ZooChat Big Year 2018

Catch-up post alert - the below includes an August (!) trip to Formby, where I saw my first English wild red squirrels, an introduced and a reintroduced species from Belgium, a nearby phalarope excursion to Old Moor and the additions from my regular September Bridlington birding boat trip. I'm even more behind on inverts so a catch-up on them will follow at a later date!

Mammals:
26. European Red Squirrel - Sciurus vulgaris

Birds:
201. White Stork - Ciconia ciconia
202. Ring-necked Parakeet - Psittacula krameri
203. Grey Phalarope - Phalaropus fulicarius
204. Purple Sandpiper - Calidris maritima
205. Red-throated Diver - Gavia stellata
206. Pomarine Skua - Stercorarius pomarinus
207. Great Skua - Stercorarius skua
208. Sooty Shearwater - Puffinus griseus
209. Manx Shearwater - Puffinus puffinus

(UK-only: 202)

Fishes:
4. Common Carp - Cyprinus carpio

:)
 
akasha said:
172. Superb Lyrebird
173. Grey-crowned Babbler
174. Eastern Whipbird
175. Masked Woodswallow
176. White-browed Woodswallow
177. Crested Shrike-tit
178. Golden Whistler
179. Olive-backed Oriole
180. Rufous Songlark
181. Diamond Firetail
Click to expand...
182. Rufous Fantail
183. Australian Brushturkey
184. Topknot Pigeon
185. Grey Goshawk
186. Green Catbird
187. Regent Bowerbird
188. Lewin's Honeyeater
189. Yellow-throated Scrubwren
190. Large-billed Scrubwren
191. Brown Gerygone
192. Australian Logrunner
193. Cattle Egret
194. Striated Heron
195. Variegated Fairywren
196. Scarlet Honeyeater
197. Brown Honeyeater
198. Leaden Flycatcher
199. Torresian Crow
200. Sooty Oystercatcher
201. Crested Tern
202. Osprey
203. Brahminy Kite
204. White-cheeked Honeyeater
205. Buff-banded Rail
206. Tawny Grassbird
207. Spotted Dove
 
A great day of seawatching and birding near the coast together with @KevinVar was very succesful, and brought us a lot of very nice birds, including at least 8 (probably more) of these wonderful warblers:

BIRDS:
318) Yellow-browed warbler, Phylloscopus inornatus

INVERTS:
74) Two-spot ladybeetle, Adalia bipunctata
 
animal_expert01 said:
Birds:
82. Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae)
83. Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides)
84. Suburb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus)
85. Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans)
86. Red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata)
87. Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)
88. Collared Sparrowhawk (Accipiter cirrocephalus)
89. Little Raven (Corvus mellori)
90. Flame Robin (Petroica phoenicea)
91. Blackbird (Turdus merula)
92. Spotted Pardolotte (Pardalotus punctatus)

Mammals:
9. Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)
Click to expand...
93. Yellow-Billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes)
 
I found my first new bird since august.

Birds
252. Merlin [Falco columbarius]

Also worth noting, I saw two American vagrants this year (The Buff-breasted sandpiper and the Bufflehead) and both are accepted by the authorities as being true vagrants instead of escapees.
 
Couple of new additions from RSPB Burton Mere on Sunday morning (before spending the afternoon at Chester for a friend's first adopter day!).

Birds:
210. Curlew Sandpiper - Calidris ferruginea

(UK: 203)

Mammals:
27. Stoat - Mustela erminea

:)
 
Zoo Tycooner FR said:
And I thought I was finished! While looking back at my pictures, I noticed that one of the sandpiper-like creature flying that were identified as Green sandpipers was way larger than the others and had a very distinctive orange head. Turns out that it was another lifer and a species I've always wanted to see: a Ruff!

BIRDS:
108 - Ruff, Philomachus pugnax
Click to expand...

Visited Oued Souss for the fourth time in a row (observing waders has really become an obsession! :p ) and got the first addition of October. One of these in a group of hundreds of black-headed and yellow-legged gulls along with a few Slender-billed gulls:

BIRDS:
*108 - Mediterranean gull, Ichthyaetus melanocephalus

*(While checking back my list, I noticed I made a mistake, I'm not confident enough of my identification of Bonelli's warbler [number 39 in the list) and have decided to remove it as I do not have a picture to try and identify it again either so for now I'm on 108 birds, not 109)
 
Mammals
1. Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus)
2. Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
3. Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus)
4. Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
5. Whiptail Wallaby (Macropus parryi)
6. House Mouse (Mus musculus)
7. Brown Rat
8. Black Rat
9. Dingo
10. Hare
11. Feral Pig
12. Common Bottlenose Dolphin
13. Humpback Whale
14. Platypus
15. Grey Headed Flying Fox
 
Last edited:
Najade said:
Seen on the way to work just bathing in a puddle on the side of the road.

Birds (non-passerines)
339. Buff-banded Rail
Click to expand...
Back in Broome:

Birds (non-passerines)
340. Pied Cormorant
341. Red-capped Plover
342. Ruddy Turnstone
343. Common Sandpiper
344. Terek Sandpiper
345. Common Greenshank
 
Another two good days at the coast got me a few good sightings of new birds, but also a quite interesting line-up of insects, some of which (very) rare:

INVERTS:
75) Dock bug, Coreus marginatus
76) Mottled shieldbug, Rhaphigaster nebulosa
77) Ruby tiger, Phragmatobia fuliginosa
78) Vagrant emperor, Anax ephippiger
79) Wall brown, Lasiommata megera
 
Maguari said:
Catch-up post alert - the below includes an August (!) trip to Formby, where I saw my first English wild red squirrels,
Mammals:
26. European Red Squirrel - Sciurus vulgaris

:)
Click to expand...
There's some suggestion the Formby ones came originally as pets obtained from Europe that were released, so are/may not be the British race. Is that why you didn't add a subspecies tag at the end?
 
Pertinax said:
There's some suggestion the Formby ones came originally as pets obtained from Europe that were released, so are/may not be the British race. Is that why you didn't add a subspecies tag at the end?
Click to expand...

I don't list subspecies for anything in this thread, as it's a species-based list. I've listed them as leucourus on my own list, as with the Scottish animals I've seen - I've not read of any other origin of the Formby squirrels before. Do you have a link?
 
Maguari said:
I don't list subspecies for anything in this thread, as it's a species-based list. I've listed them as leucourus on my own list, as with the Scottish animals I've seen - I've not read of any other origin of the Formby squirrels before. Do you have a link?
Click to expand...
Sorry, can't remember where I read that but certainly did.
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
A very good species indeed! How many did you see? Is it a population or just a couple of individuals?
Click to expand...
We (me and two friends who are a lot more knowledgeable about insects than I am) only saw one, but yesterday at least three of them were seen on the Belgian coast. Today was very interesting though, with people reporting up to 6 individuals in one location! Definitely not a population though, just vagrants passing through/wandering.
 
Finally adding some birds again after being stuck in the English countryside for a while.

170. Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis)
171. Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra)
172. Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata)
173. Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)
174. Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus)
175. Merlin (Falco columbarius)
176. Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)
177. Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)
178. Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
179. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
180. European Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top