Invertebrates
38 St Mark’s Fly Bibio Marci
39 crab spider Ozyptila trux
38 St Mark’s Fly Bibio Marci
39 crab spider Ozyptila trux
Zoochat Big Year 2022
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
Birds
138. Palm Warbler Setophaga palmarum
139. Purple Finch Haemorhous purpureus
140. House Wren Troglodytes aedon
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A 'dirty twitch' as some of my Wormwood Scrubs patch friends would say for the female black-winged stilt this evening in Buckinghamshire, near Bletchley. Astonishing that a bird like that can turn up in a small man-made pond in a housing estate behind an Asda, but that is the joy of birding.
131. Black-winged stilt
132. House martin
More returning migrants plus a rare Long-tailed Duck who decided to visit a pond in town.
Birds:
155 Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum
156 Baltimore Oriole - Icterus galbula
157 Pectoral Sandpiper - Calidris melanotos
158 Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla
159 Wilson's Phalarope - Phalaropus tricolor
160 Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus
161 House Wren - Troglodytes aedon
162 Snowy Plover - Charadrius nivosus
163 Marbled Godwit - Limosa fedoa
164 Forster's Tern - Sterna forsteri
165 White-faced Ibis - Plegadis chihi
166 Bank Swallow - Riparia riparia
167 Vesper Sparrow - Pooecetes gramineus
168 Long-tailed Duck - Clangula hyemalis
169 Grasshopper Sparrow - Ammodramus savannarum
170 Clay-colored Sparrow - Spizella pallida
171 Dickcissel - Spiza americana
172 Mississippi Kite - Ictinia mississippiensis
173 Chimney Swift - Chaetura pelagica
Reptiles:
3 Spiny Softshell Turtle - Apalone spinifera
a faild etapet to go and twich an american wigeon. they bird was sean yesdyerday. but today only one person might have sean it fly by. it was a big dipp
130 common greenshank Tringa nebularia
131 eurasian wryneck Jynx torquilla
132 common chifchat Phylloscopus collybita
130 common greenshank Tringa nebularia
131 eurasian wryneck Jynx torquilla
132 common chifchat Phylloscopus collybita
Mammals
6 Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus
6 Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus
Birds
143. Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius
144. Blue-headed Vireo Vireo solitarius
145. Swamp Sparrow Melospiza georgiana
146. Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus
A few more birds to report...
A small walk at Beddington found a single common sandpiper feeding on the wet grassland. Then this morning, a trip to Rainham Marshes, in glorious summer weather, was extremely successful, especially for a group of 12 bar tailed godwit, a few of which were males in stonking summer plumage, and a family party of bearded tits with their young.
133. Common sandpiper
134. Bearded tit
135. Eurasian hobby
136. Common greenshank
137. Bar-tailed godwit
138. Common cuckoo
139. Common swift
I fly to Copenhagen on Tuesday, so hope to have a few additions from Denmark.
4/27/22
Invertebrates:
11. Clover Mite (Bryobia praetiosa)
Total:
Mammals: 3
Birds: 48
Reptiles: 1
Invertebrates: 11
Mammals
25. House Mouse (Mus musculus)
Birds
155. Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)
156. House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
157. Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
158. Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
159. Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
160. Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Mammals: 25
Birds: 160
Reptiles: 12
Amphibians: 1
Fish: 3
Invertebrates: 2
74) White-winged Black Tern Chlidonias leucopterus
The WWBT which had originally been seen at Waikanae at the end of March (along with the Little Tern in the above quote) has reappeared over the last few days, and yet another rare tern was spotted there at the same time - an Arctic Tern. I headed up there this morning. There was a huge flock of White-fronted Terns roosting on the sandspit, maybe a thousand of them. I spent an hour and a half searching through them repeatedly with my binoculars, trying to find the Arctic Tern (which would have been a lifer). As with the Common Tern from a couple of months ago, a non-breeding or juvenile Arctic Tern is quite similar to a White-fronted Tern. It is smaller, with a shorter bill and red legs, but trying to pick it out of a thousand similar terns probably isn't easy. The flock also kept getting reshuffled as people and dogs spooked them. It's possible the Arctic Tern was in the flock and I just missed it, or it may have been out fishing or moved somewhere else along the coast.
