Zoochat Big Year 2022

[BerdNerd]

5/25/22

Invertebrates:

14. Southern Masked Chafer (Cyclocephala lurida)

15. Asiatic Garden Beetle (Maladera formosae)

5/26/22


Invertebrates:

16. Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)


Total:

Mammals: 3
Birds: 49
Reptiles: 1
Amphibians: 1
Invertebrates: 16

 

[MRJ]

At the beginning of last year I had to take a couple of weeks off work because my excess annual leave had to be used up, so I went on a little birding trip around the top of the North Island.

The same thing has happened again and so this time I went in the opposite direction, to the South Island. I'm from the South Island but I have been living in Wellington for several years now, thanks to covid not allowing me to go overseas, and I haven't been back to the better island since 2017. The plan for this trip was to take the ferry across to Picton (at the top of the South Island) and then bus in stages down the east coast, go to Stewart Island (at the very bottom of New Zealand), and then head back up north again.

In the following account I have put all the year-birds and year-mammals in bold so that they are easy to see, but it doesn't signify them being lifers (the sole lifer was Orange-fronted Kakariki).


Surprisingly, despite the weather on my departure day being terrible the ferry wasn't cancelled. I managed my first addition to the year-list before even setting sail, with a Spotted Shag perched on a nearby wharf. I stayed on the less-rainy side of the ferry and, with the help of a seabird key I had drawn up the night before, managed to identify most of the birds I saw on the crossing of Cook Strait. No lifers, but most species were new for the year-list, including Common Diving Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Westland Black Petrel, Cape Petrel and Salvin's Albatross. A few New Zealand Fur Seals in the Marlborough Sounds went on the mammal list.

My main target for the whole trip was Orange-fronted Kakariki, one of the few mainland endemics I haven't seen yet. The last natural populations are in the mountain forests of two valleys in the Southern Alps, where I have looked unsuccessfully in years past. Since then they have been introduced to Blumine Island in the Marlborough Sounds, where they are doing well. Blumine Island is close to and technically easy to reach from Wellington, but the weather in Cook Strait is notoriously fickle and the chance of paying out for ferries and then having them cancelled meant I kept putting it off. With this trip, though, I could work it in at the start and if the weather messed up the first try then I could have a second chance on the way back north again.

Once I had dropped my pack at the hostel, I headed to the water taxi company I had been in contact with to see if I could confirm a ride for the next day. Blumine Island lacks a jetty (you jump off the boat and wade ashore) so getting onshore depends on the swell, which means that you can't get any definite answers too far in advance. Turned out the company had no boats going out the next day, despite advertising regular runs through the day, so if I wanted a boat I'd have to charter one which was much too expensive. I decided to ask at Eko-Tours instead. I knew they do take people to Blumine, but I also knew that they are just dropping you off on their way to Motuara Island and then picking you up on the way back, only giving you an hour or so there, which seemed a bit risky time-wise if you're paying quite a bit of money specifically to look for one bird. As luck would have it, they were taking some people to Motuara Island in ten minutes and they could drop me at Blumine. Excellent! The only problem was that my camera was back at the hostel because I had only gone down to the waterfront to check with the water taxi company for tomorrow. The lesson I never seem to learn - always take your camera with you!

It was a successful trip nonetheless, with amazing photo opportunities along the way of a roost of Spotted Shags and then a large group of NZ King Shags. Amazing photo opportunities if I'd had my camera, that is! On Blumine Island itself there were Weka (which I hadn't expected to add to the year list until I reached Stewart Island), and after not too long I found an Orange-fronted Kakariki. When I'd gone looking for them in the Hawdon Valley (in the Southern Alps) I had always been worried that I wouldn't be able to easily distinguish them from the Yellow-crowned Kakariki which are common there, but now having seen them they are actually a very different bird indeed.

The next day I had nothing much to do - this was the day I had planned for going to Blumine - so I took a walk around the hill tracks on the east side of town, where 95% of the birds seen were Waxeyes, big flocks of them. In the afternoon I tracked down the local White Heron which hangs out at the waterfront cafes. At least I got one year bird today.

