Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (6 Viewers)

[Bewick]

Stork? Is that what you meant by the species you want to see?

Not a life bird, but a life image seris. I wanted this image for a super long time now. Cranes at WWT Slimbridge, out on the Severn estuary area
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Also, two life birds which are probable (Ross's goose) and potential (snow goose-no ring on leg) escapes at the Severn I still counted on my life list, and was extremely excited to see them.
Depending on how next weekend goes, a bird I wanted to see since childhood may smash all of that excitement to pieces, despite being an introduced species in the UK...

 

[Dr.Boletus]

Stork? Is that what you meant by the species you want to see?

Storks are native. I meant wood duck

 

[Bewick]

Storks are native. I meant wood duck

True but the new ones have been introduced- I saw an escaped wood duck at Lee valley

 

[aeshna5]

True but the new ones have been introduced- I saw an escaped wood duck at Lee valley

I saw that Wood Duck there roughly this time last year.

 

[Bewick]

I saw that Wood Duck there roughly this time last year.

Yep about when I saw it- it seems to have disappeared though.

 

[Dr.Boletus]

True but the new ones have been introduced- I saw an escaped wood duck at Lee valley

I will see the Rickmansworth one, been there for ages now and has the benefit of having a nearby smew

 

[Bewick]

I will see the Rickmansworth one, been there for ages now and has the benefit of having a nearby smew

Also saw a smew the same day… in fact I thought it was a drake Smew when we passed over the bridge as I only got a glimpse… stopped the car ran out and realised it was a wood duck.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Pipipi (Brown Creeper) - Arthur's Pass, NZ

 

[Scott98]

I've just been promoted from "neophyte" birder to "novice" and I'm still enjoying the thrill of seeing some pretty easy birds for the first time - Harlequin ducks, Purple Sandpiper, and Northern Gannet all in the last couple weeks. Massachusetts. All beautiful birds and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them.

edit - almost forgot Ruddy Turnstones - awesome! These and the Harlequins have some of the most beautiful color schemes I've seen in nature.

 

[Dr.Boletus]

Today I had 3 birds I have never seen before. These were goldeneye and smew. The smew of course caused far more excitement as it is rarer and much more beautiful than the goldeneye, although was a bit distant (in fact, for half of the time it was lurking in dense branches on the other side of the lake!). That said, the wood duck I saw as well obliterated all of that excitement. Finally put a several year-long obsession to rest. And definitely prettier than a Mandarin duck.

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

2 new ones for me this weekend:

Long Eared Owl
Pallid Harrier

 

[Bewick]

Today I had 3 birds I have never seen before. These were goldeneye and smew. The smew of course caused far more excitement as it is rarer and much more beautiful than the goldeneye, although was a bit distant (in fact, for half of the time it was lurking in dense branches on the other side of the lake!). That said, the wood duck I saw as well obliterated all of that excitement. Finally put a several year-long obsession to rest. And definitely prettier than a Mandarin duck.
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Gonna completely disagree with it being prettier then mandarin- truly believe the mandarin is the prettiest of the tree ducks- with the Smew being the second.

 

[Paul Chapman]

First tick of the year with today's news...

26th July 2003 - Siberian Sand Plover, Keyhaven, Hampshire

All the best

Paul

 

[car sörensen]

american wigeon on 16 of januari. it looks like this month is the first i will be the first month with 0 lifers for me seince July, 2021

 

[Xenospiza]

Siberian Buff-bellied Pipit on Saturday.
With Rock Pipit split from Water Pipit, this one most definitely deserves splitting from American Buff-bellied Pipit!

 

[Bewick]

american wigeon on 16 of januari. it looks like this month is the first i will be the first month with 0 lifers for me seince July, 2021

It’s really hard to get any lifers- I’ve had most of Britain’s birds through travelling throughout the UK… the only birds I really haven’t seen are the rarer sea birds and some of the diving ducks. However it quite difficult to get the scaup when you aren’t near any large reservoirs that are accessible by bus or train.
Last lifer was the cackling goose, scoter and long eared in January before that it was the bewick, slavonian and sabines in November and before that it was the American wigeon, escaped marbled teal that was in a local pond, and even before that, August, it was the 6-7 new species I got in France including the golden oriole I wanted to see for a long time.
Might go somewhere on holiday- possibly Morocco etc so hopefully I can see some cool birds there. Currently mainly just doing the local area which isn’t great but the bullfinches and sparrowhawks make up for it.

Though, the hawfinch is something I want to see next- my dad and I tried for it a few weeks back but sadly weren’t able to find any however we might return to the area for another try. I’m also hoping to land upon a jack snipe.

 

[car sörensen]

american wigeon on 16 of januari. it looks like this month is the first i will be the first month with 0 lifers for me seince July, 2021

ok so now i realise this is only true for my national list for sweaden. the only thing i added in januari 2022 was grey headed woodpecker wich i had sean in mongolia before

 

[Mysticete]

It’s really hard to get any lifers- I’ve had most of Britain’s birds through travelling throughout the UK… the only birds I really haven’t seen are the rarer sea birds and some of the diving ducks. However it quite difficult to get the scaup when you aren’t near any large reservoirs that are accessible by bus or train.
Last lifer was the cackling goose, scoter and long eared in January before that it was the bewick, slavonian and sabines in November and before that it was the American wigeon, escaped marbled teal that was in a local pond, and even before that, August, it was the 6-7 new species I got in France including the golden oriole I wanted to see for a long time.
Might go somewhere on holiday- possibly Morocco etc so hopefully I can see some cool birds there. Currently mainly just doing the local area which isn’t great but the bullfinches and sparrowhawks make up for it.

Though, the hawfinch is something I want to see next- my dad and I tried for it a few weeks back but sadly weren’t able to find any however we might return to the area for another try. I’m also hoping to land upon a jack snipe.

Same here with ABA birds. I have traveled enough in the US that their is only a very small handful of reliably found Wisconsin birds left that would be lifers, none of which occur locally. So I am pretty much down to wishing for vagrants or paying attention to non-bird lifers.

 

[Nightjar61]

African Chaffinch, an armchair tick resulting from the five-way split of Common Chaffinch.

Dave

 

[Swindon Addick]

African Chaffinch, an armchair tick resulting from the five-way split of Common Chaffinch.

Dave

Canary Islands Chaffinch, from the same split. I think this is my first armchair tick due to a change in taxonomy since the UK adopted the IOC list and I gained a second bean goose species overnight.

This is a rather frustrating one - my trip to Tenerife was a long time ago and I wasn't aware there was anything special about the chaffinches, despite them looking pretty different. So I have no photos. Grrr...