My New Facebook Group is a non starter

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My New Facebook Group is a non starter

Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:05 PM

I was contemplating setting up a Facebook Group to allow birders to discuss the British Birding Scene. Where raritiy directions and tips could be discussed for all and sundry.

After discussing the topic on Twitter over the last 24 hours. It became very apparent that this group would fail. A certain element would hijack the news service and create mass fallouts. Over the last 2 years I have been unfriended or i've unfriended 30 birders/twitchers. Many of these people I don't really know, so its not a real loss but 1 or 2 of them I thought had the real possiblity of becoming good friends with me.

I'm sure most fall out's are due to the competitive nature of the hobby. So that is why I maintain to this very day that I'm only competitive with myself. I feel competition with friends, can create devious tactics and ultimatley friendships fail.Which is not only upsetting, but reduces the enjoyment you can trully get from this hobby. Birding & people relationships should go hand in hand.

Recent bad behaviour on Birdforum as meant for owner Steve Kirk to remove certain posters....and at twitches more & more twitchers means more & more pushing, shoveing, shouting & brawls breaking out. The effects this is having on certain locations/counties is more & more suppression.

On the 5th March 2012 we currently have 1054 birders that have seen 400 species in Britain & Ireland and approx 22 twitchers every year break the 500 species barrier. Amazingly 254 birders have now seen 500 species in Britain & Ireland. I hope this number increases, but I fear it could just become a dream if suppression and fuel prices win the battle.

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Welcome to my website

My Name is Garry Bagnell. I am 45 years old and I absolutely love watching Birds.

My main birding achievement was being featured in the hit BBC-4 documentary "Twitchers-A very British Obsession". It was broadcast 9 times and I loved the whole experience.

I do keep THREE Bird lists. The list I am most passionate about is my COMBINED BRITISH & IRELAND LIST. My combined WEST & EAST SUSSEX LIST brings gives me a similar pleasure and can be found on the BUBO website. European family holidays have led me to keeping my third list, which is my WESTERN PALEARCTIC LIST. This list is kept on the NETFUGL website.

My website also contains a Blog, Twitching write ups, British & Irish Rare Birds Stats, list of members & lists of 2 regular travelling companions, Tweets on my TITBITS page and Jokes

Also if you need to contact me my phone number is 07789 765163 or alternatively email me on garrybagnell35@googlemail.com

NOTE:- You will only see comments from me on Facebook, Twitter, Birdforum and.here (www.premiershipclub.com) Any rude remarks or negative comments on other websites WILL NOT BE ME.

BUBO Listing www.bubo.org

Garry Bagnell Twitter

Summary of my Birding Life

1977 - Age 10 - Started watching birds in my parents garden, then went to local parks/ woodland. Become a YOC member. Went to the Crawley & Horsham RSPB group indoor meetings. They organised monthly outings, went on a few car & coach trips in the local area.

1981 - During my many bird watching trips I went to Arundel W.W.T. for a day’s bird watching with Mushaq Ahmed. He pointed out Peter Scott to me. I went over to chat to him and he kindly singed my bird book I had on me. On the 26th July I went to Gatwick Airport with a school friend called Martin Arter. I bought a Civil Aircraft Marking Book (CAM) and I spent the rest of the day ticking off planes in my CAM. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to give up Bird watching as Plane Spotting was going to occupy a lot of my spare time.

1989 - I remember watching the news and seeing lots of birdwatchers descending on Maidstone, Kent for a Golden-winged Warbler. I was thinking about going for it, but sadly never did. So I suppose this is now, my most sought after bird for my British Isles List. Will we ever get another chance?!

1990 - Bought a house with a girlfriend.

1992 - Discovered Birdline, and had another attempt at Birdwatching/Twitching. Restricted my Birding watching/Twitching to the Southeast of Britain. I also joined the local Crawley & Horsham R.S.P.B. group as treasurer. (Shame nobody mentioned the long staying '93 Blackpoll Warbler at Bewl to me, but the R.S.P.B. members I use to chat with weren't major twitchers).

1997 - Got married for the first time.

1998 - I resigned from the post of Crawley & Horsham R.S.P.B Group Treasurer after a 6 year period. I decided to Join two chess clubs:- Crawley & Coulsdon.

1999 - Whilst working at National Grid on a year’s contract, I met Neil Howes and he showed me his Nationwide Birding Notebook. I was amazed at how many birds Neil had seen and how far he travels to see them. It made me think if I should get back into Birding/Twitching and give up the Plane Spotting. For the time being I decided to juggle both hobbies. I went to Scillies for the first time (absolutely loved it) and during my 3 day stay I found a Richard's Pipit, Ortolan Bunting (very brief view) and had my first conversation with Lee Evans. My Dad died of cancer during the year, so my wife and I decided to move in with mum and and help her out financially.

2000 - Early part of the year, Lee Evans showed me Lady Amerherst Pheasant's in Bedfordshire and he gave me a UK400 club bird checklist and names of all the birders that had seen over 400 birds in Britain (Approximately 720 then). I then decided I would like to get my name on the list. To achieve this I had to make some big changes to my life. This included giving up Plane Spotting (a hobby I had for 19 years), smoking (something I did for 17 years), leave my wife (our 10 year relationship at this stage was so bad, that I finishing it was the only option) and walk away from a house that I had paid 9 years’ worth of mortgage & endowment payments on, all for £nothing.

2001 - Had my first long distant dip. We chartered a plane for Thick-billed Warbler on Shetland. We didn't leave Inverness Aiport as bird was gone.

2002 - I was given a UK400 Club certificate for seeing 400 birds in Britain (Lesser Sand Plover @ Rimac). I met Kim in June and decided to give up playing competitive Chess as it was not fair to Birdwatch and spend weekends playing in Chess Tournaments. During my 4 year Chess career, I achieved a chess grade of 87 (BCF) and it was still rising. I also played Chess for Sussex in the U125(BCF) division. I also got 2nd and 3rd position in some Chess tournaments.

2003 - Got married for the 2nd time (see picture of my wife Kim below). Started to twitch Ireland...don't mention the 2000 Blue-winged Warbler that now really hurts.

2004 - My daughter "Georgie" was born. New British Birds were becoming less and less frequent, so I turned my attention to local birdwatching, which started by listing the bird species I see at Weir Wood Reservoir.

2005 - Got my second UK400 Club certificate, this time for seeing 450 birds in Britain (Barrow's Goldeneye @ Ythan Estuary). Sadly this year on 3rd March a very good friend of mine died, his name was James Havers. He died at the age of 39, whilst eating a meal at Gatwick Airport with Birding friend Andrew Bashford. James was an exceptional good birdwatcher who spent much of his short life doing bird survey work in the Crawley and Horsham area. He took me to see many scarce breeding birds he had found in the region, and he also showed me a wintering Little Bunting found in Ifield Church, Crawley '94.

2008 - Started playing darts at the Fountain Pub in Roffey.

2009 - I formed a Darts Team at the White Knight in Crawley and I decided to stop playing at the Fountain. On the 2nd August my Mother sadly died from Cancer at St. Catherines Hospice. The 6th September my family & I left Rusper and moved into my Mum's house. Since then we have spent £40k on house improvements. During the year I was selected to be filmed for a BBC4 documentary called Twitchers- A very British tradition. (Should be televised on 3rd November 2010).

2010 - Achieved two of my short term targets this year. I got my 300th (uk400) bird for Sussex (Red-footed Falcon @ 20th June) (S.2) and my 500th (uk400) British & Irish tick (House Crow @14th Sep Cobh, Co. Cork) (S.1). BBC-4 showed Twitchers: A very British Obsession on the 1st November