After Picton I took a bus down to Christchurch. I was really just passing through on my way to Dunedin, but I had enough of a gap that afternoon to head out to the Pegasus Lakes where a vagrant Northern Shoveller had been reported recently. I spent ages trying to see shovellers resting around a reedy island, and waiting for birds to put their heads up to see if it was green or blue, but it was to no avail. I did add Mute Swan to the list, a rare bird in New Zealand where the wild population is centred around Lake Ellesmere but with scattered groups extending out through smaller waterways to Pegasus. Then I walked a few kilometres along the beach to the Ashley Estuary where the only new birds were some over-wintering Bar-tailed Godwits. There was no sign of the resident Black Stilt, although I did see two of his hybrid progeny.

The next morning I carried on to Dunedin. There was a half-hour stop in Oamaru which I used to make a rushed visit to see the aviaries at the botanic gardens. The gardens were further from the bus stop than expected, so it was a case of arriving, taking a couple of photos, and leaving immediately. In Dunedin I used the remainder of the afternoon to visit the Otago Museum, which I discovered has a Falklands Island Wolf on display, one of only nine known specimens!

The main reason I was stopping in Dunedin was to do a Monarch Wildlife Tour, which ran from 11am to 6pm, starting off with a drive around the peninsula's inlets and lagoons, then there was a boat trip in the harbour, and finally a visit to Penguin Place (a rehabilitation centre for local and vagrant penguins). It rained for literally the entire tour - and at the end when we got back from the peninsula to Dunedin there was no rain in the city and the streets were completely dry! The tour was great, despite the weather. There were Hooker's Sealions at Hooper's Inlet - too far away for proper photos, and sadly none were at Allan's Beach where photos would have been much more possible. From the boat trip on the harbour there were quite distant views of the colonies of Otago Shags and Northern Royal Albatrosses on the headland. On the water there were also a lot of Southern Buller's Albatrosses and various other tubenoses including a Northern Giant Petrel. Penguin Place was also great. Unfortunately I missed a couple of rescued Erect-crested Penguins by just a couple of weeks, but they still had several Yellow-eyed Penguins. Out in their reserve we also managed to see a couple of Australian Blue Penguins in a nest-box, and then a Yellow-eyed Penguin returning from the sea.

The next couple of days were non-year-bird-adding days, mostly involving getting from Dunedin to Invercargill and then Invercargill to Stewart Island. The ferry crossing from Bluff to Stewart Island was fine, but with precious few birds seen (only Southern Buller's Albatross and Sooty Shearwater). I was on Stewart Island for three days, only one of which had good weather. That one good day was (fortuitously) spent on Ulva Island where the birds were just everywhere. Flocks of birds in the trees, robins along every track; it gave a saddening impression of how amazing New Zealand's forests would have been before people came along and stripped them bare of life. Best moment of that day was coming across a large mixed flock of Yellow-crowned Kakariki, Brown Creepers, Yellowheads and Saddlebacks, a sight basically impossible to see anywhere else now because Yellowheads are vanishingly rare and Saddlebacks are extinct in mainland forests.

The only other year-bird added from Stewart Island was Foveaux Shag (the former "Stewart Island Shag" has been split between Otago Shag and Foveaux Shag, which look really similar but genetically are not as close as expected, with one of them being more closely related to the Chatham Island Shag than to the other one). There was always a small group on one of the rocky islets in the bay by town, but at a distance which meant the photos were more record-shot than anything - hopefully I can crop one into something useable. I did see a few others very close from boats but they always dived before I could get a photo, or the light was too low. Very frustrating.

I also didn't manage to find any kiwi. I spent hours out at night at Traill Park, a favoured kiwi-spotting area which officially is a rugby field but clearly is really a marshland turning into a swamp. The weather certainly didn't help! I skipped the final night because of hail. I've seen Stewart Island Kiwi before, about 15 years ago now, but it still would have been nice to see one again.

I had half a day in Invercargill, visiting Queens Park for the aviaries where I got hailed on twice, and then the nearby estuary where the weather alternated between storm and gale and I got hailed on a third time. It was pretty miserable.

