I work in an office with the river irwell 6 foot below the window, most days, and on one wet day 5 inches. The sand martins nest in the building walls and it great to see them flying into the nests. Occasionally we get a king fisher on the window sill. It sounds good but the river can HUMMMMMM at times. But that provides lots of flies for the martins. One worker once saw mink. We also see goosander and once a black swan. Keeps things interesting
Cheers
Ian

As Air Traffic Controllers are in the news for stopping aircraft piling into volcanic ash, it reminded me of stopping aircraft piling into Eider ducklings. We used to stop Lightning aircraft taxiing along the parallel taxiway at RAF Leuchars in the 70s while female Eiders were shepherding their families across the taxiway and down to the River Eden.

Apologies for being a little off-topic, but Lightning pilots certainly got good views of Eiders while their steed was vibrating with under-utilised power!

bald eagles lots of them in florida sitting on top of telegraph poles.

white and brown pelecans fishing also same florida trip

and having to get off the coach we were on, to shoo a turkey vulture away from a roadkill armadillo so we could get the coach past on the way to nasa.


my first little owl and red kite were also seen from the car

I'll always remember, years ago when on holiday (my first time abroad) with my parents in Majorca, on the coach journey to the airport, seeing a pair of Red-footed Falcons sat on a wire over the road. Maybe not the rarest of birds, but it was always one of my favourite birds in my childhood birdbook...

Debs,

I drive from Rammy to Lancaster to work each day- and it's still there- I see it most evenings in a field on the right about 5 miles south of Forton service station.

David

Houbara Bustard, whislt driving, twice in the last few days. Mind you I was in Houbara-ville, Fuerteventura

Adult Male Black-headed Bunting last year on Fetlar over a mile away from where it was found last spring, or a different bird ?

cheers
jason

Chris Murphys' Harlequin Ducks in 1996 will take some beating. To quote from the 1996 BBRC report :

'Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus (7, 5, 2)
Ayrshire Girvan, two first-summer females, 13th-27th April, photo. (C.J.Murphy et al.) (Brit. Birds 90: plate 163).
An outrageous 'while-driving' find for the alert leader of Murphy's Wildlife Holidays. The first since 1991; the last male was in 1987 and the last adult male in 1965.'

Had Green Sandpiper from the 1310 Rawtenstall to Heywood train on the flooded field between the railway line and the River Irwell, just north of Burrs Country Park.

Andy
If ever a Great Spotted Cuckoo turns up on Astley moss its going to take most of us a little longer to get there and see it.

The maximum speed limit on the East Lancs road [ A580] is being dropped from 60mph to 50mph in the next couple of weeks due to the recent unfortunate fatalities.

This takes me back to a really odd day, namely 3rd November 1985.
I'd been to Westleton, Suffolk with Geoff and Heather Lightfoot to successfully twitch my very first Nutcracker, on a bitterly cold morning.
Heather was driving us back home on the A17, heading west out of Norfolk near Walpole Cross Keys. Geoff was asleep on the back seat and I was just waking up in the front passenger seat and happened to glance out past the driver. Just outside her window, a black and white chunky bird was flying parallel to us at the same speed about 12 feet away. As my eyes focused, I thought at first House Martin, but realised at once it didn't fit. Then I exclaimed ,"Look at that, there's some kind of little.... auk. - LITTLE AUK!!!"
Sure enough, however surreal, there was indeed a Little Auk which flew next to us for another 60/80 yards before veering over us and off to disappear to the left. Brilliant! (It must have flown south down the Wash and run out of sea).

The day had got off to a weird start. Geoff and his wife had arranged to collect me at 1 am but my alarm clock didn't go off and they were banging on my door while I was still asleep. Horrified at being late, I jammed on my clothes and grabbed all my gear and sandwiches and shot out to join them, full of apologies, within minutes.
En route, I felt really uncomfortable as if my clothes didn't fit properly, but I more or less shrugged it off although kept skirming and tugging at my waistline, as if something were biting into me. It felt basically as if my waist was suddenly 4 inches bigger.
Several hours later, having seen the Nutcracker come into a little orchard to chomp on apples after a wait of over an hour, I popped into a gents toilet for a pee and realised what the problem was.
On jumping out of bed half asleep and aghast at oversleeping, I had tugged on my underpants with one leg through the waist hole and my waist through a leg hole.
"Nutcracker" therefore summed up that day in every sense.

Greater Flamingo has of course been recorded in the county and I hadn't touched a drop I even managed to basically prove it had not originated from the UK but it still resides in a 'non countable' catagory due to the difficulty in proving a wild origin for those who haven't read it the full account with photos on the rarity accounts pages of the articles section of the website makes for intruiging reading

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar at 22:59, 2009-02-11

Mark Rigby wrote:

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Added Jack Snipe to my "from the cab" list-on 1325 Buxton to Manchester Piccadilly service today. Flew from the "Cess"(area between the rails and the embankment) as the train was 10ft away from it, then flew in front of the cab window for about 20 metres. Cracking views at 10ft range.

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I told you not to drink on the Job

Mike Chorley wrote:

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Mark Rigby wrote:

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Looking for Golden Oriole at Fordham whilst airborne in my plane/car or looking for Honey Buzzard at Swanton Novers arriving sideways in the car park with squeeling wheels Have you recovered yet Mr.Chorley

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For a more exhilarating birding experience contact:

riggers@ dukesofhazzardbirding.co.uk/ouch

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The pains from my stomach still haunt me after laughing so much when Marks car took off at Fordham, then dissapeared in the dip!!

