Twitching by numbers: Twenty-four years of chasing rare birds around Britain and Ireland

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Britain isn't the only place that has hatched a culture of fierce birdwatching. In the United States, book-turned-Hollywood-film The Big Year chronicled the quest of three men vying in long-held American competitions to spot the most species in a single year. Nevertheless, observers say the intensity of the rivalries and the small size of the twitching community – in the thousands – have singled out British birders as some of the world's most relentless. I’m still bemused that the author felt compelled to water down/ delete certain sections just because a single magazine columnist condemned the book having identified what she deemed to be ‘sexism’.

Washington Post In Britain, bird-watching gone wild - The Washington Post

The desk close to the again of this e-book which lists the High 10 listers in Britain and Eire in 1987 and now (two names seem in each lists) is fascinating. You’d have been on the prime of the record in 1987, apart Ron Johns, in the event you had seen a paltry (I jest!) 463 species whereas now Steve Gantlett’s estimated 590 species leads all of them. Twitching is a lifetime marathon and because the writer factors out you’ll must spend 4 a long time at it, and pretty obsessively at it, to face any probability of a prime 10 rating. All of the names within the two lists are males – who may have guessed? This author has written a brutally honest and in-depth account of his life and hobby. This version, dubbed the '18+ edition' in some quarters, is compulsive reading from the start. During the story I get selected for a BBC documentary called "Twitchers: A very British Obsession" and formed a successful WhatsApp group called “Casual Twitchers”.

Twitching by Numbers: twenty-four years of chasing uncommon birds round Britain and Eire by Garry Bagnell is self printed. As a relatively new birder, I first stumbled across Garry and other associated characters in the BBC documentary about twitching. I was hooked on the dedication, commitment and - dare I say - slight competitiveness amongst them! He hasn’t wasted a second of his life because he is also an authority on aircraft and a county standard chess player If you’ve done something really, really bad and you wish to atone for your sins there are several things you can do: you could wear a hair shirt for a month, you could walk naked through Canterbury on a market day whilst self-flagellating and proclaiming your sins or you could read this book. In retrospect I think I would have preferred to have suffered the walk of shame, at least that would have been a more interesting way to spend my time.

Garry Bagnell – Mark Avery Twitching by Numbers by Garry Bagnell – Mark Avery

In America, birdwatching is still mostly a pastime," said Evans, who is on his fourth marriage and blames his divorces partly on his obsession with twitching. "But in Britain, birdwatching can be bitter. It can be real nasty business." During the story I get selected for a BBC documentary called " A very British Obsession" and formed a successful WhatsApp group called “Casual Twitchers”. But mostly, and overwhelmingly, this is a book about twitching – the fieldsport of rushing around trying to see rare birds to add to your lifelong list of wild birds seen in Britain and Ireland. Like most sports, twitching will seem entirely pointless to the vast majority of people. Who cares that Scotland beat England at rugby recently? Quite a few, including me. And who cares that Garry Bagnell has seen 553 bird species in Britain and Ireland (which puts him way behind Steve Gantlett on an estimated 590 species)? Quite a few people and they are mostly men. Do I care? Not deeply, but I am certainly interested in this book because it is a very clear description of the fieldsport of twitching from the viewpoint of a keen exponent. Garry Bagnell looks for a shorelark at Great Yarmouth. Unsuccessful sightings are known as 'dips'. Photograph: Andrew Testa/The Washington PostThis was my first book and I didn't expect to get complaints about my single life between 2000 to 2002 (Chapter 2 to 4). I decided to remove the offending passages and rewrite these early years and republish as "Twitching by A birder's hectic life as he chases rare species across Britain and Ireland". The book takes you through the various twitching adventures in the British Isles and aspects of my private life.

Twitching by numbers: Twenty-four years of chasing rare birds

To be honest, there are a handful of very interesting, well-written recollections of specific twitches which are, to a birder like myself, informative and eminently readable, noted for their style and appreciation of the well-written word. Alas, NONE of these pieces have been written by the author. I had never heard of a foam party until I read this book – maybe I should get out more, or maybe not. Hats off to him, too, for self-publishing (and marketing) the book at his own expense rather than hawking it around mainstream publishers. Innuendo and/or explicit images were also a mainstay of the Carry On and Confessions of movies that were popular in the 1980s and before.Twitching by Numbers: twenty-four years of chasing rare birds around Britain and Ireland by Garry Bagnell is self published. A term coined in the 1960s to describe the jaw-rattling sound of chasing after rare birds on rumbling motorbikes, "twitchers" are narrowly defined as bird-watchers willing to drop everything to chase a sighting. More broadly, it includes those who see a bird within a few days of an urgent bulletin. This was my first book and I didn't expect to get complaints about my single life between 2000 to 2002 (Chapter 2 to 4). I decided to remove the offending passages and rewrite these early years and republish as "Twitching by numbers: A birder's hectic life as he chases rare species across Britain and Ireland". I was also surprised to find that another friend of mine was mentioned in the book a couple of times, I knew he was good but not that good! Though most twitchers are bird-lovers, the sport is mostly about the chase. Bagnell, for instance, drove 90 minutes and searched the ground for a half-hour before he spotted the coy shorelark in beach scrub. He eyed it for a few moments before tweeting his find, then moved on. "I've got another bird to get three hours away," he said.