Next was back to Oamaru, where the skies were clear. The Oamaru Backpackers were much further from the bus stop than it looked on the map, but fortunately very close to the harbour. From the window of my room I could see the Otago Shag colony on the old wharf! The wharf had three colonies spaced along its length, first Spotted Shags, then Red-billed Gulls, and finally Otago Shags. Naturally the ones I wanted to photograph were the furthest away, although still much closer than the colonies from the boat in Dunedin, and very much closer than the distant Foveaux Shags I'd photographed on Stewart Island. I think I might even be able to crop some half-decent images from these shots.

Oamaru is famous for its Little Blue Penguins. Most of the colony is behind a wall so you have to pay to see them when they come ashore at night. However they also come up at various other spots along the shore and I got good views of them for free (as it should be). Quite recently genetic studies showed that the New Zealand Blue Penguins and the Australian Blue Penguins are quite distinct, and that the populations in Otago are actually Australian birds which colonised a few hundred years ago. There (of course) is debate as to whether the genetic differences amount to them being separate species or not, but I split them on my lists.

After overnighting in Christchurch again (where I found a Brush-tailed Possum in Hagley Park), I caught the TranzAlpine train to Arthurs Pass in the Southern Alps mountain range. When I lived in Christchurch I used to come up here all the time. The train arrived at 10.50am; check-in at the Mountain House backpackers wasn't until 2pm and the place was locked up tight. So I walked up to the Otira Valley to look for birds. Luckily I'd left my main pack back at the hostel in Christchurch so didn't have much to carry. Unusually there hadn't been any Kea around the village, but as I started up the Otira I heard one calling and looked up to watch it fly overhead. Kea on the year list as bird number one hundred. I was keeping an eye out for Chamois, which I sometimes see up here, but no luck. Also no luck with the Rock Wrens, although I didn't go anywhere near as high as I usually would when looking for them on account of snow (it's an avalanche-prone area in the winter).

There are Great Spotted Kiwi around Arthurs Pass too, the one species of kiwi I haven't seen in the wild and my absolute Nemesis Bird. I've been looking for them so many times, and never get closer than hearing them calling, or finding footprints or feathers. I actually felt really hopeful this night. After six hours of walking around in the forest in the dark I was feeling somewhat less hopeful. I did hear a couple calling distantly around midnight. Eventually I gave up and crawled back to the hostel.

Finally, back in Christchurch before my flight back to Wellington, I made a visit to one of the local zoos (Willowbank) and then to the Styx Mill Reserve next door to try for Marsh Crake. I wasn't exactly hopeful for this, given that the reports from there were a year ago, but when I got to the spot it was only about two minutes before a Marsh Crake came wandering out into the open. Pretty sure none of the photos turned out well though.



BIRDS:

76) Spotted Shag Stictocarbo punctatus
77) Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix
78) Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus
79) Buller's Shearwater Puffinus bulleri
80) Westland Black Petrel Procellaria westlandica
81) Cape Petrel Daption capense
82) Salvin's Albatross Thalassarche salvini
83) Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri
84) NZ King Shag Leucocarbo carunculatus
85) Weka Gallirallus australis
86) Orange-fronted Kakariki Cyanoramphus malherbi
87) White Heron (Great White Egret) Egretta alba
88) Mute Swan Cygnus olor
89) Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
90) Otago Shag Leucocarbo chalconotus
91) Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi
92) Southern Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri
93) Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli
94) Australian Blue Penguin Eudyptula novaehollandiae
95) Yellow-eyed Penguin Megadyptes antipodes
96) Foveaux Shag Leucocarbo stewarti
97) Yellow-crowned Kakariki Cyanoramphus auriceps
98) Brown Creeper Mohoua novaeseelandiae
99) Yellowhead Mohoua ochrocephala
100) Kea Nestor notabilis
101) Marsh Crake Zapornia pusilla
102) Redpoll Carduelis flammea


Just as a matter of interest, my previous highest year total for birds within New Zealand was 98 species in 2012.


