I had a pretty good year in 2024. While not my busiest both zoo and wildlife watching wise, I still managed some real good trips including a long-weekend in Turks and Caicos, a return to the Rio Grande Valley, a pelagic whale watch out of Cape May, and, of course, my first visit to Australia being the biggest highlight of all. This list could easily be 2-3 times as long, especially with all the wonderful animals I saw in Australia, but I tried my best to narrow myself down to the best of the best. I ended up with a Top 30, though some of these could probably change if you asked again tomorrow! Captive animals with a double asterisk**:
-Red-Flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus -- a vagrant to a small NJ suburban backyard (thankfully the homeowner's were birders) seen the second week of January
-Caribbean Reef Shark Carcharhinus perezi
-Green Sea Turtle Chelonia mydas -- wild lifer, my first wild sea turtle
-Golden-Cheeked Warbler Setophaga chrysoparia
-Handsome Fruiteater Pipreola formosa**
-Lehmann's Poison Dart Frog Oophaga lehmanni**
-Giant Girdled Lizard Smaug giganteus**
-Mexican Mantled Howler Alouatta palliata mexicana**
-Blue-Winged Warbler Vermivora cyanoptera -- previously a nemesis bird
-Chihuahuan Meadowlark Sturnella lilianae -- early Spring vagrant to CT, there is still some debate as to whether this was truly a Chihuahuan or a particularly pale Eastern. No official consensus was ever made and it remains off the State list, however all the markers matched so I feel confident enough to count it.
-Prothonotary Warbler Protonotaria citrea
-Sperm Whale Physeter macrocephalus
-Cuvier's Beaked-Whale Ziphius cavirostris
-Atlantic Blue Marlin Makaira nigricans
-Tiger Shark Galeocerdo cuvier
-Hooded Seal Cystophora cristata**
-Grey-Headed Flying Fox Pteropus poliocephalus
-Eastern Long-Beaked Echidna Zaglossus bartoni**
-Quokka Setonix brachyurus**
-Greater Bilby Macrotis lagotis**
-corroboree frog Pseudophryne sp.** -- both Southern and Northern
-Regent Bowerbird Sericulus chrysocephalus**
-Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
-Superb Fairy-Wren Malurus cyaneus
-Dugong Dugong dugon**
-Burrunan Dolphin Tursiops (aduncus) australis
-Little Blue Penguin Eudyptula minor -- wild lifer, first wild penguin
-Eastern Barred Bandicoot Perameles gunnii
-Mountain Pygmy-Possum Burramys parvus**
-Leadbeater's Possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri
~Thylo
it never showed on the rainy day we were there.
