Birding bloopers #6
I have been featuring some birding bloopers - or badly misidentified birds - over recent days. This one is from the contributors to the Birding-Aus forum and comes from Eddie in Voss, Norway.
My best blooper (there have been many, but this is the best one) happened many years ago. I was half way up a mountain overlooking a lake when I saw something pink moving in the reeds.
I wasn’t birding at the time so my binoculars were in my car, but it must have been a Flamingo. I dashed back to my car and headed down towards the lake. On getting there the “bird” was still present, but it wasn’t a bird. It was a pink plastic bag that had caught on a broken reed.
From the mountain it looked like a long legged bird with a pink body. The movement was caused by the bag and the reed swaying in the wind.
I don’t know what was more pink - the plastic bag or my face.
Good one, Eddie - and thanks for permission to use your embarrassing moment.
You can check Eddie’s website Birdwatching in Norway by clicking here.
To read more birding bloopers click here.

February 23rd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I honestly stopped a birding bus to look closer at a branch in a tree that looked like a cormorant, but it was where a cormorant often nested.
And Thursday’s birding at http://www.cabdrollery.blogspot.com is a bluebird from a fellow blogger. Very nice pic.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
How embarrassing to have a whole BUS LOAD of birders observe your error first hand. I guess you looked twice or even more before announcing any more special sightings.