MAMMALS:

4) NZ Fur Seal Arctocephalus forsteri
5) Hooker's Sealion Phocarctos hookeri
6) Brush-tailed Possum Trichosurus vulpecula

Interesting your comments that the orange-fronted kakariki looked very different from the yellow-crowned kakariki. There was a time when it was suggested that the orange-fronted was a hybrid of the yellow and red. Your comments would indicate that these suggestions were made by people who did not really know the birds. Great where to see guide, and a great post.

 

[German Zoo World]

Intervertebrates

Bees and Wasps

10. Vespula germanica

Beetles

11. Anoplotrupes stercorosus


Birds

Passerines

26. Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Storks

27. Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)

I have never seen a wild Black Stork before.

 

[Najade]

Went out looking for Fire Salamander in Wuppertal again as we had some rain today but no luck. By the time it got dark the forest floor was pretty much dry again. It's supposed to rain again on Thursday/Friday. Might give it another shot then. Did end up with a surprise mammal-lifer though, which is of course heaps better

Mammals
20. Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Amphibians
03. Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

Dreieck Erfttal, Erftstadt

Birds
31. Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)

 

[DesertRhino150]

I have added a few new species to my list since my previous update. Yesterday, I looked out of my bedroom window and happened to see a pair of swift flying over the trees - no doubt heading off towards an urban area as they really don't nest out in the countryside.

Today, I went for an early morning walk and first managed to find a new butterfly for the year among the buttercups. I have been hearing cuckoos for a couple of days now and managed to find a good place to scan an entire avenue of trees where at least two were calling - I spotted one at the top of a tree and also got a good view of it in flight. But perhaps my oddest sighting of the day was a juvenile field vole - I found it immobile and with its eyes closed in the road and at first I thought it was dead. But when I poked it with a piece of grass, it came awake and scuttled off into the verge.

80. Common swift Apus apus
81. Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus

8. Short-tailed field vole Microtus agrestis

32. Common blue butterfly Polyommatus icarus

33. Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly Libellula depressa
34. Hairy dragonfly Brachytron pratense
35. Green-veined white butterfly Pieris napi
36. Common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum

I have got back today from a week-long trip to North Norfolk, where I managed to get some good birdwatching done. The eleven birds I added mean that, just five months into 2022, I have already seen more birds than I did in the whole of 2021. Highlights included lots of spoonbills seen flying to-and-fro around the breeding colony at Holkham, good views of bearded reedling at Cley and house martins everywhere - where I live, they have practically disappeared.

It wasn't just birds that performed well. I saw three species of deer - not just lots of muntjac but also two Chinese water deer (one at Holkham and one at Titchwell) and probably the same roe deer on two occassions. Hares were also much more prevalent in Norfolk than back in Essex. I also managed to add a number of invertebrates including a lifer moth, found in my room one evening. One that got away was my first amphibian - I saw tadpoles in a pond at Titchwell but as both common frog and common toad occur there and I could not identify which species they came from, I have had to leave them out.

82. Common house martin Delichon urbicum
83. Western marsh harrier Circus aeruginosus
84. Bearded reedling Panurus biarmicus
85. Sedge warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
86. Meadow pipit Anthus pratensis
87. Barnacle goose Branta leucopsis
88. Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia
89. Eurasian nuthatch Sitta europaea
90. Common pochard Aythya ferina
91. Northern shoveler Spatula clypeata
92. Great white egret Ardea alba
93. Red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa

9. European brown hare Lepus europaeus
10. Western roe deer Capreolus capreolus
11. Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis

37. Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae
38. Wall butterfly Lasiommata megra
39. Swift ant Formica fusca
40. Green carpet moth Colostygia pectinataria
41. Small tortoiseshell butterfly Aglais urticae
42. Red-eyed damselfly Erythromma najas

 

[BerdNerd]

5/26/22

Invertebrates:

16. Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)

5/27/22


Invertebrates:

17. Carolina Ground Cricket (Eunemobius carolinus)
18. Australian Sheep Blowfly (Lucilia cuprina)


Total:

Mammals: 3
Birds: 49
Reptiles: 1
Amphibians: 1
Invertebrates: 18

 

[Hix]

