Who is Britain's top twitcher?

The Philly Vireo was 1987, not 1985 - I twitched it aged 14 with my dad and the late Mike Entwistle R.I.P.

A simple typo
RBA website previous records for Phil. Vireo Tresco 1987 and Co Cork 1985.

A significant proportion of the top Britain only listers have also posted a Britain, Ireland and Isle of Man list. Not many birds Ireland only judging by the differences between the two.

BOU British list must be the yardstick for people's totals

Paul Woolnough wrote:

Yes.

I can think of just three birds with Irish but no British records. Canada Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler and the Little Blue Heron.

I am sure there are more than three, I will check later, but there will be other birds that may have later appeared in the UK that some listers will have seen previously but only in the island of Ireland.

The 'problem' goes back to the time when the whole of Ireland was politically British and there was obviously just one list. Since most of the big listers are incredibly old they have always included Ireland. Younger (and poorer) listers have never really been interested in the old boundaries, preferring to go with the current BOU area, which does not include NI, IOM or Channel Is.

That's why I am interested in big listers posting their BOU only lists. I suspect the biggest listers may have c10 species difference from their BOU/Ireland lists.

If we are going back to the past we might as well have Calais and Gibraltar as they used to be part of the kingdom.

P.

Some "500" listers have posted both Britain only and Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man BOU lists.

Differences more than three, of course..

Paul Woolough said:
The 'problem' goes back to the time when the whole of Ireland was politically British and there was obviously just one list. Since most of the big listers are incredibly old they have always included Ireland. Younger (and poorer) listers have never really been interested in the old boundaries, preferring to go with the current BOU area, which does not include NI, IOM or Channel Is.


Most of Ireland gained independence from the UK in 1922 - none of the big listers are that old. British Birds, to which I have subscribed since 1978 (so quite old then, though not really a big lister!), used to include all the Irish rares in its annual report on rare birds. That's perhaps where it dates back to. Not that it's a 'problem', and it's a lot cheaper to twitch Ireland, which I have a few times, than the Northern Isles. Biogeographically the British Isles makes sense as a unit for bird listing. The UK, like many political entities, does not.

[img]media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Walthamstow_Birding.png[/img] John Martin wrote:
[ Biogeographically the British Isles makes sense as a unit for bird listing. The UK, like many political entities, does not.[/quote]

I quite agree, however what about countries like Belgium or Switzerland, they have to conform to political boundaries, otherwise they (we) would all just have to be Western Palearctic listers.

I say we should bite the bullet and go with the now current BOURC boundaries. Though of course BUBO has both BOURC and BOURC/IRC + IOM checklists for thos so inclined.

I still think it would be good to see some more top listers post up their BOURC only lists.

PW

Paul Woolnough wrote:

Yes.

I can think of just three birds with Irish but no British records. Canada Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler and the Little Blue Heron.

Philadephia Vireo is a British blocker. 19 of 21 list the Tresco Scilly 1985 bird (two blank!) on their British Lists out of 772 (2.7% only connecting) at the time of writing. There are two Co Clare records, 1985 and 2008, ticked in Ireland by most of the 22 posting Britain, Ireland and Isle of Man lists out of 140 listers (15.7% connecting).

In Birds Of Britain - The Complete Checklist, Aug 2010 by Dominic Mitchell and Keith Vinicombe (Birdwatch Mag), they list the following as "species recorded in Ireland but not Britian"...

Bulwer's Petrel
Little Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Griffon Vulture
Thayer's Gull
Northern Flicker
House Crow
Blue-winged warbler
Canada Warbler
Fox Sparrow

Obviously Britain has now recorded it's first Thayer's Gull (pending i'd guess) and also Elegant Tern is included in the Birdwatch British list but this may also need to be reviewed so Ireland may have the only officially accepted record. Don't know if the Irish list includes Northern Flicker and House Crow as both are taken as being ship assisted...

Cheers Ian

Ian Foster wrote:

Paul Woolnough wrote:

Yes.

I can think of just three birds with Irish but no British records. Canada Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler and the Little Blue Heron.

Philadephia Vireo is a British blocker. 19 of 21 list the Tresco Scilly 1985 bird (two blank!) on their British Lists out of 772 (2.7% only connecting) at the time of writing. There are two Co Clare records, 1985 and 2008, ticked in Ireland by most of the 22 posting Britain, Ireland and Isle of Man lists out of 140 listers (15.7% connecting).

In Birds Of Britain - The Complete Checklist, Aug 2010 by Dominic Mitchell and Keith Vinicombe (Birdwatch Mag), they list the following as "species recorded in Ireland but not Britian"...

Bulwer's Petrel
Little Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Griffon Vulture
Thayer's Gull
Northern Flicker
House Crow
Blue-winged warbler
Canada Warbler
Fox Sparrow

Obviously Britain has now recorded it's first Thayer's Gull (pending i'd guess) and also Elegant Tern is included in the Birdwatch British list but this may also need to be reviewed so Ireland may have the only officially accepted record. Don't know if the Irish list includes Northern Flicker and House Crow as both are taken as being ship assisted...

