Twitching by numbers: A birder's account of his hectic life as he chases rare species across Britain and Ireland

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He comes across as a laddish character with flaws (we all have flaws) and perhaps his openness was what got him criticism for some of his remarks, and perhaps that criticism was well deserved. The legendary warden from the 1960’s and 1970’s at Minsmere, Bert Axel had the same strong feeling as well about this subject. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I'm a 55 year old accountant who lives in Southwater, West Sussex with my wife Kim, daughter Georgie and our pets Barney, Pepper, Midge and Poppy.

The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it. The book is illustrated by the author and, although infinitely better than I could do myself, the illustrations are all quite good, but not tip top. I've just spent the last year writing a book about the last 24 years of twitching birds in Britain and Ireland. That takes a lot of bottle, but he has been rewarded with the satisfaction of standing, unsupported, on his own two feet. The table near the back of this book which lists the Top 10 listers in Britain and Ireland in 1987 and now (two names appear in both lists) is fascinating.The human fallout and carnage from this reverence for the supposed personal freedom brought by a car (often to sit in a traffic jam with all the others enjoying their ‘freedom’ of the road) is horrendous and really deserves to be brought up alongside the environmental cost. The author has a lot of anger in him and some people might find it offensive, but I thought it was great. Garry is an accountant and that’s why the book has its title – it is not only the numbers of birds he has supplied but the numbers of many other things too. He just sought to put down in words and pictures some of the highlights of almost quarter of a century of twitching, these accompanied by reflections on other aspects of his career and outlook on life.

Perhaps he ought to publish two editions - the revised sanitised version and the original, the latter to contain a warning on the cover that some of its content may cause offence to certain readers. They are mostly very readable and highly worthy in their own ways, but there are so many of them that a certain staleness has set in. I offered him some advice and in fact had a long conversation with him about the pitfalls of getting a publisher and self publishing (I have done both). Because this author is very open about sharing his thoughts and feelings, and a lot of details, you might get more of a handle on the ‘why? While you all might take the piss (fair enough) I have got quite a bit of experience of writing and publishing books, one of which was about birdwatching, as I am sure you know.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. There is no brooding self-absorption from Sussex-based author Garry Bagnell, nor any preachy 'agenda' of any sort - just a celebration of the excitement of travelling the length and breadth of Britain for the thrill (and privilege) of seeing rare birds, some of which may never previously have occurred more than once or a few times on our shores. Every day, we all encounter a myriad of things that cause personal irritation, inconvenience or even offence, but we shrug them off, look on the bright side and just get on with life - we don't all rush to Twitter to condemn. However, racing round the country to spot a rare bird is pushing it a bit not just for resource use/carbon emission reasons. Insert joke about tits here, but seriously this is why women still feel so unwelcome in the birding community.

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)? Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. A FEATURE of today’s nature-publishing scene is that an abundance of new titles are either preoccupied with mental health or have a green-and-leafy eco-agenda.

Some of his comments might might strike a discordant note with certain readers, but credit to him for his endeavour - putting together an illustrated book takes a fair bit of sweat and toil. For some twitchers, travelling many miles to see a rare bird seems to lift their spirits to new levels of exhilaration. The Wryneck says: Mr Bagnell is unlikely to win any awards for chivalry, but, in fairness, he did not set out to be a role model for other birders. Found this blog from the year Leighton had a big anniversary year And this blog shows how you had to apply for permits. I didn't see a copy to read, no idea if any other "unknowns" did, but I do know that he paid a considerable sum to someone who "edited it".