And there aren't introduced species that are just missing? This is so commonplace on both the ABA checklist and individual state checklists that I've always kind of taken this for granted.
Zoochat Big Year 2024
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
In Australia there is a high degree of awareness of invasive species, and where breeding populations do occur, no matter how small, they are noted. For instance mute swans, mallards, wild turkeys, Indian peafowl, guineafowl, and more are found in Australian field guides. But not muscovies.
Strong winds out of the south today means that another species showed up earlier than normal:
Birds
348. Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula
Yeah, its odd how my field guides have plenty of small, introduced populations from bulbul, whydah, and hill myna to some of the smaller established Psittaciformes, but no European goldfinch or Great tits
I use Sibley and National Geographic, the Field Guide to the Birds has bulbul, whydah, and mynas.You must use Sibley?It's literally the only major North American field guide that covers any bulbuls or whydahs or hill mynas.
The Common Hill Mynas are actually extirpated though, last I heard.
Yeah, I couldn't find anything for hill mynah past 2022 on ebird
No to both, which is especially odd given how widespread the white-eye is in SoCal
Past couple days have been very rainy in Alabama, but I did manage to make a trip out to Wood Duck Preserve, which I visited last fall and saw a host of wood warbler species. With it being a cool gray morning, I was mainly visiting to finally add some more waterfowl to my list this year (the only species I had seen so far was Canadian Geese, unsurprisingly). Anything else would have been a bonus.
To my surprise, I was able to add not just 7 birds to my count, but 3 lifers! On the lake was a large flock of Bufflehead and, nearby, a flock of Ring-Necked Ducks. Using my binoculars, I noticed that two of the male Ring-Necks had much brighter white sides than the others, which were more of a light gray - not Ring-Necks at all, but Lesser Scaups. It is possible that there were more than those 2 males, but I didn't have my scope and identification of the females at such a distance would have been impossible. While I was in the blind, I heard a skulking in the reeds and out popped a Swamp Sparrow, another lifer for me. These birds aren't particularly rare in this area but they are very shy - any movement even in the blind sent it shooting back into the cattails. The final lifer bird was an Orange-Crowned Warbler I managed to call out in a dense thicket of brush. Not uncommon, but it can be an easy bird to miss with its olive-gray colors.
The other goal while I was there was to find some reptiles or amphibians. I heard plenty of frogs but the vegetation was too thick for me to get to where they were. I did start turning over logs and stumps, which, in the south, may not be the smartest thing with our timber rattlers and copperheads - however, I did manage to find two Northern Slimy Salamanders, my first amphibians for the year! I'm hoping that this week in Birmingham we'll get some rain and warmer temperatures so I can try and find some migrating Spotted Salamanders. Other neat finds from this trip were the first swallows (Northern Rough-Winged) and butterflies (Spring Azure) of the year.
Birds:
45. Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) – 3/02/24
46. Ring-Necked Duck (Aythya collaris) – 3/02/24
47. Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) – 3/02/24
48. Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) – 3/02/24
49. Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) – 3/02/24
50. Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) – 3/02/24
51. Orange-Crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata) – 3/02/24
Amphibians:
1. Northern Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus) – 3/02/24
Invertebrates:
7. Marsh Crane Fly (Tipula oleracea) – 2/18/24
8. Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) – 2/25/24
9. American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) – 2/27/24
10. Odorous House Ant (Tapinoma sessile) – 2/28/24
11. Common Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) – 3/01/24
12. Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) – 3/02/24
13. Common Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) – 3/02/24
14. Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) – 3/02/24
Note: For any American Zoochatters out there on this thread - on the subject of turtles. For anyone who counts reptiles, how do you identify freshwater turtles? More often than not it's just their head poking out of the water or them laying half-submerged on a log - with some turtles (Softshell, snapping) this is easy enough, but what about sliders/cooters/painted turtles? Is it a matter of eyeballing it, or are there clear distinguishing features for the different species?
To my surprise, I was able to add not just 7 birds to my count, but 3 lifers! On the lake was a large flock of Bufflehead and, nearby, a flock of Ring-Necked Ducks. Using my binoculars, I noticed that two of the male Ring-Necks had much brighter white sides than the others, which were more of a light gray - not Ring-Necks at all, but Lesser Scaups. It is possible that there were more than those 2 males, but I didn't have my scope and identification of the females at such a distance would have been impossible. While I was in the blind, I heard a skulking in the reeds and out popped a Swamp Sparrow, another lifer for me. These birds aren't particularly rare in this area but they are very shy - any movement even in the blind sent it shooting back into the cattails. The final lifer bird was an Orange-Crowned Warbler I managed to call out in a dense thicket of brush. Not uncommon, but it can be an easy bird to miss with its olive-gray colors.
