The last post? (11/7/20)

11/7/20 added a bit in on extreme right wing views. This post covers quite a number of topics. This blog has achieved its aims so we have decided to significantly reduce the number of new posts. 

We have shown that George (i.e. Lee G R Evans twitter @LeeEvansBirding i.e. https://twitter.com/LeeEvansBirding) is a compulsive fabricator, liar and cheat on an extraordinary scale so birders do need to question anything he claims. He has stopped updating his fictitious UK400 and top 10 listers totals. The real top 10 is shown here. The following gives the reader some idea what George is like but its not exhaustive!!

George has given death threats which is a criminal offence to a number of people. Some of these conversations have been recorded and handed over to the police. On at least one occasion he was given a police caution.

He has many times rang a birder’s boss to get the rival into trouble, e.g. saying they are talking sickies when they are year-listing, e.g. developing anti-LGRE websites in company time, e.g. suppressing bird news from bird news providers. This has resulted in at least 1 birder having a nervous breakdown and another losing his job and others giving up their year-listing.

He has been found out a vast number of times claiming birds that he did not see. E.g, Danes Dyke Blackpoll Warbler, Scratby Hall Hume’s Warbler, Murcar Beach American White-winged Scoter. Sometimes he invents an extensive cover story to make it sound more convincing e.g. Lundy Ruppell’s Warbler. See this post for details & associated Hilter video.

George has taken other birders photos and pretended that they are his photos. Some committees will not accept any of George’s rarities unless they are supported by a real independent witness instead of a pretend witness or pretend photo.

He has gone through many county bird reports claiming birds he did not see. George has outrageously claimed “I am in the Top 10 of virtually every individual county list in Britain.” Britain i.e. England, Scotland and Wales has just over 90 counties. Scotland counties were replaced by 32 Council Areas which are roughly equivalent to counties. Really George you must stop telling porkies. In the book, Behind the binoculars George contradicts himself and says “I have maintained a top-ten position in over 30 individual counties in the UK”.

Most years George claims to be the UK number 1 year list record holder when in practice the record very often it belongs to someone else. The self-appointed ‘judge, jury & executioner’ & ‘policeman’ of birding sets himself as an adjudicator of rival year-listers lists (e.g. Adrian Webb). George has knocked valid birds off their lists but added lots of string and duff birds on to his list. In the past he has given witness names which has been proven to be false e.g. here

Have a look at this from someone who travelled extensively with George it includes “If people start from the premise that LGRE is ‘normal’ and recognises ordinary concepts such as morality, integrity, honesty and the interests of others, they are making a serious mistake.“ 

George has claimed to be the number 1 Western Palearctic life and year lister, both of which have never been true. Have a look at this.

Some think George is a psychopath or demonstrates in pure form every single symptom of the narcissistic personality disorder. We believe he is very Trump like.

Many believe that George is a racist although he claims he is not. However he puts out racist like tweets (e.g. at least 10 species of humans , welcome to Lutonstan which is a First Britain video). George stated on twitter that he is very far right wing and claimed that he launched the British fascist political organisation ‘Britain First’. However Wikipedia does not mention that George was a founder member!!

George has a habit of writing obituary’s on well known birders and exaggerating his dealings with them and/or saying things that are not true. Its all to do with self promotion and making himself look big. As we find this aspect of George very distasteful we are not going to go into detail here.

“Been involved in at least 11 major car crashes which have resulted in several fatalities.”… “11 people died” …. “it’s just part of the birding game, when you’ve been in as many accidents as I have, you don’t worry about it”. There have been no fatalities. George claimed in 1996 that the police monitored his car in 1987 on the A90 between Perth and Aberdeen doing “117 miles in 46 minutes”. “For breaking the British record, he was banned” from driving. That means an average of 152 mph! We presume this drive included the 6 miles of the built-up area of Dundee of the Perth to Aberdeen 86 miles!!

