Lee G. R. Evans

Lee Geoffrey Richard Evans is a British birder, author on rare birds and bird tour leader. He lives in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire [1] with his partner Carmel Pentecost.

Evans is a twitcher. He is one of a number of birders who have seen over 500 species in Britain and Ireland; however his principal interest is British Isles yearlisting, where he aims to see over 300 species of bird in the wild in Britain and Ireland each year[2]. Using his own UK400 Club Rules in 1996 he set a self-claimed record for seeing the largest number of bird species in Britain and Ireland in one year, 386. [3]. However, this is disputed by other twitchers as Adrian Webb is recognised as seeing 383 species in 2000 (now 384 due to a White Wagtail and Pied Wagtail being split) which he proved through witnesses and video evidence. [4] Doubts have remained over the fairness of a person who is a twitcher policing the lists of others twitchers, as Evans proclaims himself as "Judge, Jury and Executioner" [5].

Evans has often been seen as a controversial figure in British Twitching [6] and writs have been made regarding the comments he has made. [7].

Evans has been described as a self-appointed gravver of British Twitchers for policing the lists of other twitchers and one of his rivals has described this as "It's like putting Dracula in charge of the national blood transfusion service," [8]

Evans runs the UK 400 Club, a group for birders interested in rare birds and twitching.

References

  1. ^ Pemberton, John E. (1997). Who's Who In Ornithology. Buckingham Press. ISBN 0=9514965-8-1. 
  2. ^ Marinne MacDonald (27 January 1993). "Twitcher devotes his life to an obsessive flight of fancy". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/twitcher-devotes-his-life-to-an-obsessive-flight-of-fancy-1480981.html. Retrieved 4 December 2011. 
  3. ^ May, Derwent (12 September 2009). "Feather report: '‘The Ultimate Site Guide to Scarcer British Birds’'". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/outdoors/article6829604.ece. Retrieved 24 February 2011. 
  4. ^ Webb, Adrian (2001). Steve Gantlett. ed. "Twitching in the Fast Lane 2000: a year to remember". Birding World (Bird Information Service) 14 (2): 69 to 77. 
  5. ^ Twitchers: A Very British Obsession (in English). Director Lucy Leveugle. BBC. BBC 4. 1 November 2010. Retrieved on 7 December 2011.
  6. ^ GEOFFREY WANSELL (10 January 2008). "The bird brains: the dark and dishonest world of twitchers". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-507155/The-bird-brains-dark-dishonest-world-twitchers.html. Retrieved 4 December 2011. 
  7. ^ Adam Lusher (25 March 2001). "Feathers fly in fight to be top twitcher". Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1327902/Feathers-fly-in-fight-to-be-top-twitcher.html. Retrieved 4 December 2011. 
  8. ^ Sam Wollaston (02 November 2010). "TV review: The Trip, Coppers, The Little House, Twitchers: A Very British Obsession, Extreme Fishing with Robson Green". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/02/the-trip-coppers-tv-review. Retrieved 4 December 2011. "The nicest film of the evening was Twitchers: A Very British Obsession (BBC4), which looked, with a raised eyebrow, at the extraordinary world of competitive birdwatching. This is not about going for a walk with a pair of binoculars to see what's around. It's about maniacally chasing round the country, ticking off birds on "Life Lists" and "Year Lists". It's about spotting more birds than anyone else, and about pulling sickies to drive 600 miles to see – or maybe not see – a sandhill crane. It can be about deception, about pretending to see a bird when really you haven't. There's even a self-appointed gavver called Lee Evans. Lee is a twitcher himself and has been fortunate enough to win the Year List six times in the last eight years. "It's like putting Dracula in charge of the national blood transfusion service," moans a rival. The one thing twitching doesn't seem to be about is the birds themselves – none of the twitchers show any affection, or even interest in the creatures they go to such lengths to spot. It's just about the competition. It could be about trains; for one man it was aeroplanes, but he switched to twitching, presumably because he'd seen all the planes. Fascinating and bewildering."