The other goal while I was there was to find some reptiles or amphibians. I heard plenty of frogs but the vegetation was too thick for me to get to where they were. I did start turning over logs and stumps, which, in the south, may not be the smartest thing with our timber rattlers and copperheads - however, I did manage to find two Northern Slimy Salamanders, my first amphibians for the year! I'm hoping that this week in Birmingham we'll get some rain and warmer temperatures so I can try and find some migrating Spotted Salamanders. Other neat finds from this trip were the first swallows (Northern Rough-Winged) and butterflies (Spring Azure) of the year.
Birds:
45. Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) – 3/02/24
46. Ring-Necked Duck (Aythya collaris) – 3/02/24
47. Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) – 3/02/24
48. Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) – 3/02/24
49. Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) – 3/02/24
50. Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) – 3/02/24
51. Orange-Crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata) – 3/02/24
Amphibians:
1. Northern Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus) – 3/02/24
Invertebrates:
7. Marsh Crane Fly (Tipula oleracea) – 2/18/24
8. Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) – 2/25/24
9. American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) – 2/27/24
10. Odorous House Ant (Tapinoma sessile) – 2/28/24
11. Common Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) – 3/01/24
12. Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) – 3/02/24
13. Common Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) – 3/02/24
14. Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) – 3/02/24
Note: For any American Zoochatters out there on this thread - on the subject of turtles. For anyone who counts reptiles, how do you identify freshwater turtles? More often than not it's just their head poking out of the water or them laying half-submerged on a log - with some turtles (Softshell, snapping) this is easy enough, but what about sliders/cooters/painted turtles? Is it a matter of eyeballing it, or are there clear distinguishing features for the different species?
KiwiBirb
Well-Known Member
I finally got to go to DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands today giving me 2 new species. Additional I was able to hear the calls of a long overdue species in the American Goldfinch in my yard earlier (along with a rare midday Great-Horned Owl call!)
Birds
68) Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)
69) Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)
Heard-Only Species
3) American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)
Progress:
Mammals- 10
Birds- 69
Herptiles- 0
Total- 79
Heard-only Species- 3
endogenylove
Active Member
Already an update as I spent some time in the scrubland yesterday:
Mammals:
12. White-Tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii)
13. Coyote (Canis latrans)
Birds:
23. Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
24. Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)
24. White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
25. Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus)
Mammals:
12. White-Tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii)
13. Coyote (Canis latrans)
Birds:
23. Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
24. Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)
24. White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
25. Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus)
Being in the south, you have a case of 'suffering from success' - here in Central IL, our most common pond turtles are the easily recognizable pond slider and painted turtle. There are couple other species in much smaller numbers, so for them, I use iNaturalist. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians of your state or region can come in handy as well. Often, you can tell by certain facial patterns or shell shapes, 'eyeballing' can really only come after you have properly IDed a species enough times (This goes for all but the most distinctive of animal IDs).
Any species that you aren't confident on the id of don't go on your year Iist.
Pretty sure they are referring to the birding concept of giss here. That is, just knowing what a species is by looking at it and not being sure how you know what it is.
Yep - think about how most people on here aren't going to need to run through checking off differences to tell an African from an Asian Elephant. You just 'know' which it is, because you've seen a lot of them. That can apply just as well to warblers and thrushes as elephants.
Doesn't mean it's 100% reliable, and you need to know when there's cryptic species, but it's certainly a Thing.
Last summer I added Oriental Magpie to my life list; I could and did identify it as a Pica species at a glance, but even after trying I didn’t notice any distinguishing features. However, unless all of the many individuals all happened to be European vagrants to Korea, never before recorded, then they were the newly recognised form. Sometimes balance of probabilities is enough!
Mammals
1) Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
2) Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
Birds
1) Canada goose (Branta canadensis)
2) Carrion crow (Corvus corone)
3) Common buzzard (Buteo buteo)
4) Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
5) Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
6) Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
7) House sparrow (Passer domesticus)
8) Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus)
9) Common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)
10) European robin (Erithacus rubecula)
11) Great tit (Parus major)
12) Black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
13) European herring gull (Larus argentatus)
14) Eurasian magpie (Pica pica)
15) Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
16) Western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula)
17) Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
18) Feral pigeon (Columba livia)
19) Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula)
20) Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
21) Rook (Corvus frugilegus)
22) Common starling/European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
23) European white stork (Ciconia ciconia)
24) Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca)
25) Eurasian coot (Fulica atra)
26) Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)
27) Great egret (Ardea alba)
28) Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Invertebrates
1) Seven-spot ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata)
2) Common brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni)
3) Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)
Yet another species earlier than normal:
Birds
349. Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis