ZooChat Big Year 2020

Shrikes are among my favorite birds and when a rare species is found somewhat nearby I usually try to find it. The Lesser Grey Shrike that turned up last week however was a bit further away, and driving an hour to twitch single bird is a bit much for me (not all of us are as enthusiastic about twitching as @Vision is!). But about a week after it was discovered I had to be in the area anyway and I couldn't resist trying to see it. I got great views of the shrike and I was very happy to add another shrike to my life list!

Birds
225. Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax
226. Lesser Grey Shrike, Lanius minor

Invertebrates
174. Lestes virens
175. Southern Emerald Damselfly, Lestes barbarus
176. Villa hottentotta
177. German Wasp, Vespula germanica
178. Dicranopalpus ramosus
179. Small China-mark, Cataclysta lemnata
180. Agriphila tristella
181. T-moth, Emmelina monodactyla
182. Burnished Brass, Diachrysia chrysitis
183. Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui
184. Black-kneed Capsid, Blepharidopterus angulatus
185. Willow Emerald Damselfly, Chalcolestes viridis
186. Eremocoris fenestratus
187. Flounced Rustic, Luperina testacea
188. Snout, Hypena proboscidalis
189. Tipula paludosa
190. Tipula confusa
191. European Paper Wasp, Polistes dominula
 
I love reading the little stories everybody is writing about their explorations, especially since I’m cooped up at home.
 
Dannelboyz said:
It's been known for some time that Tasmanian boobooks occasionally show up in southern Victoria. These birds have yellow irises, higher pitched calls and darker, spottier plumage than mainland birds. Recently, it was even revealed that these Tasmanian birds are closer related to New Zealand moreporks than to Australian boobooks. As such, major taxonomies now treat Tasmanian boobooks as a subspecies of the Morepork, split from Australian Boobook.

Prior to 2015, it was assumed the morepork records in Victoria were of occasional vagrant birds rather than a large-scale migration. However, in mid-October 2015, a birder spotlighting at Cape Liptrap found large numbers of boobook-type birds feeding on the moths around the lighthouse. These all turned out to be Tasmanian birds. Since then, Tasmanian moreporks have been a regular sighting at Cape Liptrap in October, where they gather to feed before beginning their migration back to Tasmania. It is the only known location in mainland Australia to offer annual sightings of this species/subspecies and perhaps the only place where multiple individuals have ever been recorded.

I decided to try my luck visiting a little earlier than usual (they had previously been reported from about the second week in October) and was rewarded with eight excellent sightings of what I estimated to be about four different birds. Although not a species lifer (I have seen the species in Norfolk Island previously), it is a subspecies lifer and my 350th Victorian bird species!

BIRDS
282 - Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae)

MAMMALS
37 - European Fallow Deer (Dama dama)*

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@Yoshistar888 oops... I missed your post about the turtles... I don't have any particular tips for where to go around your area, but I recommend going in the middle of a warm, sunny day. That's when they're most likely to be basking on a log or sitting on the surface of the water.
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Some bloody rippers in the last week working around East Gippy! A couple of birds and a mammal I had only seen once before, plus two reptile lifers :) Admittedly, I've almost certainly seen a highlands copperhead before but I've never had a good enough view of the head.

BIRDS
283 - Pallid Cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus)
284 - Black-faced Monarch (Monarcha melanopsis)
285 - Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae)

MAMMALS
38 - Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus)

REPTILES
19 - White's Skink (Liopholis whitii)
20 - Swamp Skink (Lissolepis coventryi)
21 - Highlands Copperhead (Australeps ramsayi)
 
i dont like richards pitpit. for a second time in a month this rare species have bena close to me but not found. this time i was on a inland on the east cost locking for small siberian wablers and such. then we get a call from the ringing station on the iland that the pitpit had ben sean mingrating over the station. most likely the bird past men an my firends with out it making a sound. and we did not see any siberian
birds
296 red throated diver
 
Moonlit

Inverts

24. Orchard swallowtail Papilio aegeus
 
Drove to a Siberian rubythroat, arrived and got a White-throated sparrow in the same place instead! Both are about equally insane (they both only have one previous record in Belgium, neither of them twitchable), so the ringers that pulled both of these out of their nets within a few hours of each other must have gotten quite the rush. Unfortunately didn't get the rubythroat (nor did anyone after release), which would have been a lifer, whereas the sparrow wasn't, but something about seeing American passerines in Europe is still absolutely mind-boggling! Apparently the ringing station hasn't even ringed a single bunting since 2016, making this American one all the more crazy.

