The book details what happens during my twitch, credits finder and categorises each rarity (1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 4-year, 5-year, 10-year, 20-year and lifetime). 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.

I offered to proof read it for him and suggested that he get people who don't know him to read it, mainly for typos and content.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)?

Also lots of reserves where no permits where needed such as the Inch marshes in Scotland was only open a few days a week and only for part of the year. I’ve a friend who happened to be behind a steering wheel at the wrong place and time which was when a wee boy decided to dash across the road. Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.Twitching by Numbers’ by Garry Bagnell, a memoir of his anecdotes about birdwatching, published in this very year 2022. 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. What further marks out his book as special is that the illustrations are all by Garry himself - not photographs but exquisite colour artwork which beautifully captures the spirit as well as the plumage of such species as varied thrush, indigo bunting, American redstart, common nighthawk and song sparrow.

He Tweeted many times asking for advice and just before publication provided an example of the introduction but it had none of the above in it.The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it. Somehow in that quarter-of-a-century, he has managed to catch up with more than 550 bird species in Britain and Ireland while simultaneously holding down a happy family life, a full-time job in finance with a series of bluechip employers plus a range of sporting interests including playing chess (to county standard) and darts, not to mention following the fortunes of Arsenal FC. In that time, you must have seen numerous changes in attitudes to how we approach birdwatching, habitat protection/creation and conservation. However, racing round the country to spot a rare bird is pushing it a bit not just for resource use/carbon emission reasons. No doubt some twitchers who started birdwatching long after me will have seen more different birds than myself and of course I’ve noticed the boasting by some and it’s not just me that’s noticed.

I had never heard of a foam party until I read this book – maybe I should get out more, or maybe not. Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. He is clearly something of an obsessive, and his other past hobbies have included plane spotting and stamp collecting.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. But instead of seeing something that’s wandered on to your local patch you travel hundreds of miles to see it then I feel that the experience is a bit devalued. That takes a lot of bottle, but he has been rewarded with the satisfaction of standing, unsupported, on his own two feet. Credit it to GB also, for his determination and enterprise in publishing the title at his own risk without the comfort of an advance payment or the prospect of royalties from an established publishing house. I am pleased that Garry has temporarily withdrawn the book and has committed to re-writing at least the first four chapters.