AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

Waders and the British List  As you know, I have a great intersest in waders and Frampton. I went there recently to see a Baird's Sandpiper, which rewarded me by being asleep most of the time. Got some photos of its back though! My Frampton wader list is currently 44, the reserve's is 50, and this was my second Baird's there. Driving there and back I was thinking about the status of species on the British List. WARNING-THIS BLOG MAY CAUSE DISTRESS TO THOSE OF A TWITCHING DISPOSITION WHO HAVEN'T BEEN DOING IT LONG.    There are currently 79 waders on Category A of the British List. I have seen them all, but three only abroad. Caspian Plover only in Kazakhstan, and Mongolian Plover and Wilson's Snipe in several foreign locations. The splits haven't helped there, as I only ever went for one Lesser Sand-plover, which is (was?) Tibetan, and Wilson's Snipe has only ever been confirmed on Scilly. Not that I haven't tried, in 1988 I twitched a one day spring adu...

  Hudwit Musings In my very early birding days I was on holiday in Devon when I drove past a group of people looking at something through telescopes. As it wasn't convenient to stop, and I knew nothing of twitching then, I drove on. However, I have always wondered if they were looking at the Countess Wear Hudsonian Godwit. That bird was seen at Blacktoft for a month in 1981 from 10th September, disappeared and turned up in Devon from 22nd November to 14th January 1982. It then re-appeared at Blacktoft from 26th April to 6th May 1982. Joining Cream Coloured Courser and Long-toed Stint on my "wish I'd started twitching sooner" list, there was another record in Aberdeenshire in 1988, but that was only seen by a couple of people, I believe. It had become a "blocker" by then, and in terms of my UK list I put it to the back of my mind. In 1990 I went on a private trip to Chile, my room-mate was a wader enthusiast, and I remember driving some considerable distance ...

Do Redpolls have split personalities?  So Redpolls are now all one species, according to the latest IOC list. The photos below would indicate otherwise to any self-respecting birder. To me they indicate a lack of consensus as to what constitutes a species, but nowadays it is probably an insurmountable problem. I, for one, only make changes to my list if common sense prevails. If birds look different, then that should be recognised in some way, whatever scientists theorise, because as sure as eggs are eggs, they will be split again when someone needs a thesis for their PhD. I've mentioned this before, so 'nuff said, but recent changes resulting in a couple of new species are interesting, to me at least.  The first is Mongolian Gull, split from Vega Gull, which was originally a Herring Gull. Although breeding closer to Western Europe than Vega Gull, because it's confined to Mongolia and winters in South China I would think it less likely to take the route across the Arctic Ci...

Listeria (no not the disease) I completed my census form, and was tempted to put, under religion, the term “listerism”, in the manner of the now famous Jedi Knights. I didn’t, because I don’t believe a census form to be the place for frivolity, but it did make me think that for many birders listing is a religion. It is certainly easy to be a “failed lister” in the way you can be a “failed Catholic”. However, whilst a list may be the most important thing in your life, it is also a very personal thing, and therein lies the beauty of a list. It is your list, and you can do with it what you will, put on it your own opinion if you like, but most importantly, the rest of the world is largely uninterested, except perhaps your own circle of friends. It matters not what varying taxonomic viewpoints are, nor what a committee of people, many of whom have never seen the species involved, choose to vote on. It is your list, your opinion, and most of all your memories that are triggered.  F...