John Hague
aka The Drunkbirder
Birds!
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What irrates you when birding! (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter borealowl47
- Start date
The thing that I found quite irritating about birding and walking in general is the unpredictable circumstances you can end up in by a mistake be it people or animal (dogs)orientated.
While living in Scotland, I planned many a walking route for the day with birds in mind only to find that the best areas are cordoned off with Trespassers 'Will be Prosecuted' sign posts - in Blood Red Writing. :eek!:
Most of these places where by Waterways, or Lakes of some type, (areas of beauty), and deemed the best places for birding.
One day (a long time ago) I was out with the Ramblers group, and our group was chased off land by a farmers helper.
This guy had a couple of unfriendly dogs, with a double barrel shot gun under his arm. The whole group dived over the nearest fence into Forestry Commission land to get away from him. What a scary person that he was.
We always kept to the edges of fields, and we respected the county code taking into account lambing season etc...
Have to say I saw a lot of this 'problem' with 'Trespassing' issues while living in Scotland, but I have not seen anything on the same level since I have moved down to Bedford.
In England, I see there there is a lot of public access to land and it is welcomed by all the public footpath sign posts everywhere. :t:
So much better to be able to walk about enjoying what there is to see locally, and in safety too. :t:
While living in Scotland, I planned many a walking route for the day with birds in mind only to find that the best areas are cordoned off with Trespassers 'Will be Prosecuted' sign posts - in Blood Red Writing. :eek!:
Most of these places where by Waterways, or Lakes of some type, (areas of beauty), and deemed the best places for birding.
One day (a long time ago) I was out with the Ramblers group, and our group was chased off land by a farmers helper.
This guy had a couple of unfriendly dogs, with a double barrel shot gun under his arm. The whole group dived over the nearest fence into Forestry Commission land to get away from him. What a scary person that he was.
We always kept to the edges of fields, and we respected the county code taking into account lambing season etc...
Have to say I saw a lot of this 'problem' with 'Trespassing' issues while living in Scotland, but I have not seen anything on the same level since I have moved down to Bedford.
In England, I see there there is a lot of public access to land and it is welcomed by all the public footpath sign posts everywhere. :t:
So much better to be able to walk about enjoying what there is to see locally, and in safety too. :t:
Fozzybear
Ich bin ein Vogelbeobachter
That happens to me too - the reserve I visit is in the middle of town so you get LOTs of dog walkers and they mostly let the dogs off the leash so they rush about barking, chasing birds and jump up at me and cover me with mud.
This afternoon I was trying to locate a bird that was making an unusual call but a dog ran up barking at me and scared it off, and all the other birds that were around too. I made the air rather blue when the guy had gone with his dog barking away beside him! I always can tell when a lot of dogwalkers have been about as the birds get very skittish - in the Summer if I go out at dawn before the dog walkers are about the birds are much more approachable... with the late dawns I can't really do that this time of year. :-C
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
Can dogs fly?
Moments like that make me wonder if I can test the flying capabilities of dogs with my boot.:eek!: Not always, honest!
Moments like that make me wonder if I can test the flying capabilities of dogs with my boot.:eek!: Not always, honest!
nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
what annoys me when birding?? hm
dogs, dog walkers, dogs and dog walkers on a lead, dogs and dog walkers off a lead, people in boats where they shouldn't be, people fishing where they shouldn't be, people hunting, whether they should be there or not, people washing the sails of a boat under a panicked flock of ducks, low-flying hot-air ballons, kids that have borrowed the parental car to tear through a meadow with the horn beeping constantly, people who tell me there are no birds where I am, the same person telling me that cormorants need to be eliminated and he catches owls, children staring at the strange man with a telescope and sketchbook who 'is taking photographs of the sky???!!!' the parents of the same children who also have a good gawp at the strange man, people who shout when put in open spaces, people who have to throw stone in lakes under my nose, people who watch me sketching outside and then ask if I always work from photographs etc etc.
Funny how a few birds from time to time can make all that worthwhile!
dogs, dog walkers, dogs and dog walkers on a lead, dogs and dog walkers off a lead, people in boats where they shouldn't be, people fishing where they shouldn't be, people hunting, whether they should be there or not, people washing the sails of a boat under a panicked flock of ducks, low-flying hot-air ballons, kids that have borrowed the parental car to tear through a meadow with the horn beeping constantly, people who tell me there are no birds where I am, the same person telling me that cormorants need to be eliminated and he catches owls, children staring at the strange man with a telescope and sketchbook who 'is taking photographs of the sky???!!!' the parents of the same children who also have a good gawp at the strange man, people who shout when put in open spaces, people who have to throw stone in lakes under my nose, people who watch me sketching outside and then ask if I always work from photographs etc etc.
Funny how a few birds from time to time can make all that worthwhile!
Fozzybear
Ich bin ein Vogelbeobachter
I do wonder that occasionally, but I think the dogs are just doing what comes naturally. It's the owners that take them to unsuitable places... they wouldn't see it that way though.
I was in a pretty foul (fowl?
) mood after all the dogs and shouting owners but it was made up for by seeing some goldcrests, a jay, a male greater spotted woodpecker and then a Kestrel did a Sparrowhawk impersonation in amongst the trees and flying within only a couple of metres of me! Whoa - BIG rush! ||
borealowl47
Darrell Neufeld
irrates
Hearing chainsaws especially when your looking
for woodpeckers!:flyaway:
Darrell
Hearing chainsaws especially when your looking
for woodpeckers!:flyaway:
Darrell
SUPPRESSOR
Well-known member
Seeing another birder I really,really, really hate them!!!
fiddler.
fiddler.
