15th September. News in Brief


Getting late for waders

Squeezed a self-found patch year tick (114) in yesterday when two Whimbrel flew through early morning.
A blustery visit this morning produced a few Sand Martins and a 1st sum (or should it be 2nd winter) Yellow-legged Gull.



The Biking Birder

Had a surprise phonecall from the Biking Birder last night who is currently on Shetland. Gary's determination is inspiring and it was good to hear that my friends on Shetland were showing him their usual great hospitality. If you haven't donated yet then shame on you - visit HERE to redeem yourself.
I would like to think that Gary's Shetland stint is being fuelled by a diet of lasagne pies.

Squacco Takes Cover

I couldn't help but smile about the appearance of the Squacco Heron at Kilnsea today. Apparently, at times, it was seen underneath a plastic patio chair, no doubt taking cover from all the shit flying around regarding the Roller at Easington.

'British' Twitchers in political faux pas

Political relations between Britain and Ireland are in turmoil after a recent invasion by birders travelling to see the ship assisted House Crow. Not content with boasting about the size of their 'British' lists, the contents of which include such Irish 'rares' as Blue-winged Warbler, Canada Warbler and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, one such 'twitcher' took to advertising that the Crow was in fact his 500th British bird (IQ40 rules applied). Evidence of this political faux pas below in this exclusive picture featuring the two leading members of the 'elite' club centre and left of shot. Aside from the T-shirt blunder can any sharp-eyed readers spot the other bizarre occurrence in this photo? Answer at the bottom of the page.


No it's not LGRE's back to front binoculars. It's the fact that birding god Chris Heard agreed to appear in the same shot!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a faux pas indeed. I wonder how much it cost? The trip, the T-shirt and Chris Heard's reputation... the back to front binoculars are a fucking classic. they must be specially designed for one-eyed birders. What a shoddy crew!

Mark said...

That's a bit unfair re the binoculars John. Lee's just getting his monies worth out of them.

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Anonymous said...

Mark, I lifted this from Bagnell's blog - I haven't tampered with it at all but I bet Killian Mullarney is well pleased that his fame is so much that Top Twitcher Bagnell can't even be bothered to get his name right... mind you I doubt Garry Bagnell owns a copy of the Collins Bird Guide...

House Crow @ Great Island Cobh
Posted on September 12, 2010 at 5:54 PM comments (0)
The last twitchable one was in Ireland 36 years ago. This individual was seen only by a few birders including Killian McLarney. I am little concerned the bird was not seen during a 7 day period.

I propose to go on Monday night ferry(Fishguard-Rosslare) (if the bird is seen tomorrow) and come back either Tuesday or Wednesday. Note:- This bird is fully acceptable using UK400club rules, so if I connect it will be 500th British/Irish bird.

davidearlgray said...

Absolute classic Mark and great comments from John!

The Leicester Llama said...

I wonder if the Real IRA have seen this. We can only hope....

The Leicester Llama said...

Had to leave another comment - the next word verification was 'listol', which sounds like something you'd use to disinfect your list. Just what Bagnell and his ilk could do with!

Pete said...

The Squacco comment made me chuckle quite a lot. Nice one.