He makes false health claims to get the sympathy vote. For example, e.g. “I have been suffering again from malaria problems and have been too ill to answer the Emails. I am also suffering badly from a brain tumour which is seriously affecting my sight and speech and causing me ongoing migraine (I am too frightened to have it removed as the sight in my only remaining eye may well be affected by the operation).” His pancreatic cancer, which is normally terminal, “I might not last beyond XMAS (2013). “I wonder seriously if the overuse of mobile phones speeds up the demise of your brain cells or whether I just have the early signs of dementure.”

He also plays the sympathy card at other times “I’m toying with the idea of leaving social media in 2019 – it is just too damn depressing. Life’s too short to be reading all of this nonsense. I have spent 50 years in birding yet seemingly yield nil respect. I’ve had enough. I can see why so many people resort to committing suicide these days, the vitriol and hatred being espoused simply unbelievable. Hay-ho”. In 2011 he publicly stated that he`d be moving to Spain and that 2010 would be his last year of year listing. In 2012 he said : “Just heard of a TENGMALM’S OWL in the UK but won’t be telling any arseholes about it – suppression is the new way forward”. “Losing my faith with birding – it is a thankless hobby with little or no respect given. They think they have a RIGHT to see birds – no way”.

He has pretended to be bankrupt to get out of paying many hundreds of pounds to birders. “declared my bankruptcy petition with losses of £109,172.00.” We have checked with the authorities, he has not been made bankrupt or has an IVA. Here is one version of his fictitious claims on his stolen car and contents: “I lost £26,000 through that theft…… “I put my magazines in a sack and was carrying it to the Post Office counter when 2 yobboes jumped in the car and sped off the boot still up. … it had absolutely everything of mine in it, including a laptop computer with new big book on it – nine years’ work! There were telescopes – an unopened Nikon and an Optolyth made specially for me – 2 pairs of Leica binoculars, cameras…but the biggest problem was that I lost the whole stock of a new book (Rare Birds of Norfolk) – £60,000 (sic) worth which I had to pay for in 90 days. It was all burnt.” “They drove my car into a sign called The Lee, which has got a picture of a little Firecrest on a wooden plinth next to it, and they stoked underneath the vehicle with my books and set fire to it. The police identified the car from the engine number and from the remains of my books flying around in the wind”. He also claimed “Unfortunately, because the keys were inside the vehicle when it was stolen, the insurance company refused to pay out and in total I lost in the region of £36,000.”

George is a one man band who makes decisions on what goes on the list based on what advantage it will give him over his close rivals (e.g. Scillies Amur Wagtail, Bicknell’s Thrush, etc). There have been occasions where George has claimed that he had spoken to one of his “UK400 listed advisors” but the “advisor” knew nothing about it. Some were not aware they were a UK400 advisor! Also “the ultimate decision is mine” and that he has “gone against” the advisor’s decision. “Being a one-man band, it is clear that I am going to upset people with my decisions”. Yes a one man band with no committee. Regarding George’s taxonomic decisions Alex Lees had a go with George here.

Although George pretends to be a top twitcher, on important megas especially on islands, he does not always go or takes a slow travel option, unlike his rivals. So he has missed many key island birds. Quite a number he has caught up with at a later date but some he still needs (e.g. Eastern Kingbird, Thick-billed Warbler, Brown-headed Cowbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Magnolia Warbler, Caspian Plover, Purple Martin). In an attempt not to get left behind the big listers, he pads his list out with birds that are not what he claims them to be (e.g. Scilly Isles Amur Wagtail, Bicknell’s Thrush, etc). When he does year lists, other than his guided tours, he does not twitch Scotland that much.

George has cheated in so many ways that to mention them all would make this post far too long so below are just a few examples.

