What’s your nemesis bird? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Babbs]

Common Quail are tough to see (one of the birds I regularly invoke the right to year-tick on call) but odd individuals sing from either perches (Martin Down has occasionally had ones singing from ant-hills) or along the edges of crops, enabling twitches for views. In Mallorca one May I remember seeing a couple that were in a field that had been cut for hay while they were in it and they continued to behave as if they were still as invisible as before the cut.

John

I was about two short of 500 on my UK list before I saw one in the UK

 

[Steve Babbs]

Rail-babbler. I can't go into details as I may cry. But to summarise I have spent a very large amount of time in places where there are spread over 25 years.
in places where they are.

 

[Mysticete]

Great Gray Owl and Black-backed Woodpecker are now in competition for nemesis bird, after the last few days...

 

[qwerty5]

For that my biggest nemeses would be Sharp-shinned Hawk, which is uncommon but present during winter and migration, Philadelphia Vireo, a not-that-uncommon migrant, and, probably most of all, Greater White-fronted Goose, which is irregular but always shows up a few times each winter.

Nemeses no more! Finally found the hawk this afternoon, and found the goose two weeks ago.

 

[RichieTwitchy]

Based in Liverpool (LFC top of the league btw) and only a part-time local birder (though not of my choosing as I'd love to do it more often and go on trips and the like, but life has this frustrating habit of getting in the way), I've yet to see any of these fairly common(ish) birds:

Green Woodpecker - heard but not seen! Once spent an hour walking around Sefton Park looking up at the trees trying to work out where this guy was and at one point had 2 people follow me also looking upwards thinking to themselves 'What is this guy looking at?'

Ring Ouzel - we get a few in the North West over on the Wirral, but I never seem to have the time to get over there (note to self: need to try harder as there are 2 tunnels and a ferry y'know, you bloody lazy sod!)

Osprey - we can get them quite nearby (Frodsham and the like) and even flying over my patch in Lunt where one story goes about a non-birder showing a local birder a photo he took of a 'gull' dipping into the River Alt (a long and winding, though nondescript river) in which the said photo turned out to be an Osprey fishing!!!! Wha' the? Amazing!

Waxwing - this time of year we can have lots of them passing through (irruptions), and oh yes, they seem quite happy to frequent the local Aldi or Asda car parks, but never ever whilst I'm shopping there!

Siskin - though, most probably cycled past loads of 'em, but never noticed

So I'm lucky to have seen lots of rarities in the local area, but please please please, the next time I'm shopping at Aldi can I return home with a record shot of a blimmin' Waxwing and not just with a 6-pack of loo roll!

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Re: Green Woodpecker - get across to Burton Mere and visit Burton Point (from the reserve); they are sometimes very visible in the last field after you have crossed the railway line.

 

[RichieTwitchy]

Re: Green Woodpecker - get across to Burton Mere and visit Burton Point (from the reserve); they are sometimes very visible in the last field after you have crossed the railway line.

Great tip - thank you very much!

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Great tip - thank you very much!

I’ll let you know when I next succeed there if you like.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

I’ll let you know when I next succeed there if you like.

BTW, love Lunt; will go again soon to try and catch up with the Cackling Goose.

 

[RichieTwitchy]

I’ll let you know when I next succeed there if you like.

Definitely keep me in the loop, cheers.

...and yes, Lunt is great for such a lesser-known (though now expanding) site - managed to tick that GW Teal last time I was there - it showed really well

 

[hookem2010]

Green-tailed towhee is a state nemesis no more! Only took me about a half-dozen attempts to connect this winter, with them popping up all over.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Rail-babbler. I can't go into details as I may cry. But to summarise I have spent a very large amount of time in places where there are spread over 25 years.
in places where they are.

Clearly just thinking about it made me lose my grasp of English.

 

[Andy Adcock]

In Africa, I have three, relatively common birds that have eluded me over several, lengthy trips, namely Verreaux's Eagle, African Emerald Cuckoo and Grey-headed Bush Shrike.

I managed to get the Cuckoo on my recent trip to Ghana.

 

[cheshirebirder]

I managed to get the Cuckoo on my recent trip to Ghana.

Grey - headed bush shrike in the Gambia a few years ago in woodland near Marakissa. Was one of the target birds I asked the guide for .

 

[Andy Adcock]

Grey - headed bush shrike in the Gambia a few years ago in woodland near Marakissa. Was one of the target birds I asked the guide for .

Just missed it yet again in Ghana, heard distantly but not seen.

 

[Birding.ATX]

Gold Finch

 

[hookem2010]

Assuming you're in Austin, there are a number of places to reliably get them over the next couple months. The area around the barn at Commons Ford is almost a sure thing.

 

[hookem2010]

For american***
Lesser are also common at Commons 😉

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Hopefully this September I will see Crowned Eagle in South Africa; have heard it in several countries!

 

[hookem2010]

Mallard was shockingly approaching nemesis territory for my new home county in central Texas. Finally got a pair of legitimate wild-type birds a year after moving here, and after seeing 215 other species.