I'm confused!
Saturday I went to Rutland Water to see Osprey, and sure enough got to see a pair from one of the Lax Hill hides (Widgeon?).
There was another guy there who was ecstatic at seeing Osprey (first for me too), and kept muttering wonderful, great, etc. His mate said something about 'better view than at Loch Garten'.
Michael says in another thread that as far as the BOURC is concerned, these birds aren't real. So does that mean that with 'real' and 'unreal' Osprey in the country any seen on migration are suspect, until you know where they end up?
Earlier in the day I over heard someone saying that the 'Ruddy Shelduck' were real, but the Australian ones weren't. And what of the Egyptian Geese? Rutland has a feral population, but what of elsewhere? And what does feral mean anyway?
Then there are the 'unreal' Red Kites from Spain which are now 'real' and the 'unreal' parrots unless you see them in the SE.
The more I think about this the more surreal it all becomes.
I guess it comes down to comparative listing. How can birder A compare his list with birder B when birder B has ticked species X when everyone knew it was likely to be an escape, while birder A had twitch the 'real' species X back in the 70's.
Meanwhile birder C has seen species X abroad and doesn't really care but then species X has now been split by the Dutch and birder C cannot recall which of the two races, X1 or X2, he saw. Birder A knows this because he's been sleeping with birder C's ex-wife, who left him over the his twitch for species Y in Dorest in '94. Birder A confronts Birder C over the X1/2 issue in ear shot of Birder B. Someone - I couldn't hear who, the pub was very noisy - accuses Birder B of being a 'stringer' and he replies 'At least I'm not sh*gg*ng my best mates ex-wife!' Tables were upturned and fist flew.
The birders carried on birding though they never spoke again. Birder A concentrates on his world list these days, Birder B spends more time with his ringing (banding) and Birder C drives to coast each weekend and does nothing but seawtching.
It's not an unhappy ending though. The ex-wife settled down with the landlord's son. He likes football and golf and as such makes a far more reliable partner than any birder.
So you see Walwyn, it is very important that we make these status distinctions between birds.
Dave
A work of genius, Dave!