one single image ?

[denn]

hi all, i was just wondering, as you do, what is the one single image that has stuck with you through your birding years, the one image you find plays over in your mind every now and again, i once stood and watched a male wheatear in a stoney ploughed up field for over half an hour and it didnt move a muscle, the stunning colouring of the little bird on its own in the middle of a field, often plays back to me as vivid as it was on the day, (am i on my own here, or a little strange maybe) or have you a similar birding memory, i await with interest.

[glsammy]

My very first encounter with an Owl and a Jay will never leave me. It was pure magic watching those birds. The shots I got were very poor, but the memory isn't!

[ChrisJB]

I'm not sure, if this is my number one, but it came to my mind first. Ever since I was a nipper, to see a Golden Eagle was at the top of my list. And I remember my first so vividly.

It was spring 1993 and I was staying in a cottage, near Iona, on Mull, on a university Geology field trip. One morning, I was gazing blankly out of the window, whilst munching on my cornflakes, when no more than twenty yards away and only about six feet off the ground a Golden Eagle, with a Buzzard right on its tail flew right in front of me. Of course this snapped me out of my daydreams like you couldn't possibly imagine. I legged it outside to watch them disappear over the nearby brow of a hill.

I've seen a few Golden Eagles since, but I think this remains my best sighting.

I know what you mean about Wheatears too. I always look forward to their return to the local hills in the Spring.

Regards, Chris

[Fourwings]

My first encounter with Waxwings is one I shall always remember.
I have to say that the close encounter with the resident Snow Bunting flock at Salthouse in December was very memorable for me, laying on the shingle with Snow Buntings and Lapland Buntings six feet infront of you is a fantastic experience to say the least!

Steve.

[Seajay]

Mine was when a little boy in a wood in Essex. It was full of bluebells and I was standing there in awe! Then, on a branch no more than 10ft away, landed a cuckoo! That was about 55 years ago and I can still see that image as if it were yesterday!

Colin

[RobSutton]

Years ago when peregrines were rare and the few nests in the Dales were wardened I spent a spring/summer guarding one of the nests and my lasting memory:

Being up at 4:30am in the morning munching on an egg butty as I watched the crag when a fox came trotting along the bottom and the female peregrine went spare. Climbing up to 50 feet or so she then stooped full speed at the foxes head, you could see the hairs parting as the peregrine reached the bottom of her dive, she then climbed back up and did it again and again and again. The poor fox spread-eagled on the ground and inching towards the shelter of a stunted hawthorn tree every time the peregrine climbed up again to start another stoop. All the time she was screaming full voice - magnificent. They're still my favourite raptor and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, to this day, every time I think about it or I hear that call.

[denn]

really interesting reading, some great stories,i thought i may have been on my own with this one but obviously not, its amazing to me that you can still record those special moments as if you where still there, thanks again all. denn

[agrumpycow]

Mine was watching my one and only skylark in a meadow on a adjacent to a beach in Somerset last year summer.
We heard it before we saw it and spent what seemed like ages (in reality probably about 2 minutes) spellbound by its song flight.
It's my favourite beach anyway but this just made it even more special.
As has said before, the snaps were poor but the memory great!

[John]

Mine is the bird that got me started in birding, and it is a little innocuous bird. Zitting cisticola (or Fan-tailed Warbler as it used to be called)

It was 1995. My ex and I took a holiday on the Algarve in Portugal. My ex's Mother-in-Law gave us an old battered field guide, stating that we might be interested in looking at some of the birds that might be over there, so my first birds were ones such as Golden Oriole, Hoopoe etc. That is what you call a start to your birding life.

Anyway, I had no bins or scope just a pair of eyes and for the whole two weeks we had heard a bird above our apartment that was always a bit too high to be able to see properly but its song has never left me, zit - zit - zit.

The day before we were due to go home an elderly couple on a battered old motorbike and sidecar turned up and went into the apartment next door. A bit later on in the day we were sitting around the pool when this couple came out, both of them with bins draped around their necks. We got talking to them and they had been biking around Europe and had just come down from Russia, birding all the way.

Obviously these were serious birders so I asked him what the bird was above us. He said he wouldn't tell me which bird it was but he would say the family, which was a Warbler. He then gave me a pair of his bins to look through and so I began to watch this bird for thirty minutes. It was a question of looking at the bird then the field guide then the bird before after half an hour I was relatively confident what the bird was.

When this guy said correct, well done, that was it. I was hooked. As soon as I got back to Birmingham I bought a second hand pair of bins and a basic scope and the rest is history.

John