I did see the White-winged Black Tern however, which is the eighth species of tern I have seen this year.
In my garden:
Birds:
26. Ficedula albicollis
Cycle trip with a friend - the original aim was geocaching, but I watched wildlife instead
Mammals:
3. Capreolus capreolus
Birds:
27. Alauda arvensis
28. Upupa epops
29. Sturnus vulgaris
30. Circus aeroginosus
Herps:
1. Podarcis muralis
Birds:
26. Ficedula albicollis
Cycle trip with a friend - the original aim was geocaching, but I watched wildlife instead
Mammals:
3. Capreolus capreolus
Birds:
27. Alauda arvensis
28. Upupa epops
29. Sturnus vulgaris
30. Circus aeroginosus
Herps:
1. Podarcis muralis
Squirrel seen on my way to work a couple days ago. Pretty late for my first squirrel this year. Also went out on a NABU excursion for fire salamander in Wuppertal on friday. Found heaps of larvae but no adults as it's been very dry. But at least I have a spot to look for 'em now if/when there's rain again. (Gonna wait for an adult to put them on the list.) The pipit was found in the morning about a half hour away from where I live so my quiet day in turned into a 3 hour waiting game at a lake in DU-Rheinhausen Homberg/Beeckerwerth. Got good prolonged views once the other birders had given up (They told me not to tell them if I got lucky, so of course I put it up on the whatsapp group chat immediately
).Mammals
19. Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Birds
30. Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)
Birds
147. Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes
148. Dunlin Calidris alpina
149. Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla
150. Wilson's Phalarope Phalaropus tricolor
151. Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos
152. Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla
153. Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii
154. Northern Waterthrush Parkesia noveboracensis
155. Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus
5/1/22
Invertebrates:
12. Triangulate Cobweb Spider (Steatoda triangulosa)
Total:
Mammals: 3
Birds: 48
Reptiles: 1
Invertebrates: 12
Our unseasonably warm and dry weather promptly came to a close a couple days ago and turned to unseasonably cold, with unusually late freezing weather and cold storms. A particularly cold and low lying storm moved into my area yesterday through overnight, the result of which was a migrant fallout at the upper end of the valley where I am. While I was not able to go chase the various unusual shorebirds that dropped in (maybe tomorrow though, we'll see!) I was able to get out for awhile around the neighborhood in the late afternoon after the storm cleared off some, with excellent results! In the period of about two and a half hours I managed to pick up 49 species in all, not bad indeed! Many more unusual species turned up, most notably a Common Loon decked out in full breeding plumage. The star of the afternoon however was unquestionably the hummingbirds, with our many bottlebrushes in full bloom some thirty to forty of the birds were actively feeding and squabbling in close quarters. One almost needed safety glasses to walk through the area, I nearly got hit more than once as they squabbled. Not much beats sitting and having dozens of hummingbirds feeding and darting all around you without the birds caring less.
