Birding Bloopers #12

This is number 12 in a series of bloopers shared by contributors to the Birding -Aus forum. It has been fascinating to record the lengths some birders go to in order to be embarrassed. It has also been great the number of birders willing to share their birding mistakes with the world.

I was with my family visiting South East Queensland a couple of years back, and we were on our way to dinner with Sue and Terry. Passing the MacDonald’s at the river crossing just south of Labrador I noticed something on the roof, perched in amongst a number of white ibis. I just had to check it out.

It was raining, but using my binoculars I could make out a definite owl of some description. I dropped Jan and Emma at the caravan park where we were staying and made my way back on foot. I carefully crept up to the building, somewhat out of sight of the customers, and my suspicions were confirmed. A definite owl – but with horns! Sensation!

However, after a short reality check I decided that what I was looking at was not a first for Australia, and neither was it an exquisitely carved banana peel, but rather a plastic owl. What it was doing there is anyone’s guess – if it was put there to keep the ibis away it was having no effect.

It’s probably still there.

Thanks to Bill for giving me permission to post this here.

To read more birding bloopers, click here.

Question for readers:

When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).