Cheers Ian

I could only find three.
Unaware of this list, thanks for posting it.

Who has seen and counted bald eagle or griffon's vulture?
I clicked on the top lister total, that of Steve Webb.
I clicked the target button.
No one has counted these two birds of prey.
I could not find northern flicker on the Britain and Ireland (BOU and Ireland?) list Ireland but the species can be found on the UK400 list. No one has posted a list containing northern flicker on their UK400 Britain and Ireland list.

I could not find northern flicker on the Britain and Ireland (BOU and Ireland?) list Ireland but the species can be found on the UK400 list.

Both Northern Flicker and House Crow are Category D on the IRBC list.

Although Lesser Canada Goose B. hutchinsii is on the British list as a full species the BOURC/BBRC have not decided which records are Lesser Canada. However the IRBC has decided which of their records are acceptable. The IRBC call Branta hutchinsii Cackling Goose and not Lesser Canada Goose. So for the time being my list only contains an Irish record.

My list also contains an accepted Irish record of Elegant Tern (Sterna elegans). Although I have seen a purported British Elegant Tern the BOURC/BBRC have not decided on any of the submitted records which if any of these are Elegant Tern.

By the way I also have the highest British list.

Hi Paul,

The Northern Flicker was in October 1962, it was seen to fly off from a ship towards land just inside Cobh Harbour, Co Cork. Very near the site where the House Crow is currently!

Bald Eagle has been recorded twice in ireland (i think?). Co.Kerry Nov 1987, photo's in Twitching Vol 1, No.12 and Rare Birds In Britain & Ireland - A Photographic Record by Cotteridge & Vinicombe. It may have been seen by a few birders at the time but was taken into care and flown back to the USA i believe. Also an older record from Co.Fermanagh January 1973, both birds i think were initially id'd as White-tailed Eagle. Not sure if the 1973 bird has been accepted or not?

The Griffon Vulture record dates back to 1843 in Co.Cork...Not too many keen listers about in those day's!

Hope this helps and sorry for any mistakes (just quickly checked through a few books).

Cheers Ian.

I have decided to go into semi-retirement regarding my Britain/Ireland life list in favour of world birding.

In the last few years I have given up full time employment and now spend 2 - 3 months per year abroad. Also some of the places that I want to go demand a time (e.g. China in May) when I should be in the UK if I was going to continue doing a British/Irish list.

The last new bird I saw was the White throated Robin which is nearly 2 years ago. Who knows when I will see a new bird. The birds in the last 2 years that I needed were not twitchable even if I spent all my time here!!!

I have enjoyed my time doing my British and Irish listing but I am now off to enjoy world birding. By the way I do not know how big my world list is.

However saying the above I will twitch if I am around.

I am sorry but this concept of top birder is simply ludicrous. As was said earlier in the thread, it mainly boils down to who has most money and time to go and see birds at far flung places. That is not in anyway a criticism, but the notion that it brings status with it is frankly laughable.

Enjoy what you enjoy doing, we all like keeping our lists, and most of all we enjoy watching birds, especially new ones. But how on earth can you measure or determine who is a top birder? It may be co-incidentally true that those with high lists are indeed also among the best birders, but at the same time there is not an automatic correlation.

I thought the title of the thread was "Who is britain's top Twitcher"? not who is Britains top Birder? Not that it matters, i dont think anybody thinks having a big list makes you a "Top Birder" anyway but a lot of Birders are interested in who has seen more birds in Britain than anyone else, especially on a listing site like this.

Ian.

My sentiments also Ian. With all due respect to Steve, he was merely posing the question, "Who is Britain's top twitcher?" - not birder.

There has been much written and discussed about the various approaches and styles to this wonderful subject matter of ornithology, that we have all come to love. Without getting too bogged down in semantics here, I think it useful for a distinction to be made between the two wordings.

As far as I understand it, a "twitcher" is anybody who pursues new species of birds, especially rarities, to tick off for their lists - no more, no less. Being considered a "birder" (sounds a bit cooler than birdwatcher maybe), implies a respectable degree of ornithological knowlege and experience, particularly involving such aquired skills as that of fieldcraft and identification competence.

So, some "birders" may not be renowned twitchers and some "twitchers" may not be particularly good birders. Others can be and are both, of course!

Having said that, I think anybody who achieves a personal British list of over 500 species, demonstrates considerable dedication over the course of many years.

Fair point indeed. Apologies Mike for not going right back.

And I love twitching. Desperately need something to twitch, something I think Steve alludes to.

Steve Webb wrote: In the last few years I have given up full time employment and now spend 2 - 3 months per year abroad.

Hi all,

In recent years I am spending around 5 months abroad each year so I am lucky to still be at the number 1 position on the BOU/IRBC rankings. Quite a number of these trips are in the spring and autumn. This autumn I am away from early August to early December but here most of September and a week in October. So it is inevitable that others will overtake me in the future.

Over the years my blockers are getting less and less so one can imagine in the future very little difference between top 10 listers lists. The top 10 listers are mentioned at
lgrebirds.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/the-real-top-10-listers

Cheers
Steve