ZooChat Big Year 2020

Unspecified location in the Dandenong ranges

Mammals

7. Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Birds

61. Australian King Parrot
62. Tree Martin
63. Diamond Dove (yes they do occur here I checked)
64. White Throated Treecreeper
 
Yoshistar888 said:
More birds in the Dandenongz

Birds

65. Grey Fantail
66. Olive Whistler
67. Spotted Pardalote
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Firstly more birds and secondly I made an error, it should be 71- 77 instead of repeating birds in the 60’s.

78. Striated Pardalote
79 Yellow Thornbill
80. Brown Treecreeper.
 
A walk in Morden to see the Yellow-browed warbler who has been lurking along the Wandle (for anyone in London, it is very confiding and easily seen). Picked up a few others along the way.

Birds

57. Egyptian goose
58. Eurasian teal
59. Stock dove
60. Jackdaw
61. Common kingfisher
62. Little egret
63. Yellow-browed warbler (!)
64. Common chiffchaff
64a. Siberian chiffchaff (seems to be frequently treated as separate species now)
65. Common firecrest
66. Grey wagtail
 
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Hix said:
Birds
53. Yellow-faced Honeyeater
54. Brown Thornbill
55. Rufous Whistler
56. Pied Currawong
57. Eastern Yellow Robin
58. White-throated Treecreeper
59. Scarlet Robin

Mammals
4. Red-necked Wallaby

Reptiles
2. Eastern Blue-tongue Lizard

:p

Hix
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Birds
60. Yellow-rumped Thornbill
61. Varied Sittella
62. Gang-gang Cockatoo
63. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
64. White-eared Honeyeater
65. Grey Shrike-thrush
66. Silver Gull
67. Great Cormorant
68. Pied Cormorant
69. Musk Lorikeet
70. Red Wattlebird
71. Scarlet Honeyeater
72. Eastern Whipbird
73. Golden Whistler

Mammals
5. Grey-headed Flying Fox
6. Swamp Wallaby
7. Echidna

Reptiles
3. Eastern Water Skink
4. White's Skink
5. Garden Skink

:p

Hix
 
Dannelboyz said:
A walk in Wirrawilla Rainforest, Toolangi, followed by some spotlighting at Badger Weir. A lot of birds heard... not so many seen. But some good mammals: 22 Greater Gliders and tons of microbats, including White-striped Free-tailed Bats and probable Chocolate Wattled Bats (though I can't be confident of ID). Common Wombat, Common Brushtail Possum, Common Ringtail Possum, Sugar Glider, Swamp Wallaby, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Grey-headed Flying-fox were also seen while spotlighting or on the roadside as I drove home.

MAMMALS
13 - Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)
14 - Southern Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)
15 - Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)

BIRDS
-- Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) [heard]
158 - Satin Flycatcher (Myiagra cyanoleuca)
159 - Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons)
-- Crescent Honeyeater (Phylidonyris pyrrhopterus) [heard]
-- Red-browed Treecreeper (Climacteris erythrops) [heard]
-- Greater Sooty Owl (Tyto tenebricosa) [heard]
-- Australian Boobook (Ninox boobook) [heard]
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162 and on are from the Western Treatment Plant today, while the pardalote and gang-gang are incidentals from earlier this week. Curious on thoughts regarding counting Orange-bellied Parrots for the ZooChat Big Year? I did count them last year as the birds were seen in their natural wintering grounds, but even this is debatable because at least two or three of the four turned out to be captive-born (the others I couldn't get band IDs on). This year I saw five birds all in Victoria when they would naturally be in Tasmania. I'm getting info on the bands now, but they're almost certainly captive-born for this reason. I only raise this because they seem to be a weird exception amongst birders here, where most people tick them despite the fact that the population is not self-sustaining. I'm inclined to count them because the experience of finding them is quite a thrill given their rarity, but I also recognise that it might offend the birding sticklers.

BIRDS
160 - Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus)
161 - Gang-gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum)
162 - Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
163 - Musk Duck (Biziura lobata)
164 - Singing Honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens)
165 - Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes)
166 - Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
167 - Banded Stilt (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus)
168 - Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)
-- Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) [captive-born]
169 - Brolga (Grus rubicunda)
170 - Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
171 - White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus)
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Unspecified location in the Dandenong ranges

Mammals

7. Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Birds

61. Australian King Parrot
62. Tree Martin
63. Diamond Dove (yes they do occur here I checked)
64. White Throated Treecreeper
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What is your source, and are you confident on ID? Diamond Doves are practically vagrants to the state (no eBird records yet this year) and when they are recorded here, it's pretty strictly in mallee or dry woodland rather than wet forest.

Chlidonias said:
You've missed a number (you already had #13 as Common Wombat), so you should be on 16?
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Right thanks for that!
 
Despite the efforts of Storm Dennis (not too bad round here, but put a nix on any longer journeys), I did manage to make some local excursions this weekend to keep things ticking over - all the below are from different sites - Linacre Reservoir, Beeley Moor, Carsington Reservoir and Flash Lane (Darwin Forest) respectively. The Jack Snipe at Carsington evaded me for yet a third time...

