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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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    Two people break 10,000 species, and on the same day? Can it be?

    Four of us were standing in a row in a Venezuelan forest listening to the very loud and distinctive calls of a Rufous-winged Ground-cuckoo. The bird came closer and closer. The two on the right saw the bird but the two on the left (which included me) didn't. I definitely felt short-changed.
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    at last the shell guide british birds

    Between 1947 and 1955 Penguin published the first 3 volumes of Bird Recognition, text and charts by James Fisher, illustrations by 'Fish-hawk', maps by WB Alexander. The promised 4th volume (small passerines) was never published. The coverage was the British Isles only and the books were...
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    Europeans, which American bird would you most like to see?

    A breeding plumage male Golden-winged Warbler. I've seen a distant sub-adult female in Colombia but that was deeply underwhelming.
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    22 years of Birding

    Reading the accounts of the 62/63 winter made me feel like Noah listening to somedody moaning about the recent wet weather. I am old enough to just about remember the winter of 1947 which was as bad as 62/63 but with the additional discomfort of rationing, which included fuel. It was so...
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    22 years of Birding

    My bird dairy begins on 17 Feb 1956. It briefly describes a walk in snow alongside the River Avon just to the east of Coventry. I flushed about a dozen snipe, which was a new bird for me. I was 14. A few months earlier we had moved from north Coventry to the east so new countryside had opened up...
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    How many species of owl have you seen

    My list (IOC) is: Western Barn Owl American Barn Owl Powerful Owl Morepork Brown Boobook Bare-legged Owl Elf Owl Burrowing Owl Little Owl Spotted Owlet Pearl-spotted Owlet Jungle Owlet Chestnut-backed Owlet Northern Pygmy Owl Ferruginous Pygmy Owl Pacific Pygmy Owl Cuban Pygmy Owl...
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    Close encounters.........

    We were on a campervanning trip to SE Australia which included a few nights in Little Desert National Park, Victoria. After arriving at the deserted campsite I went for a short walk while my wife relaxed at the picnic table with a cup of tea. When I returned I saw her transfixed watching a...
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    AOS to discard patronyms in English names

    Years ago whenever I typed 'Lady Amherst's Pheasant' my word processor popped up the message 'The use of lady in this context may offend some people'. I thought that was the ultimate in stupidity. It looks like I was wrong.
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    Birding and football

    I am a Coventry City supporter. I was at the Coventry v Wolves game of April 1967 which decided who would finish top of Div 2 (as it was then). There were 51,500 people in a ground that was supposed to hold 45,000 and there were people on the floodlight pylons and on the roof of the stand. Both...
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    Dewick's Plusia

    I had 1 in 2019 then nothing until this year when, so far, I have had 2. This in a garden (in Bucks) not noted for its attraction to migrants.
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    Jersey tiger moth? Ham Wall, UK

    I had 33 three night ago, easily outnumbering all the other moths. My previous highest number was 8. This was in Beaconsfield where I saw my first one in 2014.
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    Does Coenagrion lunulatum sometimes have broken antehumerals?

    Here is a side view but I am sure you are right in thinking it is a Red-eyed. Many thanks.
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    Does Coenagrion lunulatum sometimes have broken antehumerals?

    Would this be an Azure Damselfly then? Photo taken at Little Marlow GP, Bucks on 4th Aug.
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    Bad weather brings good birds, but you can't bird in bad weather!

    On an April day many years ago I was birding at College Lake, Bucks when a hailstorm came out of nowhere. I dived into the nearest hide where I watched in amazement as it began raining wheatears. The number on the ground went from zero to a couple of dozen in just a few minutes. The storm...
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    Brandon Marsh, UK, today.

    I may be the first person to bird what is now Brandon Marsh from the Brandon Lane side. This was in 1956 when the marsh was just one lake, the gravel extraction was in full swing and I was a schoolboy. Access involved trespass. I saw my first Teal, Shoveler, Wigeon, Gadwall, Pintail, Shelduck...
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    Gull attacking mergansers?

    Some years ago I watched a Black-headed Gull harassing a Great Crested Grebe. It di this by hovering over it and repeatedly swooping low over the grebe. There was no obvious reason for this behaviour as the grebe was not carrying food.
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    good views of woodcock: your experiences

    It was just after dawn on a bird race. Four of us were walking in single file along a narrow track in woodland when our leader flushed a Woodcock, but instead of flying off it walked for about 3m then stopped to look at us. We watched it in amazement for a couple of minutes then carried on with...
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    The bird you were most happy to see. Anywhere in the world.

    A migrating male Blue Swallow flying at eye-level down a line of ponds on a golf course in a suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe. A bird I never expected to see.
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    What was your first found rare and how old were you?

    It was a breeding plumage male.
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    What was your first found rare and how old were you?

    Scarlet Tanager in the hotel garden in Tobago in 1978. It was the 2nd record for T&T. I was 36.
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    Not so rare bird moments

    I was walking in a wood with a friend when she exclaimed "Doesn't that tree stump look like an owl" at which point the tree stump flew off. It really was an owl, a Tawny.
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    Bird species seen just the once in your yard/garden.

    The only Treecreeper was found stunned by my wife. When it woke up it walked up her arm, crossed her shoulder, climbed up her neck and head and when it reached the highest point (the top of her head) it flew off. Other bizzare moments were a Raven that landed just outside the window and flew off...
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    Hearing issues and birding

    I stopped hearing Goldcrests and the like years ago so last year I had my hearing checked at Boots with the result that I now have a pair of very expensive Phonax hearing aids. Before buying I tested them by listening to 10 recordings of birds that I couldn't hear before the aids. With the aids...
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    UK dragonfly & damselfly sightings 2020

    This is for anybody thinking of visiting the Southern Emerald Damselfly site near Beaconsfield, Bucks - don't bother. Apparently the pond liner was removed last year and now the pond is virtually sterile.
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    Have you ever been torn between a twitch or sporting events?

    I saw my first Snow Buntings while watching a rugby match. Two landed on the pitch right in front of me while the game was in progress. My mate (a non-birder) thought I was having a fit.
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