Mobile conversation: “Where are you?”. George replies: “Watching the Arctic Redpoll at Titchwell. “Any luck?” “Yes, good views”. However, frustration and a lapse, lead to a second call, just 1 hour later, to the same birder: “Where the hell is this frug duck. I can’t find it”. “Hang on, I thought you were at Titchwell”. “Forget that, I’m at Minsmere”. Note it typically takes over 2 hours to get from Titchwell to Minsmere. “What happened to the Arctic Redpoll?” Silence. Then: “Which pool was the frug duck on?”.

If George misses a bird on site sometimes he would wander off on his own and claim it e.g. Rustic Bunting. Sometimes he would shout out I got it (e.g. Hume’s, Dusky Warbler). However, before anyone arrives, the bird conveniently disappears into a back garden or flies off into the distant.

Sometimes George would ring another birder saying he was watching the bird (e.g. Sardinian Warbler, Broad-billed Sandpiper). However George was not there unlike the recipient of the call.

George would also ring someone on site watching the bird saying he was on his way e.g. “I’m near Exeter on the A30 I should be there in an hour and a half “. Word would get out that George was on his way. However sometimes George would not arrive. Days later George would claim he saw the bird on the day of the call. If challenged he would make some cock and bull story up to cover himself.

Often birders would ring George and he would claim he was watching a rare bird. Then suddenly on the phone there would be a noise that gave the game away e.g. a market trader shouting “two for the price of one”. George has been and maybe still is a market trader.

George use to put an advertisement on the pager “lift offered to … phone me now on… “ Quite often over many months especially on week days, birders would ring the number immediately and there would be no reply even if they rang more than once. Then the birder(s) would go to see the bird and stay until dusk but George never appeared. A great way to get a bird on your list without going for it.

Another trick especially used on day birds is to get a good cover story by getting a huge amount of detail on the bird and location. Then days later George would claim it (e.g. 1991 Grey-headed Gull) giving out the collected bird information.

George claimed the 1984 Shetland Needle-tailed Swift on a specific day but he was spotted elsewhere. He also told another person that he was on a direct flight to Shetland from London which was not possible. In 1988 a Pallas’s Rosefinch turned up. It was thought to be a first for Britain so many listers went straight away to see it. However George decided instead to go for a Needle-tailed, supposedly a year tick on the Isle of Hoy, and then to North Ronaldsay for the rosefinch lifer.

Sometimes George will claim a bird that had been suppressed at the time (e.g. 1997 Isle of May Lesser Grey Shrike). George has also gone through county list records (e.g. Herts) and then claimed birds that he did not see. However unknown to George: it was only seen by the original finder or a few people; believed to have been strung; the bird did not stay, etc.

Another trick is to claim birds on a private or secret site. It does not really matter if the bird existed or not. For example, pre-2005 Goshawk sighting in Herts, where no other birder saw them. This has been documented here along with other cheating on his Herts list

Sometimes George will give a fictitious list of witness names to a claimed bird. George claims the 1979 Ruppell’s Warbler on the Devon Bird Club’s annual trip to Lundy on the Oldenburg. However, George has given a different story of travelling on a chartered small boat and giving a list of witnesses. However they say this event did not occur. When tackled on this, George has given a new list of witnesses who also said this event never occurred. Another old Hitler video, this time on the Lundy Ruppell’s Warbler can be found here which is mixture of facts and fiction.

Old information not on this site can be found on the extensive ex-website “The Truth on LGRE”. To get to this information one must go via an archive site. Go to http://archive.org/web and type the following into the  box http://www.webbsteve.freeserve.co.uk then press BROWSE HISTORY, & select the 2008, 2006, 2003 versions. This freeserve site cannot be accessed directly!!

Here are 4 Hitler videos on George which are based on facts and fiction: The biggest list of all time, I got the biggest of all time, At all costs I will stay in the top 10, I need the Lundy Ruppell’s Warbler. 

Here are 2 general videos on George: TWITCHERS for BBC, Twitchers A Very British Obsession. However this last video is rather long and some of the best quotes can be found on Of Pies and Birds post.