Birds:
106. Eurasian Treecreeper - Certhia familiaris
107. Meadow Pipit - Anthus pratensis
108. Lesser Redpoll - Acanthis flammea
109. Common Crossbill - Loxia curvirostra

:)
 
Dannelboyz said:
What is your source, and are you confident on ID? Diamond Doves are practically vagrants to the state (no eBird records yet this year) and when they are recorded here, it's pretty strictly in mallee or dry woodland rather than wet forest.

Right thanks for that!
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Threatened fauna Yarra Ranges Shire

If I’m going to be honest I’m not confident that it’s a diamond dove but I am certain that it wasn’t a spotted dove, feral pigeon, Bronzewing or crested pigeon.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Threatened fauna Yarra Ranges Shire

If I’m going to be honest I’m not confident that it’s a diamond dove but I am certain that it wasn’t a spotted dove, feral pigeon, Bronzewing or crested pigeon.
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I think the listing on that site may be due to one or two records in 2009, which were seen within suburban wetlands on the western edge of the shire. I find it incredibly hard to believe they'd be seen in the ranges themselves.

For reference, Diamond Dove is about a third the size of all those species. Size can be misleading in the field, but I would think the size difference would be noticeable. Diamond Dove and Peaceful Dove have both been seen in Melbourne, but tend to be restricted to drier habitats. Found in wet forest, I could only see them being escaped birds.

If the size was closer to a Spotted Dove, then I do know of some recent reports of escaped African Collared-Dove in Nar Nar Goon, which is not too far away? Really depends on what you saw though.
 
Dannelboyz said:
I think the listing on that site may be due to one or two records in 2009, which were seen within suburban wetlands on the western edge of the shire. I find it incredibly hard to believe they'd be seen in the ranges themselves.

For reference, Diamond Dove is about a third the size of all those species. Size can be misleading in the field, but I would think the size difference would be noticeable. Diamond Dove and Peaceful Dove have both been seen in Melbourne, but tend to be restricted to drier habitats. Found in wet forest, I could only see them being escaped birds.

If the size was closer to a Spotted Dove, then I do know of some recent reports of escaped African Collared-Dove in Nar Nar Goon, which is not too far away? Really depends on what you saw though.
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no it was smaller than a spotted dove. After looking through and checking range distributions it’s definitely a peaceful dove. The Australian Bird Guide says that peaceful doves like wet forest and are sparsely populated in Arid Areas.
 
An update from three countries this time. The pigeon and parakeet are from Germany and the birds after number 117 are from Belgium, with the remainder from the Netherlands (from several locations).

As @Vision keeps going to the Netherlands for birding, I thought it was a good idea for me to go birding in Belgium for a change. I was actually visiting a friend, but he is a birder too so that worked out okay. We went to the IJzervallei (a surprisingly good birding location), toured around the countryside looking for Cattle Egrets and visited an birding site near Gent on our way back (where storm Dennnis made birding especially hard). However, it turns out that most wintering birds in Belgium are the same as in the Netherlands (what a surprise!), so I didn't get that many additions. However, we did find multiple early spring migrants that have not reached the Netherlands in large numbers yet.

Birds
110. Yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella
111. European Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis
112. Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocoptes medius
113. Little Owl, Athene noctua
114. European Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola
115. Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri
116. Feral Pigeon, Columba livia
117. Brambling, Fringilla montifringilla
118. Common Firecrest, Regulus ingicapilla
119. Western Marsh Harrier, Circus aeruginosus
120. Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus
121. Grey Wagtail, Motacilla cinerea
122. European Golden Plover, Pluvialis apricaria
123. Common Ringed Plover, Charadrius hiaticula
124. Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Passer montanus
125. Common Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita
126. White Wagtail, Motacilla alba
127. Western Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis

Mammals
9. European Rabbit, Oryctolagus cunniculus

Herptiles
1. Smooth Newt, Lissotriton vulgaris

Invertebrates
4. Common Woodlouse, Oniscus asellus
5. Common Striped Woodlouse, Philoscia muscorum
 
Yoshistar888 said:
no it was smaller than a spotted dove. After looking through and checking range distributions it’s definitely a peaceful dove. The Australian Bird Guide says that peaceful doves like wet forest and are sparsely populated in Arid Areas.
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Within Victoria, that's not really the case. If you draw a line from Little Desert to Daylesford (south of Bendigo) and then from Daylesford to Wodonga, that's the southern edge of their range here, and they're quite abundant in the drier woodland north of this line. They do get reported in Melbourne and occasionally East Gippsland, but they're essentially absent from the Great Dividing Range this far south. Did you hear it call at all?
 
Dannelboyz said:
Within Victoria, that's not really the case. If you draw a line from Little Desert to Daylesford (south of Bendigo) and then from Daylesford to Wodonga, that's the southern edge of their range here, and they're quite abundant in the drier woodland north of this line. They do get reported in Melbourne and occasionally East Gippsland, but they're essentially absent from the Great Dividing Range this far south. Did you hear it call at all?
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No I didn’t hear it call.
 
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