Birds:
81. Cassin's Vireo (Vireo cassini)
82. Common Loon (Gavia immer)
83. Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata)
Reptiles:
5. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans)
6. Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
7-83-6-0-0-17
The last two weeks have been rather good for birding, with cold storms dropping various migrants. The weather cleared off a few days ago and the birds continue to be on the move. I wandered outside late this afternoon for no particular reason and presently heard what I was pretty sure was a Lazuli Bunting singing. After some annoyance of the bird changing positions several times I finally spotted him, sitting on the edge of an oak tree. I popped back inside to get my camera (as male Lazuli Buntings are worth any photo op one can get) but on returning he had vanished. Slightly grumbly over his disappearance, I took a scan of the pond across the way and turned up what appeared to be a Spotted Sandpiper and a Semipalmated Plover on the far bank. Both are nearly unheard of on the neighborhood pond, and the interest was piqued. I turned around to find a Chipping Sparrow a dozen feet away, another species I don't see too often. At that point it was game on, and in two hours I found 53 species of bird, plus a mammal, three reptiles, a fish, and a nice handful of invertebrates. A total of six year birds was quite a nice haul, along with a nice highlight of an Osprey catching a sunfish. The sunfish was flailing wildly upon just being caught, and the Osprey almost lost his dinner, but managed to keep ahold of it. Lots of breeding activity going on; Bushtits, scrub-jays, and Canada Geese on nests, heron chicks noisily begging at their rookery, and a Killdeer chick masquerading as a Semipalmated Plover. The little guy was cute, but kind of annoying when I looked at the long-range photos and realized it wasn't a Semipalmated. All in all though a very nice evening's worth of birding indeed.
Birds:
84. Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)
85. Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus)
86. Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
87. American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana)
88. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
89. Wilson’s Warbler (Cardellina wilsonia)
90. Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens)
91. Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis)
92. Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
93. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
94. Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena)
95. Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
96. Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
97. Black-throated Gray Warbler (Setophaga nigrescens)
98. Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)
99. Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus cucullatus)
Fish:
1. Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) -- I believe this counts as I saw the fish still alive and flailing despite being in an Osprey's talons, if not let me know
Invertebrates:
18. Western Yellowjacket (Vespula hesperis)
19. Pacific Orangetip (Anthocharis sara)
20. “California Black Millipede" (Paemeropus angusticeps)
7-99-6-0-1-20
A few additions from the bank holiday weekend. Spent Saturday pottering around Nottinghamshire, picking up new summer migrants and some good early-season inverts between Staunton Quarry, Langford Lowfields and Idle Valley - as well as one of the latter's naturalised amphibian residents. Plus, a bonus mammal spotted on a night out.
Birds:
151. Eurasian Hobby - Falco subbuteo
152. Sedge Warbler - Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
153. Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia curruca
154. Eurasian Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus scirpaceus
155. Common Tern - Sterna hirundo
Mammals:
22. West European Hedgehog - Erinaceus europaeus
Amphibians:
4. Marsh Frog - Pelophylax ridibundus
Invertebrates:
21. Cinnabar Moth - Tyria jacobaea
22. Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula
23. Common Purple-and-Gold (Mint Moth) - Pyrausta purpuralis
24. Dark-edged Beefly - Bombylius major
25. Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus malvae
26. Green Dock Beetle - Gastrophysa viridula
27. Red-headed Cardinal Beetle - Pyrochroa serraticornis
Birds:
151. Eurasian Hobby - Falco subbuteo
152. Sedge Warbler - Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
153. Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia curruca
154. Eurasian Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus scirpaceus
155. Common Tern - Sterna hirundo
Mammals:
22. West European Hedgehog - Erinaceus europaeus
Amphibians:
4. Marsh Frog - Pelophylax ridibundus
Invertebrates:
21. Cinnabar Moth - Tyria jacobaea
22. Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula
23. Common Purple-and-Gold (Mint Moth) - Pyrausta purpuralis
24. Dark-edged Beefly - Bombylius major
25. Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus malvae
26. Green Dock Beetle - Gastrophysa viridula
27. Red-headed Cardinal Beetle - Pyrochroa serraticornis
Birds
117 Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
117 Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
Birds:
86. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Invertebrates:
15. Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis)
16. Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens)
17. Eastern Bumblebee (Xylocopa virginica)
18. Spongy Moth (Lymantria dispar)
19. Green June Beetle (Cotinis nitida)
Mammals: 9
Birds: 86
Herptiles : 12
Fish: 10
Invertebrates: 19
Total: 136