Birds
163. Brown-headed Honeyeater
164. White-cheeked Honeyeater
165. Scarlet Honeyeater
166. Variegated Fairywren
167. Grey Goshawk
168. Fan-tailed Cuckoo
169. Pacific Baza
170. Australian Gannet
171. Brown Gerygone
172. Lewin's Honeyeater
173. Azure Kingfisher
174. Australian Hobby
175. Osprey
176. Red-necked Stint
177. Ruddy Turnstone
178. Double-banded plover
179. Sooty Oystercatcher
180. Australian Brush-turkey
181. White-naped Honeyeater
182. Intermediate Egret



Hix

 

[HungarianBison]

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

School hiking trip:
Birds:
31. Parus montanus
32. Corvus cornix
Herps:
2. Lacerta viridis

 

[German Zoo World]

Birds

Passerines

28. Linnet (Linaria cannabina)

This is another Species i have never seen before.

 

[Mr. Zootycoon]

Not a lot to report here. I haven't done a lot of wildlife-ing since I returned from Lesvos. However, one of my current jobs is conducting bat surveys and that yielded a mammal lifer last week, which is always good of course!

Mammals
15. Nathusius's Pipistrelle, Pipistrellus nathusii
16. Western European Hedgehog, Erinacus europaeus

Dragonflies
11. Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa
12. Large Red Damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Butterflies
29. Queen of Spain Fritillary, Issoria lathonia

 

[Tetzoo Quizzer]

A few more species to add in from the past few weeks, the best being the mammal which emerged from the Reed bed and ambled along the path as I was leaving the local RSPB reserve
7 or 8 (please check, I think I have listed two number 6s, but one of these may already have been listed!)
Badger Meles meles

Birds
119 Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia
120 Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula
121 Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubia
122 Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus
123 Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti

Invertebrates
40 Red Admiral Vanessa Atalanta
41 Drinker Euthrix potatoria
There will be more to add once I check over this list, but sadly not one Damselfly or Dragonfly so far...

 

[Chlidonias]

7 or 8 (please check, I think I have listed two number 6s, but one of these may already have been listed!)
Badger Meles meles

You have:

1) Grey Squirrel
2) Red Fox
3) Grey Seal
4) Rabbit
5) Roe Deer
6) Bank Vole
6) Brown Rat

So Badger would be number 8.

 

[Maguari]

A week ago I got back from a few days in Madrid - and after a crazy-busy week I've finally got everything typed up and ready to post.

(there are a small number of things I have photos of that might yet be identified, so I'll be back if so!)

We were only there four days but as well as catching up with Madrid Zoo and Faunia and making my first visit to Madrid Safari and their lovely lechwe, and to Atlantis Aquarium, we spent the mornings and occasional evenings birding, as well as having one day set aside to drive up into the Sierra de Guadarrama in search of wild things - most particularly I had my eye on ibex. We arrived in the middle of a colossal heatwave in Spain and I wasn't sure if it would suppress our sightings but for vertebrates we did pretty well (I think inverts probably were a little suppressed though). A lake seemingly only home to naturalised American invaders provided some identifiable fishes. All of the fish and herps were new for the year, and a major chunk of the just-over-60 bird species, as well as one of the five mammals. I do love Spain as a wildlife country. It always performs.

Mammals:
23. Spanish Ibex - Capra pyrenaica

Birds:
159. Spotless Starling - Sturnus unicolor
160. European Serin - Serinus serinus
161. Sardinian Warbler - Curruca melanocephala
162. European Bee-eater - Merops apiaster
163. Black Redstart - Phoenicurus ochruros
164. Common Nightingale - Luscinia megarhynchos
165. Iberian Green Woodpecker - Picus sharpei
166. Black Kite - Milvus migrans
167. Booted Eagle - Hieraaetus pennatus
168. Crested Lark - Galerida cristata
169. Eurasian Hoopoe - Upupa epops
170. European Griffon Vulture - Gyps fulvus
171. Spanish Imperial Eagle - Aquila adalberti
172. Western Yellow Wagtail - Motacilla flava
173. European White Stork - Ciconia ciconia
174. Red-rumped Swallow - Cecropis daurica
175. Monk Parakeet - Myiopsitta monachus
176. Woodlark - Lullula arborea
177. Rock Bunting - Emberiza cia
178. Ortolan Bunting - Emberiza hortulana
179. Common Cuckoo - Cuculus canorus
180. Northern Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe
181. Eurasian Crag Martin - Ptyonoprogne rupestris
182. European Black Vulture - Aegypius monachus
183. Common Rock Thrush - Monticola saxatilis
184. Melodious Warbler - Hippolais polyglotta
185. Eurasian Golden Oriole - Oriolus oriolus
186. Iberian Azure-winged Magpie - Cyanopica cooki

