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

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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. 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)? I am pleased that Garry has temporarily withdrawn the book and has committed to re-writing at least the first four chapters. 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.

He also tells us of the junk food he has eaten, the beverages drunk on the road, the hours sleeping in the car at motorway services to catch up on sleep and the costs of travel on each trip. 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. The legendary warden from the 1960’s and 1970’s at Minsmere, Bert Axel had the same strong feeling as well about this subject.

Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. 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. The author has a lot of anger in him and some people might find it offensive, but I thought it was great.

Luckily at Leighton Moss no charge for permits for members, but member had for admission at lots of reserves. 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. Permits where needed for lots of RSPB reserves of which where only open a few days a week and not all year and even those RSPB reserves that didn't need advance permits, some of thos RSPB reserves onluy open a few days a week. That takes a lot of bottle, but he has been rewarded with the satisfaction of standing, unsupported, on his own two feet.

There are stories of sticks being thrown at bushes so birds would be flushed out to get a better look at them, and exhausted, agitated birds flying from bush to bush until they were nabbed by a sparrowhawk. 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. And don't forget the output of TV comedians Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd, not to mention the photographs that have long appeared on Page 3 and elsewhere in many a red-top tabloid newspaper?

I’m still bemused that the author felt compelled to water down/ delete certain sections just because a single magazine columnist condemned the book having identified what she deemed to be ‘sexism’. This one can’t be blamed on twitchers, but there have also been cases where high profile birds have been shot – a red footed falcon in Shropshire and a little bustard in Norfolk – the latter was found on a road verge where it was highly visible. You would have been at the top of the list in 1987, aside Ron Johns, if you had seen a paltry (I jest!

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. Our reliance on personal transport because of underfunded public transport (and many people’s preference for the former) means an utterly savage proportion of the population have been involved in serious accidents – I’ve known people who’ve been killed in car crashes, who doesn’t? Driving an unnecessarily large and heavier car to keep up with the Jones’s isn’t just an added burden re inflated air pollution it means any accident involving them will be more serious than it would have been – especially for cyclists and pedestrians and obviously children – a bad situation being made even worse.