Finding “Missing” Rare Birds

I’m not super-well qualified to write this blog. As I have <a href="https://jmdean1982.medium.com/confessions-of-a-twitcher-basher-529ddd789535" rel="noopener">discussed before</a>, I’m not especially keen on UK birding’s disproportionate focus on rarities and twitching. I’m also in no position to hold forth with advice on finding rare birds. In my 30+ year birding career, I have indeed found a smattering of rarities and scarcities, but not enough to claim any special rarity-finding insight or prowess. However, <a href="http://helhathnobirdies.blogspot.com/2023/06/how-to-be-rarity-finder.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">this</a> engaging recent blogpost from Owen Foley got me thinking about the art of rarity finding (if you haven’t already read Owen’s blog, you should read it before reading the rest of mine). Implied — but not explicitly stated — in Owen’s blog is the simple fact that the percentage of rare birds we actually discover must be infinitesimally small. This is something I think about a lot. I don’t know if my musings on this topic are helpful but I’m going to run with it… <a href="https://jmdean1982.medium.com/finding-missing-rare-birds-433627e0de32">Read More</a>