Reptiles:
2. Large Psammodromus - Psammodromus algirus
3. Common Wall Lizard - Podarcis muralis
4. Schreiber's Green Lizard - Lacerta schreiberi
5. Cyren's Rock Lizard - Iberolacerta cyreni
6. Guadarrama Wall Lizard - Podarcis guadarramae

Amphibians:
5. Iberian Water Frog - Pelophylax perezi

Fishes:
4. Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki
5. Pumpkinseed - Lepomis gibbosus

Invertebrates:
30. Garden Snail - Cornu apsersum
31. Meadow Brown - Manolia jurtina
32. Clouded Yellow - Colias crocea
33. Small Copper - Lycaena phlaeus
34. Common Blue - Polyommatus icarus
35. Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta
36. Guadarrama Longhorn Beetle - Iberodorcadium hispanicum
37. Queen of Spain Fritillary - Issoria lathonia
38. Wall Brown - Lasiommata megera

(the snail was UK rather than Spain!)

 

[Platypusboy]

Birds

51. Common tern, Sterna hirundo 28/5/22
52. Lesser whitethroat, Curruca curruca 29/5/22

Invertebrates

4. Common earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris 27/5/22
5. Common wasp, Vespula vulgaris 28/5/22

 

[oflory]

Another gorgeous morning twitch in the home counties for a female red-footed falcon, serenaded by very visible cuckoos and a very invisible nightingale.

146. Common tern
147. Red-footed falcon

A weekend in Dorset, with my girlfriend and her flatmates nets me a few more birds for the year, some big walks in Stanpit Marshes and on Hengistbury Head.

148. Sandwich tern
149. Sand martin
150. Northern gannet
151. Western yellow wagtail

 

[birdsandbats]

Birds
212. Black Tern Chlidonias niger
213. Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus
214. Sedge Wren Cistothorus stellaris
215. Prothonotary Warbler Protonotaria citrea

Herps
5. Common Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina

Birds
216. Willow Flycatcher Empidonx trailli
217. Marsh Wren Cistothorus palustris
218. American Bittern Botaurus letiginosus

 

[Tetzoo Quizzer]

Birds
124 Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa

 

[Giant Eland]

A couple adjustments to my last post- including a newly added species from our Costa Rica trip as well as one more mammal for the year in Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY yesterday!

April was my first month without a new wild mammal unless I count witnessing the birth of my 1st child. Some of my mammalwatching friends have joked that witnessing your own child's birth is the one way to be able to count wild Homo sapiens on your lifelist. After that moment we become domesticated.