Also sneeking into Swanton Novers after Mark flew insideways was another good laugh!!

That was a good weekend!

In terms of best birds from Marks car, well there are far too many to mention over the years being driven at mach 3 around Great Britain!

From my own car (and living in Mid Wales) I have had millions of Red Kites, very close to the car too! Little Egret (they breed up the road at Ynys Hir) Buzzard, Redstart, Raven, wheatear, Tawny Owl and merganser.

-- Edited by Matt Potter at 09:53, 2008-07-16

once saw a barn owl as i drove down a country lane near shrewsbury.it was sitting on a fence right by the road.i found my camera and slowly reversed.it didnt fly away as i got level.lifted up my cameara and of course it flew away.a great thrill nevertheless to be so near to such a beautiful creature.

This didn't happen to me but a mate of mine.He was driving across the moors in Durham several years ago when he saw a white bird chasing a smaller black bird across the moor.His first thought was it must be a Black Headed Gull chasing a Blackbird,but this didn't seem right as it seemed a strange place for a Blackbird on open moorland.As he got closer the two birds flew across the road right in front of the car.He realised straight away what they were-it was a white phase Gyr Falcon chasing a Black Grouse!!The Gyr was seen again on and off for about three weeks,unfortunately I dipped it twice.

-- Edited by pete berry at 13:13, 2008-07-09

Whilst honeymooning in Eilat we got the coach to Jerusalem to do a 36 hours, been there done, done that tour of the major sites.

From the coach window I spotted a big lump sat on an Acacia tree.

I'm convinced to this day that it was a Lappet-faced Vulture - the area was right, it even resembled the drawing in my field guide of one sat on an acacia, but it had to go down as the best bird I haven't ticked from a moving vehicle!

Added Spoonbill to my "from the cab" list-on 1203 Manchester Piccadilly to Crewe service at Sandbach Flashes.18/06/08

-- Edited by Mark Rigby at 20:13, 2008-06-19

Mark Rigby wrote:

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Looking for Golden Oriole at Fordham whilst airborne in my plane/car or looking for Honey Buzzard at Swanton Novers arriving sideways in the car park with squeeling wheels Have you recovered yet Mr.Chorley

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For a more exhilarating birding experience contact:

riggers@ dukesofhazzardbirding.co.uk/ouch

Judith,

There is not a great deal left of these birds after a high speed collision with a train! The down side is that Buzzards frequent railway lines for just that reason-free carrion!

This means that as more Buzzards arrive for a free feed-more Buzzards get hit by the moving trains. It isnt only Buzzards that meet their maker in this way, Foxes and Badgers also feed on the carrion. It is not uncommon after noticing a corpse at the beginning of the week for there to be several more in that location by the end of the week.

My own personal record was at Grindleford where a Badger had been hit by a train early on Monday morning and by Friday morning there were 5 Badgers, 3 foxes and an unidentified raptor (Buzzard?)!!

Tawny Owls are just daft-they perch up in trees next to the railway lines and as they are flushed by the approaching trains, fly accross the railway lines in front of the oncoming train! and they make a terrific bang on your windscreen!

The worst carnage by far was on the railway viaduct at Reddish Vale in late summer a few years ago.

A mixed flock of Hirundines were perched on the railings on the viaduct facing the railway. As I approached, one by one, they flew of the perch into the front of my train. There must have been about 70-100 birds that got it on that occasion! not a nice feeling as a birder!! Why couldnt they all be facing the other way? and fly of to safety.

On a final note, Network Rail charge train operators a delay charge of around £50 per minute delay. I dont think my boss would be too impressed if I delayed a train to go and retrieve a Buzzard Corpse

Unfortunatley Buzzard and Tawny Owl are the 2 main casualties-but lots of smaller passerines.

I assess train drivers now and threaten them with a failed assessment if they hit any birds

Looking for Golden Oriole at Fordham whilst airborne in my plane/car or looking for Honey Buzzard at Swanton Novers arriving sideways in the car park with squeeling wheels Have you recovered yet Mr.Chorley

eh up Riggers, im suprised you have managed to see any birds from your moving vehicle the speed you drive, i shall never forget the drive from Horrocks flash to Audi recently for the red rumper, think it took about 15 minutes but when we got there i was to dizzy to see anything anyway

Despite several great views of Red Kites round both Leeds & Oxford I reckon my best birds are a tie between the Merlin that flew along side Mr. Rigby's car on one of our Norfolk trips (before zooming over us to ambush a field of winter thrushes) and the Osprey fishing in the river Tummel at Pitlochry (seen from the coach as I came back from a week volunteering at Loch Garten) Having seen several birds fishing at the fish farm it was nice to see one doing it 'in the wild'

I think Osprey would be quite high on my foreign birding list as well, partly because the one I saw at Aswan was (along with Bluethroat) one of the unexpected bonus birds of the trip, and partly because I got to point it out to one of my "I'm not a birder but..." travelling companions who thought he'd seen one that morning at the High Dam. He was chuffed he'd got the i.d. right. Certainly my best bird from a felluca!
Also managed to spot Desert Lark, Desert & White-crowned Black Wheaters, and Trumpeter Finch on various minibus excursions to the tombs & temples, along with Senegal Thick-knee and Purple Gallinule from the cruise ship. Not unexpected, but not bad on a non-birding trip

p.s. best bird 'identified' from a moving vehicle was last years' Scops Owl, i.d.ed as we drove through Thrupp loking for the car park!

-- Edited by Mike Chorley at 22:31, 2008-06-02