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

Product Information

Twitching by Numbers’ by Garry Bagnell, a memoir of his anecdotes about birdwatching, published in this very year 2022. Insert joke about tits here, but seriously this is why women still feel so unwelcome in the birding community.

Garry Richard Bagnell books and biography | Waterstones

I had never heard of a foam party until I read this book – maybe I should get out more, or maybe not. I read the book and it was very interesting. The author has a lot of anger in him and some people might find it offensive, but I thought it was great. He talks about things that people might not see as important and makes a point of what he thinks is important. Just before Christmas, Garry Bagnell published Twitching by numbers: Twenty-four years of chasing rare birds around Britain and Ireland. I met an individual at work who introduced me into his hardcore world of Birdwatching called "Twitching".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 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! 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 – British birdwatching goes bad as spotters ramp up

Any author who deviates from what is considered decorous and appropriate enjoys no licence - he (or she) risks being singled out and pilloried with opprobrium.

KEEN birder Gary Bagnell has pledged to rewrite sections of his first book after it came under fire on social media.

The Wryneck: Hurricane in a teacup? Twitcher on back foot

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. Many see twitching as an outcrop of the British fascination with "spotting" things – most notoriously, trainspotting, a hobby that involves the obsessive pursuit of seeing as many locomotives with your own eyes as humanly possible. But others say it may simply be a case of boys who refuse to grow up.The story starts in 1999 just after my 32nd Birthday and I've just ended my 18-year love affair with watching private jets around the world. 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." Twitching by Numbers: twenty-four years of chasing rare birds around Britain and Ireland by Garry Bagnell is self published. The most unfortunate twitchers race many kilometres to spot a bird only to find that their flighty subjects have flown off – a bummer known in the twitching world as a "dip". One of the most infamous dips came as Webb pursued a long-tailed shrike in the Outer Hebrides off mainland Scotland. The boat he and 12 others had hired died in choppy waters, forcing a daring rescue by Her Majesty's Coastguard. "We were worried for our lives for a bit, but we were more worried about not seeing this bird," he said. Hats off to him, too, for self-publishing (and marketing) the book at his own expense rather than hawking it around mainstream publishers.

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

Insights into family, personal and professional life provide balance and Garry appears to be just a normal guy. Albeit a highly driven normal guy! As a newb birder I very much enjoyed the whole read from start to finish. I found it interesting and enjoyed how Garry took you along on every twitch. 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. Garry Bagnell looks for a shorelark at Great Yarmouth. Unsuccessful sightings are known as 'dips'. Photograph: Andrew Testa/The Washington PostIn other countries, the world of birdwatching may be a largely gentle place ruled by calm, binocular-toting souls who patiently wait for their reward. But in Britain, it can be a truly savage domain, a nest of intrigue, fierce rivalries and legal disputes. Fluttering somewhere between sport and passion, it can leave in its path a grim tableau of ruined marriages, traffic chaos and pride, both wounded and stoked. I had by no means heard of a foam get together till I learn this e-book – perhaps I ought to get out extra, or perhaps not. 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!