24. Proboscis Bat, Rhynchonycteris naso (Mar 19)
25. Honduran White Bat, Ectophylla alba
26. Short-eared Bat, Cyttarops alecto
27. Mantled Howler, Alouatta palliata
28. Greater Dog-like Bat, Peropteryx kappleri
29. Greater Sac-winged Bat, Saccopteryx bilineata
30. Chestnut Sac-winged Bat, Cormura brevirostris
31. Thomas's Shaggy Bat, Centronycteris centralis
32. Seba’s Short-tailed Bat, Carollia perspicillata
33. Chestnut Short-tailed Bat, Carollia castanea
34. Kinkajou, Potos flavus
35. Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine, Coendou mexicanus
36. Striped Yellow-eared Bat, Vampyriscus nymphaea (Mar 20)
37. Pygmy Round-eared Bat, Lophostoma brasiliense
38. Central American Tent-making Bat, Uroderma convexum
39. Thomas’s Fruit-eating Bat, Dermanura watsoni
40. Thumbless Bat, Furipterus horrens
41. Commissaris's Long-tongued Bat, Glossophaga commissarisi
42. Common Big-eared Bat, Micronycteris microtis
43. Variegated Squirrel, Sciurus variegatoides
44. Honduran Yellow-shouldered Bat, Sturnira hondurensis
45. Toltec Fruit Bat, Dermanura tolteca
46. Lowland Paca, Cuniculus paca
47. Talamancan Deer Mouse, Peromyscus nudipes
48. Cherrie's Harvest Mouse, Reithrodontomys cherrii ID CHANGE
49. Greater Fruit-eating Bat, Artibeus lituratus
50. Nine-banded Armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus
51. Riparian Myotis, Myotis riparius (Mar 21)
52. Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni
53. Alfaro’s Pygmy Squirrel, Microsciurus alfari
54. Sowell’s Short-tailed Bat, Carollia sowelli
55. Underwood’s Long-tongued Bat, Hylonycteris underwoodi
56. Greater Broad-nosed Bat, Platyrrhinus vittatus
57. Brazilian Brown Bat, Eptesicus brasiliensis
58. Sumichrast's Vesper Rat, Nyctomys sumichrasti (Mar 22)
59. Gray Sac-winged Bat, Balantiopteryx plicata
60. Lesser Sac-winged Bat, Saccopteryx leptura
61. Fringe Lipped Bat, Trachops cirrhosus
62. Merriam's Long-tongued Bat, Glossophaga mutica NEW
63. Pale-spear Nosed Bat, Phyllostomus discolor
64. Northern Ghost Bat, Diclidurus albus
65. Panamanian White-throated Capuchin, Cebus imitator
66. Central American Silky Anteater, Cyclopes dorsalis
67. Red-backed Squirrel Monkey, Saimiri oerstedii
68. Greater Fishing Bat, Noctilio leporinus
69. Short-tailed Cane Rat, Zygodontomys brevicauda
70. Greater Spear-nosed Bat, Phyllostomus hastatus
71. Dark Four-eyed Opossum, Philander melanurus
72. Common Opossum, Didelphis marsupialis
73. Costa Rican Pygmy Rice Rat, Oligoryzomys costaricensis
74. Orange Nectar Bat, Lonchophylla robusta (Mar 22)
75. Mesoamerican Mustached Bat, Pteronotus mesoamericanus
76. Big Naked-backed Bat, Pteronotus gymnonotus
77. Spix’s Disc-winged Bat, Thyroptera tricolor
78. Pygmy Fruit-eating Bat, Dermanura phaeotis
79. Northern Yellow-shouldered Bat, Sturnira parvidens
80. Tome's Spiny Rat, Proechimys semispinosus
81. Central American Nectar Bat, Lonchophylla concava
82. Black Myotis, Myotis nigricans (Mar 23)
83. Peter’s Disc-winged Bat, Thyroptera discifera
84. Northern Yellow Bat, Lasiurus intermedius NEW
85. Chiriqui Harvest Mouse, Reithrodontomys creper
86. Chiriqui Rice Rat, Nephelomys devius
87. Red-tailed Squirrel, Sciurus granatensis (Mar 24)
88. Eastern Chipmunk, Tamias striatus (May 2) NEW

A couple of easy additions, but no North American Beaver like I had hoped

89. Groundhog (Marmota monax) (May 17)
90. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (May 18)

 

[DesertRhino150]

I have got back today from a week-long trip to North Norfolk, where I managed to get some good birdwatching done. The eleven birds I added mean that, just five months into 2022, I have already seen more birds than I did in the whole of 2021. Highlights included lots of spoonbills seen flying to-and-fro around the breeding colony at Holkham, good views of bearded reedling at Cley and house martins everywhere - where I live, they have practically disappeared.

