My bogey bird is without a doubt the Tawny owl. 2-3 times a year, I spend my holidays down in a forgotten place in the south of France. Its a tiny village on top of a hill, surrounded by a mix of fields, deciduous and pine forests. Tawny owls can be heard all over the place here (On some nights I can hear up to 8 or more of them around the place).
Despite this, I've never seen one. One particular bird (who has been given the name of Albert) has been heard hooting regularly in a smallish wood less than 500 metres away. I spent days going through it trying to find his roost, but I've never seen it. I know that wood like the back of my hand now, and every night I can actually visualise the exact area he's in, just by listening to his hoots. I've spent nights just listening to him moving about to different areas (field bordering the the woods, glades), but every time I try and creep up to him, or even wait in the woods until its dark to catch him coming out, He always stubbornly refuses to hoot until I move of and head home. It's gone to such an extent that my family has grown accustomed to me leaving for an hour every night to stand outside and listen to the owls and 'hope' that Albert would perch on the the trees on my side of the wood. Some members of my family have actually seen him (in the car headlamps) just when I was looking the other way!
Around this time it is obviously a great time to look for Tawny owls (in the south of France). Unfortunately I couldn't go down there this year and try (again) to see Albert or any of his relatives flying about. Last year a first-year owl (I think) actually hooted from a big tree just yards from my front door! But it flew of into the night as I tried to spot it (it wasn't Albert: he was hooting away in his forest).
Anyway, I've learnt a lot about what those owls do at night, their interactions between each other, their various calls, all this just by listening to them hours on end. They're on my life list for this reason (provisionally), until that moment when I'll really see a Tawny owl. (Maybe during the Easter holidays...)

After just watching a recording of Nature's calendar I've just worked out my bogey bird:
Snowy Owl at Grenitote, North Uist. After 5 holidays there we still haven't clapped eyes on it ......
I wouldn't mind but I even know exactly what bit of the inlet they were filming from
Closer to home, my current bogey bird is a bloomin' bullfinch I think everyone has seen one recently!
Hope this breaks my bad luck

Good stuff Holly, i will have to try again in the morning, lots of berries to keep them going a few more days yet hopefully

Holly Page wrote:

---

My bogey birds have been water rail & waxwing. I finally got a water rail when we went to Inner Marsh Farm with the local RSPB on Saturday. Still need waxwing though.

---

Finally got the waxwing this morning!!

Have to find a new bogey bird now!

Yipeeeeeeeeeeee


Finally got spoonbill today at parkgate, spotted by Holly, (well spotted, now please take a bow )


Next bogay bird to hope for on patch is osprey, every time one flys by somewhere local i miss it

UK Bogey Bird - White Stork and getting harder year on year.
Patch Bogey Bird - Barred warbler but hopefully this autumn.

cheers
jason

Craig Higson wrote:

---

I've spent so many days laid out on a sun lounger skywatching over the last few springs...



Hi Craig,

Judging by your avatar you've started your Osprey watching rather early.

Osprey is also my Greater Manchester bogey bird (well, one of them!)

I just missed one near Lightshaw, was a few hundred yards away from one when looking in the wrong direction at Wigan Flashes and watched one pass overhead at Poynton Pool (Cheshire) heading directly for GM only for it to disappear behind a tree line a few metres from the boundary.

Perhaps this year

Cheers, John

Rob Thorpe wrote:

---

Craig Higson wrote:

---

Well if we're going down the list of a breakdown I stand more of a chance.

UK Bogey bird : Red-rumped Swallow. Actually been sat in the garden at Kew at Spurn and there was one sat on the wires at the church next door

GM Bogey Bird: Wood Warbler

Wigan Bogey Bird: Osprey Worked at Pennington for 6 years and missed every passage bird there was. Missed one there by minutes two years ago on the mayhem bird race.

---

Craig, if there are any warm, sunny days in early April, look upwards. Had an Osprey over our house in A-in-M, one over Lightshaw Flash and one past Sandyforth mine, all by looking upwards
ps. I forgot about Wood Warbler, you can add that to my GM and WB bogeys...

---

Yeah..Thanks for that Rob - seeing as you know full well I live in the same town!

I've spent so many days laid out on a sun lounger skywatching over the last few springs, under the pretence that my back/knee/neck are giving me jip, that I may not be able to pull it off this year. Still Redstart in the garden makes up for it a bit

Bogey birds,got a few myself ,Wigan borough green pecker,county red grouseosprey,(pretty sure they,ve flown over my garden)and with rob redstart.That,s not all i,m missing but they hurt cos I should either have 'bumped into them' or made the effort to go and tick them when they were 'showing well' on the plus side Dotterel,crossbill,wood warbler(sorry craig)all ex bogey birds thanks to the forum.

cheers geoff

Craig Higson wrote:

---

Well if we're going down the list of a breakdown I stand more of a chance.

UK Bogey bird : Red-rumped Swallow. Actually been sat in the garden at Kew at Spurn and there was one sat on the wires at the church next door

GM Bogey Bird: Wood Warbler

Wigan Bogey Bird: Osprey Worked at Pennington for 6 years and missed every passage bird there was. Missed one there by minutes two years ago on the mayhem bird race.

---

Craig, if there are any warm, sunny days in early April, look upwards. Had an Osprey over our house in A-in-M, one over Lightshaw Flash and one past Sandyforth mine, all by looking upwards
ps. I forgot about Wood Warbler, you can add that to my GM and WB bogeys...

UK: Golden Oriole (heard`em many a time, and seen the arse-end of one flying away in the distance....)
WB: Merlin

It has to be waxwing for us, been on many a hunt for these elusive birds in the pursuit of a good picture!