BIRDS:
272) White-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis

INVERTS:
155) Marsh crane fly, Tipula paludosa
 
Vision said:
Drove to a Siberian rubythroat, arrived and got a White-throated sparrow in the same place instead! Both are about equally insane (they both only have one previous record in Belgium, neither of them twitchable), so the ringers that pulled both of these out of their nets within a few hours of each other must have gotten quite the rush. Unfortunately didn't get the rubythroat (nor did anyone after release), which would have been a lifer, whereas the sparrow wasn't, but something about seeing American passerines in Europe is still absolutely mind-boggling! Apparently the ringing station hasn't even ringed a single bunting since 2016, making this American one all the more crazy.

BIRDS:
272) White-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis

INVERTS:
155) Marsh crane fly, Tipula paludosa
Click to expand...
For my perspective twitching a White-throated Sparrow sounds very silly. :p It isn't unusual for me to see over 50 in a single day in fall migration.
 
4/10/2020 pelagic trip with SOSSA out of Kiama
175. brown skua
176. fluttering shearwater
177. Hutton's shearwater
178. providence petrel
179. short- tailed shearwater
180. wedge -tailed shearwater
181. Wilson's storm-petrel
A full day on the water and not one albatross seen all day.
5/10/2020
182. bassian thrush
183. Brown cuckoo dove
184. Eastern koel
185. Eastern whipbird
6/10/2020
186. Australasian figbird
187. Australian brush-turkey
8/10/2020
188. black-faced monarch
189. brown gerygone
190. superb lyrebird
191. yellow-throated scrubwren
10/10/2020
192. channel-billed cuckoo
193. red-whiskered bulbul
11/10/2020
194. musk duck
195. white-naped honeyeater
196. white-eared honeyeater
.
The last three birds were seen at Tidbinbilla near Canberra.. While I was there I was lucky enough to see a platypus. My first wild platypus. While I don't keep a mammal list, I do keep a bucket list and seeing a wild platypus was high on that list. It would be in my top three mammals I want to see in the wild. The other two being killer whale and numbat.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Now identification on a mite I saw earlier in the day

106. Red Spider Mite (Tetranychus urticae)
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It's amazing that just ten minutes out in the backyard can produce some wonderful results apart from the big year stuff as well as some lifers and year list critters.

Invertebrates

107. Red Legged Earth Mite (Halotydeus destructor)
108. Common Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina)*
109. African Carder Bee (Afranthidium repetitium)*
110. Variegated Ladybug (Hippodamia variegata)*
111. Hylaeus philoleucus (from earlier in the year) (native bee)
112. Chaoilta hollowayi (icheumon wasp)
113. Common Cymbacha (Cymbacha ocellata) (crab spider)
 
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Yoshistar888 said:
It's amazing that just ten minutes out in the backyard can produce some wonderful results apart from the big year stuff as well as some lifers and year list critters.

Invertebrates

107. Red Legged Earth Mite (Halotydeus destructor)
108. Common Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina)*
109. African Carder Bee (Afranthidium repetitium)*
110. Variegated Ladybug (Hippodamia variegata)*
111. Hylaeus philoleucus (from earlier in the year) (native bee)
112. Chaoilta hollowayi (icheumon wasp)
113. Common Cymbacha (Cymbacha ocellata) (crab spider)
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Final identification excuse me for the language but this is the common name of this animal.

114. Faggot Case Moth (Clania ignobilis)

Also a bush cockroach from earlier in the year.

115. Austral Cockroach (ellipsidion australe)


I’ve also completely forgot a skink species I’ve seen all my life. I’ve been getting my skinks completely wrong this whole time, I can now confidently say that the skinks at Yarra bend were Delicate Skinks, the one at my house was a Garden Skink, the one at the Dandenongs a Weasel Skink, and the skinks at Banyle Flats were actually Metallic Skinks.

Reptiles

6. Metallic Skink (Niveoscincus metallicus)
 
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