It wasn't just birds that performed well. I saw three species of deer - not just lots of muntjac but also two Chinese water deer (one at Holkham and one at Titchwell) and probably the same roe deer on two occassions. Hares were also much more prevalent in Norfolk than back in Essex. I also managed to add a number of invertebrates including a lifer moth, found in my room one evening. One that got away was my first amphibian - I saw tadpoles in a pond at Titchwell but as both common frog and common toad occur there and I could not identify which species they came from, I have had to leave them out.

82. Common house martin Delichon urbicum
83. Western marsh harrier Circus aeruginosus
84. Bearded reedling Panurus biarmicus
85. Sedge warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
86. Meadow pipit Anthus pratensis
87. Barnacle goose Branta leucopsis
88. Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia
89. Eurasian nuthatch Sitta europaea
90. Common pochard Aythya ferina
91. Northern shoveler Spatula clypeata
92. Great white egret Ardea alba
93. Red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa

9. European brown hare Lepus europaeus
10. Western roe deer Capreolus capreolus
11. Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis

37. Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae
38. Wall butterfly Lasiommata megra
39. Swift ant Formica fusca
40. Green carpet moth Colostygia pectinataria
41. Small tortoiseshell butterfly Aglais urticae
42. Red-eyed damselfly Erythromma najas

I had a visit to Colchester Zoo this morning, which got me a very unusual sighting. Since September of last year a white stork has been seen in the area, apparently commuting between a dump in Stanway (near to Colchester Zoo) and Abberton Reservoir. It has apparently now started including the zoo itself in its regular haunts. The bird has no colour rings on its legs and no plumage damage that might suggest an escaped bird, so a number of local birders are considering it to be a genuine wild bird.

I saw it in the Kingdom of the Wild paddock, alongside the giraffes, rhinos, zebras and crowned cranes; at first it looked like any other exhibited species, until it picked up a large stick and flew away.

94. White stork Ciconia ciconia

 

[amur leopard]

Penultimate day in Cyprus, so decided to go up to a dam with a bit of a reputation for having quite a varied bird life. It was a lovely day, starting the walk at the dam and making my way around the reservoir towards an abandoned Templar Knight Village called Foinikas.

The walk began with a patch of pine woodland full of passerines, which I could distinctly hear but it was very difficult to isolate them among the trees packed with pine cones and needles and in the end I only spotted a single bird which I was nevertheless very proud of:

74. Collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis

The walk continued along the top of the cliffs overlooking the reservoir, until the path stopped and one could only move on through a field thick with yellow flowers but more unpleasantly perhaps thistles and nettles (particularly unpleasant given I had shorts on). Still, I rejoined the road for a bit after the field to recover and then turned back onto a path taking me back towards the reservoir. Along this path were numerous very vocal birds, including:

75. Zitting cisticola, Cisticola juncidis
76. Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra
77. Tree pipit, Anthus trivialis
78. Red-rumped swallow, Cecropis daurica

After observing these lovely birds for a while, I rejoined the reservoir and immediately saw a raptor flying low over the cliffs on the other side of the lake. My pictures were fairly poor due to the distance but with binoculars I could easily make out:

79. Western marsh harrier, Circus aeruginosus

Unfortunately I didn't actually reach the knights' village because the path ended around a kilometre before I could reach it, so I turned back the way I came. Along the way back I spotted numerous tree pipits, swallows and doves but nothing new until I startled a pair of Chukar in a field along the road.

80. Chukar, Alectoris chukar

And then came the sighting I had been waiting for for the entire trip. I had seen three Curruca warblers already on the trip but the one I had really been wanting to spot was the endemic Cyprus warbler. I spotted a far away bird resting at the top of a bush about 30 metres from the side of the road. I only got a series of rather grainy photos but through the binoculars, the bird had the 'heavily-barred underparts' I had been searching for.

81. Cyprus warbler, Curruca melanothorax

Finally in the woodlands once more I spotted a Willow warbler briefly in the trees.

82. Willow warbler, Phylloscopus trochilus

So a lovely, lovely day and especially pleased about the warbler and the harrier. That should about round off my birding trips in Cyprus, but I'm quite proud of what I saw and hope to do even better next time!

Really slow progress over the last few weeks but:

83. Song thrush, Turdus philomelos