to take a charter flight to Shetland they could have had a week in Florida, and these days there are far fewer "hard core" twitchers around. Plus, your actual carbon footprint will potentially be far lower since the flights will still go even if you're not on them.   There are several ways to bird abroad, personally I would always prefer to arrange my own tour, but this entails a lot of organisation and homework for success. It's not sufficient just to look at e-bird, some species which are "staked out" don't appear on there due to being endangered, or ...

  Thailand, one of my best trips? I have visited over eighty "countries". I include places which are not politically classed as countries, such as overseas territories. Birds from the Falklands/Malvinas and St. Helena don't appear on my British list, 'nuff said. However I am still having new and very enjoyable birding, my recent Thailand trip gave me over 100 new species, and was one of my best trips ever, despite being a destination that many people visit early in their birding lives.  This is because I have tackled the more difficult places whilst still young enough and fit enough, but also because I have always set myself targets as a focus for where to go. Apart from my early days twitching, I don't care about numbers, although I enthusiastically keep a world list for my own interest. It seems I have seen over 4.500 species, so to have over 100 new birds on any trip is great, but I've been on trips, like a recent trip to Finland, where the total was less t...