This is a fun meme that’s been making the rounds. I find it hard to narrow such a list down to just five, so I’m basing this list on target species we’ve failed to get in the past.
1) We didn’t spend a lot of time looking for Florida Scrub Jays at the Disney Wilderness Preserve, and the odds of seeing one here in the accessible areas aren’t too great, but we still hoped to find one during our visit.
2) We visited Brittany in June 2006 and spent some time at the coast looking for Atlantic Puffins. Wrong time of year but there was still a chance. No luck.
Bohemian Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, adult by Bill Bouton, Creative Commons on Flickr
3) A few years ago, before we started to be more interested in birds, there was an eruption of Bohemian Waxwings in the Netherlands, and flocks of them were reported in several areas very close to our home. We looked for them on our daily walks to the grocery store and never saw any. We didn’t make any special trips out to look for them. Big mistake, since they were scarcer in subsequent years. We blew it.
4) We took many birding walks along the Zuidpier (a long pier stretching into the North Sea) in IJmuiden but we never managed to see a wild Northern Gannet. Earlier this year we did see some rescued Gannets at the Ecomare wildlife center on Texel.
5) We missed seeing a Greater Painted Snipe in the Gambia, but we saw 134 other species there so we can’t complain too much.
dontbirdsflyinthesky by waveneyavenue, Creative Commons on Flickr
*) Bonus: I think it would be awesome to see just about any bird underwater, while on a dive.