Vectis Birder
Itchy feet
When it has been sunny and bright all week when I've been stuck at work, only to be wet, windy and generally horrible when the weekend arrives. :C
It's worse at this time of year as I can't go birding before or after work.
Floyd Barnes
Well-known member
Scope lens misting up in cold damp weather. Or equally as bad, raindrops on the lenses of my binoculars. Really, really hate it.
Pete Mella
Getting there...
Amen to that!
DunnoKev
Guest
This is gonna get me in a lot of trouble with the 'I put my pet before people' types, but as it's Christmas, they might let me off...
If a dog does run up to me when I'm out in the field, it gets whatever necessary to keep it off me. Simple fact is I'm extremely allergic to dog and cat hair, so much so my throat closes right up and I can't breathe if I come in contact with 'em. (Do I hear a cheer?)
I always shout a warning of my condition at the owner to give them a chance to call the dog back, after that it's boot vs. doggie time. Or tripod. Or whatever's to hand. No court would ever convict. Self-defense m'lud.
canadagurl123
Well-known member
Little kids who run full tilt and scare away every single bird. And volnteers who lead nature walks for kids and use nearly just as loud voices. Had a possible Alder Flycatcher at swan Lake that was scared away by kids and never came back!!
Also dog walkers and bicyclists where there is obvious signs saying they aren't allowed. I totally agree dog-walkers are a real hinderance while birding.
Also dog walkers and bicyclists where there is obvious signs saying they aren't allowed. I totally agree dog-walkers are a real hinderance while birding.
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John Cantelo
Well-known member
What a bizarre attitude! How can you possibly hate a whole group of people the majority of whom, given your attitude, you cannot have met. You might as well say you hate all people who wear brown socks. Besides, if you hate us all so much what on earth are you doing posting here?
John Cantelo
Well-known member
litter,
and a problem on my local patch is idiots on quad bikes and mopeds or idiots who think its fun to buy there kid a quad bike and fly up and down the beach for example this year the little terns breed on crimdon beach my local patch, now im lucky enough to have this litterally at the bottom of my street, i remember being sat on the beach on a warm night there was a great sunset, and i was just enjoying watching the terns dive come out the water with silvery fish glinting in the last of the sun and taking it back to there nests but the one thing i remember most about this night, having a motocross bike go about 50mph behind my head every 10 seconds.
being a new birder i also find i bump into people who are completly uninterested in 'common birds' and pass of sights i think are great like cormorants drying there wings and long tailed tit hanging upside down acrobatically they disregard this as seen it a 1000 times before or its not a lifer im not bothered.
and a problem on my local patch is idiots on quad bikes and mopeds or idiots who think its fun to buy there kid a quad bike and fly up and down the beach for example this year the little terns breed on crimdon beach my local patch, now im lucky enough to have this litterally at the bottom of my street, i remember being sat on the beach on a warm night there was a great sunset, and i was just enjoying watching the terns dive come out the water with silvery fish glinting in the last of the sun and taking it back to there nests but the one thing i remember most about this night, having a motocross bike go about 50mph behind my head every 10 seconds.
being a new birder i also find i bump into people who are completly uninterested in 'common birds' and pass of sights i think are great like cormorants drying there wings and long tailed tit hanging upside down acrobatically they disregard this as seen it a 1000 times before or its not a lifer im not bothered.
People with 'all the gear and no idea' who seem to think they know everything about every bird as they've spent £000's but would refuse to check in a reference book in front of others as to mask some kind of weird pride they have. All this having incorrectly id-ed the bird in the first place!
Coincidently they seem to be the sort of people who talk loudly to each other in hides or answer the phone at volume to some other ****.
Coincidently they seem to be the sort of people who talk loudly to each other in hides or answer the phone at volume to some other ****.
Songkhran
Well-known member
Birders who call birds he or she when they have got no way of knowing the sex of the bird.
Birders who when they see something like a Red-flanked Bluetail say something like 'does exactly it says on the tin' - how annoying is that!
particularly on a seawatch this, birders who when you point out for instance a Great Northern Diver, say 'i can see a Gannet' - well bully for them.
birders who do not know when to use capital letters in a birds name, i.e Great-northern Diver, Red Flanked Bluetail - just looks awful on the page.
birders who say birds remind them of dinosaurs - thats cos they are dumass.
birders who, when you point out a flock of for instance Snow Bunting at for instance Salthouse, say that they saw a bigger flock at say for instance Titchwell last week, - well your not at Titchwell now buster and its not last week anymore.
i have to admit though all these things amuse me rather than irritate me, find it hard to get wound up while out birding
Birders who when they see something like a Red-flanked Bluetail say something like 'does exactly it says on the tin' - how annoying is that!
particularly on a seawatch this, birders who when you point out for instance a Great Northern Diver, say 'i can see a Gannet' - well bully for them.
birders who do not know when to use capital letters in a birds name, i.e Great-northern Diver, Red Flanked Bluetail - just looks awful on the page.
birders who say birds remind them of dinosaurs - thats cos they are dumass.
birders who, when you point out a flock of for instance Snow Bunting at for instance Salthouse, say that they saw a bigger flock at say for instance Titchwell last week, - well your not at Titchwell now buster and its not last week anymore.
i have to admit though all these things amuse me rather than irritate me, find it hard to get wound up while out birding
Fast_falkon
Dutch birder
anything that breathes and has no feathers (if its dead its no problem to me..), condense on my scope and/or bins, cars and trains, places that look promising but when I check nothing is there, places that look promising but that are inaccesible or private properthy.. :king:
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