Being a relative newcomer to the world of birding, my life list is small. Being unwilling to travel very far to twitch a bird doesn't help! Consequenly my wish list might seem to contain birds that must people will have seen loads of times - but here goes:
Hoopoe (dipped on one in Norfolk last year) Bluethroat Black-troated diver (pref in summer plumage - I have managed to see Pacific Diver!) Squacco Heron Bee-eater
There are some more common birds i've never managed to connect with, such as Nightingale (heard but not seen), Wood Warbler, any Shearwaters and Petrels, but they don't bother me! Grasshopper Warbler however is one that i NEED to see. I've heard loads but somehow never managed to even get a glimpse of one. Maybe I should try to open my eyes when I go birding!
Not exactly a wish list as any 5 will do for my British & Irish list (BOU/IRBC) to make a nice round 500. So in a north-east context turn the clocks back for Long-toed Stint (don't know why I didn't go for that), Swinhoe's Petrel, Aleution Tern and Dusky Thrush ( now split from Naumann's - which was my 400 ). Find me a Lesser Sand plover at Seal Sands please (as long as it's not another dot ). A summering Elegant Tern on the Farnes would be nice .
More realistically, I hope, a nice local juvenile or first-winter of the relatively recently split American Herring Gull, preferably coming to KFCs at Penny Flash for a month .
Only Zitting Cisticola, Chestnut-sided Warbler and Alder Flycatcher come to mind that I've twitched and dipped in recent years that I haven't had a second or third chance of securing. Surely Zitting Cisticola (latin: annoying little s**ts) will be more regular.
-- Edited by Pete Hines on Monday 6th of April 2009 11:57:25 PM
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It's April and migrants are coming, hopefully en masse. Don't laugh, but in 40 years of patient waiting I still have yet to see in Britain a bird which just about all of you who wanted to see one saw at Audenshaw; - an Alpine Swift! They regularly turn up in April of course, but I keep waiting (and waiting) for a Durham bird, after all, they're annual, and in numbers, aren't they? Well not up here they aren't, and they tend not to stick around long. Sooner or later, I'll find one? Well I've been saying that for too many years to really believe that now; hell ,I can't wait another 40 (or even 20) years; - I'll be dead or past caring! So if any of you get a sniff of an Alpine Swift again down there, please put it on this forum asap and I'll come down in twitching mode! (I also need Cory's Shearwater for Britain, but I fear you don't get many of those, even at Audenshaw). I seem to miss one passing Whitburn every year. If any of you care to place your "wish birds"on here likewise, I should be delighted to reciprocate if possible as regards any useful occurances in the N/E where I can be of help with directions, etc. Regards to all in the land of my birth (Radcliffe) Mike Passant
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), Swinhoe's Petrel, Aleution Tern and Dusky Thrush ( now split from Naumann's - which was my 400 ). Find me a Lesser Sand plover at Seal Sands please (as long as it's not another dot 
). A summering Elegant Tern on the Farnes would be nice 
.