Well if we're going down the list of a breakdown I stand more of a chance.

UK Bogey bird : Red-rumped Swallow. Actually been sat in the garden at Kew at Spurn and there was one sat on the wires at the church next door

GM Bogey Bird: Wood Warbler

Wigan Bogey Bird: Osprey Worked at Pennington for 6 years and missed every passage bird there was. Missed one there by minutes two years ago on the mayhem bird race.

My British bogey bird: Eurasian Wryneck
My "Greater" Manchester bogey bird: Common Redstart
My Wigan Borough bogey bird: Hen Harrier (or should that be Northern Harrier? )

-- Edited by Rob Thorpe on Thursday 25th of February 2010 09:43:59 PM

Yes, Jays can be difficult, but can I just gloat a little (an anti-bogey moment if you like) and say I got a pretty decent shot of one sat on the shed roof just below my bedroon window a couple of autumns back. I think that's your best chance when birds of the year start to venture into suburbia and have not yet learned to fear us (and cats).

Pete, David, Tony, thanks very much for your advice.

David, I might just take you up on that... thanks a lot mate.

Anthony

The feeding station at Marbury Country Park is pretty good for close-up views of Jays - I'm sure if you chucked a few peanuts out, one might swoop down before the Grey Squirrels nabbed them all.

Anthony,

I have a feed site for these birds in autumn/winter, you can get with in feet of them and are pretty tame, get in touch later in the year and i will take you.

Dave

Antony why not try Risley Moss?

The woodland hide on a bright day would be a good spot. Being a woodlland reserve always plenty of Jays about. In fact give it an hour and I would say its a banker plus GSW and also nuthatch.

-- Edited by Pete Astles on Thursday 25th of February 2010 05:08:50 PM

Speaking from a photography point of view it's got to be the rather common but very shy Jay...
Although I see plenty about pretty often, I've never manange to get a decent close shot of one of the elusive so & so's!

Definately my nemisis.

Plenty of birds I've never seen and would dearly like to, but a good Jay photograph would trump them all for me.

Anthony

Here's hoping for a Hoopoe - I've spent hours at Hoylake, Lancaster etc with no luck.

Seen plenty abroad though.

Waxwing and Merlin for me.

good stories, keep um coming, i am glad i am not alone, i like the eleven short eared owls one, its just like waiting for a us, none for ages then eleven come at the same time

My bogey birds have been water rail & waxwing. I finally got a water rail when we went to Inner Marsh Farm with the local RSPB on Saturday. Still need waxwing though.

I have so many...too many to pick one.

Following on from my previous post though - at one time Short-eared owl was mine. After many (countless) trips to the usual coastal places, I finally caught up with one on the moors. The very next time I was at Marshside I saw ELEVEN (!) in the air at one time. That was really taking the ...mickey.

Mine was Bluethroat. Always the other side of the hedge, there 5 mins ago, didn't show or I couldn't go on the trip. Even when I found my own in Egypt (or rather it found me) it took another age before I saw one in the U.K.

Now it's Collared Pratincole. Probably because I'm doing them in reverse order, starting with an Oriental in Norfolk

Grey phalarope held that distinction with me for a while with some heart rending stories attached to it. I missed an 'easy' one at Audenshaw when, having got up ultra early to go before work, my car wouldn't start. Then I went to Woolston to see only only to find I had misheard the telephone message and that it was 'only' a Wilson's phalarope, and thus not even a lifer. Had them called on a sea watch at St. Ives but was unable to pick it up. I did finally see one in Norfolk, but only then after reaching Hunstanton on my way home and making one last call to find that one was fifteen miles back the way I had just driven. Saw it for about 3-4 minutes before it swam into an area where it couldn't be seen and that was that.

Still haven't seen one in Grt. M/c which hurts. Maybe never will now.

Mine was Bittern. I had spent hours of my time in hides staring at reedbeds to no avail.

Then, as Craig quite rightly says, once I saw one, that was it!!!

What I find more amazing is that once you've finally seen your bogey bird you will find them everywhere!!

I have been birding since 1971 and up until last year I had never seen Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. I had never really gone out of my way to see one other than going to Marbury a couple of times. I finally bagged one at Moore NR. Since then I have seen another over here in Switzerland.

Another one was Hawfinch. On visits to Leighton Moss, I always used to venture across to Woodwell but despite countless visits was always unlucky. Decided on a quick there-and-back trip to Bergen four or five years back, before they stopped the Newcastle to Bergen ferry. A winter flock was usually present in the city park in Bergen and we were lucky with a sighting of forty. Again, I have seen others since in Switzerland.

Not really a bogey bird as such but the sheer relief at finding it on a birding trip in the Pyrenees, last year, is worth a mention - Alpine Accentor. We were up on a pass right on the Spanish/French border where one was known to be and had been seen fairly regularly. We scoured the area for ages without success. We left the area only to try again towards the end of the day. There were six of us covering the area and after a further hour or so one of the lads commented on just another Water Pipit. By chance one of the others got his bins on the 'pipit' to find it was the Accentor, stood calmly watching us. It was quite comical really, but also a relief.

For anyone that does not know this saying it simply means a bird you keep trying to see and keep missing it


For me my most recent Frustrating Bogey bird is the "Spoonbill" it was seen last week at parkgate so i popped by where it was seen at different times of the day, three times and no show, Yesterday it was actually seen while i was there but now at a new location in parkgate, i was at the old boathouse end and it was on show in the middle pools, guess what happened when i went to see it, Gone again, i had the same experiences last year when it was around marshside


All part of the fun of Birding..............


I will not give up.......


What are your Bogey birds?

-- Edited by Dennis atherton on Sunday 21st of February 2010 10:25:02 AM