Now lets have a good old bit of disipline here, instead of asking Mr Mckerchar to close this topic let this be the last message on the subject, In Bill Oddies Little black Bird Book recently come back into print chapter two deals with what kind of birder are you Bird-spotter,bird- watcher, Birder, twitcher, dude and others steming from that we have mega tick cosmic mind-f**ker duff gen gripped off string and as a result of this someone developed Girlie tick, now apart from this book been a good yarn we are all birders of some degree and should treat each other with some resect, no matter what level we are on So just like geoff said i wish this subject had never started,, yes I have a number of birds I should have seen before, and been honest I may have seen them but could not find any record of them in my notes, but I am having great fun catching up with them, and would hate it if anyone felt they were going to have there records labeled as girlie ticks As a young birder I had to hide my bins and go out on my own where I lived if you said you like birds you were classed as a weirdo and faced a good hiding off your mates, I believe Mark Cocker in his excellent book Birders had the same problem ( please try to read both these book)
So lets encourage birders to share sightings and I propose to start a new topic county lists check it out... Stay happy and keep birding
We used to call them 'tarts ticks' years ago although I doubt that's any more PC these days!
Either way these 'easy birds' are just that, birds that you have no real excuse not to have on whatever list it is you are counting, be they Dunnock on your Rumworth list (oh, Mr. Woosey), Red Grouse on your county list (goes, or rather, went for a few county birders ), Lesser Black-backed Gull on your garden list (come on...look up!) and many more. Thing is though that one you catch up with all the easy ones things get much more difficult and much harder work so enjoy catching up with them while you can and no, Bittern isn't a county tarts tick, the counties top lister only caught up with one a couple of years ago!
wish i hadn,t started this but still it goes on,by the way rob cheshire hobbies don,t count and if it,s that easy its a girlie tickhow to define a girlie tick ,i,m not sure now, what i meant was all the regulars that i,ve just not travelled to see yet,but i,d like to follow the bittern hunt (from my armchair) so keep us updated.theres easy pickings at moore (oops over the county line)when you get fed up.
cant agree more judith must put a stop to all this derogatory stuff, blame bill oddie and his little black bird book, but more on that at a later date. Alan i also need bittern so more than happy to go out in the field with you to catch up with this, but would think our best bet would be later in october, so will keep in touch. Now would it be fun if we could both catch up with your son!!! young whipper-snapper that he is..
I see your now one tick behind me Paul, I must catch up my Girlie ticks :- Namely :- Hobby, Merlin, Both Harriers & Bittern not sure there all Girlie but any help with locations would be appreciated.
Now Now at least i can remember what I have seen recently as you have had to check your 2002 records and i am only 8 behind you can i sense a slight panic that i may be near the elusive 200 club by the end of the year, and rubbing shoulders with your total soon promise to get the beers in for the 200, have fun keep birding.......
erm maybe.... however I have a number of these to catch up with, and its proving to be more fun than many a twitch i,ve been on. Meeting bill up at piethorne was an excellent morning out, and as to the birders I met at elton i hope those waders come through this week, I,ll be back into the dip soon ...perfect birding spot. And whlie chasing the little ones more chance of coming across the biggy... Stay happy and keep birding..
For those who have never read BIRDERS A TALE OF A TRIBE by MARK COCKER get a copy soon and see why we do what we do....
I think I've only ever seen one other one ever, that wasn't here !
Outside our region is an easy Little Owl at Parkgate which suns itself at its nesthole at the back of the paddock at Parkgate Old Baths. Also a very high tide here gives you Jack Snipe and Water Rail running under your feet and Hen Harrier and SE Owl floating past, so that's 4 tricky year ticks straight off.
firstly sorry you girls out there but you know what i mean,i was very pleased to get my blackredstart tick in the city center,only to see warfy,s tick labelled as'girlie' so what,s what, loads of listers now have nightjar to their credit.(cert girlie) i personally stalked an egyptian goose the other night,then had to shoo it away so i could photograph it.my proper chaps tick is the audenshaw northern diver,maps are fine but nothing prepares you for that razor edge wind and a sinking feeling that your socks arnt up to it ,and a trophy photo impossible.So if there are any more girlie ticks out there just list them i,ll be along soon.
), Lesser Black-backed Gull on your garden list (come on...look up!) and many more. Thing is though that one you catch up with all the easy ones things get much more difficult and much harder work so enjoy catching up with them while you can and no, Bittern isn't a county tarts tick, the counties top lister only caught up with one a couple of years ago!
how to define a girlie tick ,i,m not sure now, what i meant was all the regulars that i,ve just not travelled to see yet,but i,d like to follow the bittern hunt (from my armchair) so keep us updated.theres easy pickings at moore (oops over the county line)when you get fed up.
must put a stop to all this derogatory stuff, blame bill oddie and his little black bird book, but more on that at a later date.
Now would it be fun if we could both catch up with your son!!! young whipper-snapper that he is..
at least i can remember what I have seen recently 
as you have had to check your 2002 records and i am only 8 behind you can i sense a slight panic 