Yes ..at last, the book you've always wanted is here, coincidentally just ,er, not many days before Christmas. Well, enough days for us to save up for it. Knowing their track record, it won't be cheap. I got an email about it last night. No picture though. Bah. I might draw a cover for it myself. I'll put it at the top of this. I could sent it to them ... though it might get rejected. Hey.. I could even write a silly poem about it. The usually austere and boring members of the British Birds Rarities Committee have, amazingly, produced a book which gives you all the true lowdown on those rejected rarity sightings which it has , reluctantly (?) had to turn down over the last 744 years. Even more amazingly, that is the actual title . Apparently. And yes, it does tell you, to the best of their ability and knowledge, what exactly made them reject loads of rare birds ... from the sheer gormlessness of the observer(s) ,through muddle-headed wishful thinking, to simply being a bit too hasty with the id, missing out either carelessly or deliberately crucial features, or simply downright fabrication and cheating. It's all there. But ... names aren't named. But of course a lot of us will know who it was ! I'm looking forward very very much to seeing what they have to say about that Unwanted Gimbo I wrote about a while ago .... it will be worth the price of the book by itself ! Here's the link to wot I rote .. 94-the-mysterious-unwanted-gimbo.html Throughout the history of birding there's been cheating of all sorts .... cardboard cutouts ( oh yes) , leaving the madding crowd and seeing the target bird " just behind that tree", buying or importing birds an releasing them, painting ordinary species to turn them into rarities, photographing rarities abroad and then claiming them as UK sightings ... oh, calamity !! Even I've had one rejected record .. I got a nice card from one of the committee letting me down kindly ... but I hope the book isn't full of that sort of thing. We want the rough stuff ! Bring it on. As long as it's not me. Mind you, it might turn out to be fake news, all this ..... who knows. This little article itself might be "rejected" by the BBRC Committee. That would be beautifully "circular" don't you think. You all know how I love an appropriate song ... here's one ... ..and I do believe there have been rarity submissions based on a single feather !!
............... .. washed up on a beach if I remember rightly. A bit "coastal" if you ask me ... teenage slang for " on the edge, a bit dodgy" Mind you, that's a bit "coastal" too, because I just made it up. But now, it might catch on. If you hear your "offspring" using it... Blame me. I can take it. I'm coastal, me.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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