ZooChat Big Year 2014

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Ituri said:
I too had a pretty solid first day. I spent today cruising around town looking for a number of rarities that had been seen around town. My first stop was a park downtown where a Varied Thrush and a White-throated Sparrow had been frequently seen. I missed those birds but did find two Hermit Thrushes and a Northern Goshawk (lifer!). Afterwords I went to a lake in the park near the zoo that had some open water to try for the usual waterfowl plus the Snow Goose who has spent the winter there amongst the resident Canada Geese. Other stops included a neighborhood feeder for a Blue Jay, and the greenbelt along the river where I found both Barrow's and Common Goldeneyes as well as an Orange-crowned Warbler. I ended the day with 44 species of birds (45 if you count the wild but not countable Mute Swans, they are introduced and breeding but not on the official state checklist yet).

BIRDS
1 Canada Goose
2 Wood Duck
3 Mallard
4 Northern Goshawk
5 Rock Pigeon
6 Downy Woodpecker
7 Northern Flicker
8 Black-billed Magpie
9 Black-capped Chickadee
10 Red-breasted Nuthatch
11 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
12 Hermit Thrush
13 American Robin
14 Cedar Waxwing
15 Song Sparrow
16 Dark-eyed Junco
17 House Finch
18 Snow Goose
19 Gadwall
20 American Wigeon
21 Ring-necked Duck
22 Bufflehead
23 Common Goldeneye
24 Hooded Merganser
25 American Coot
26 Ring-billed Gull
27 Belted Kingfisher
28 American Crow
29 California Quail
30 Blue Jay
31 American Goldfinch
32 House Sparrow
33 Great Blue Heron
34 Red-tailed Hawk
35 Mourning Dove
36 American Kestrel
37 Cooper's Hawk
38 White-crowned Sparrow
39 Barrow's Goldeneye
40 Common Merganser
41 Pied-billed Grebe
42 Bald Eagle
43 European Starling
44 Orange-crowned Warbler

MAMMALS
1 Eastern Fox Squirrel
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45 Eurasian Wigeon
46 Merlin
47 White-throated Sparrow

2 Red Fox
 
nanoboy said:
Add some character to your list! :D Where did you see these birds? Were they difficult to spot? Did you have a target species? etc etc.
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sorry mate, I'm no word smith like Hix or chlidonias and there isn't a big exciting story to go with any of these sightings. I'm just ticking off the common stuff around home and around where I work. I might have a story or two after the end of March when I get back from a trip to the Northern Territory.

52. Rock Dove ( feral pigeon )
53. White Necked Heron
54. Swamp Harrier
55. Gang Gang Cockatoo
56. European Goldfinch
 
arcticwolf said:
I'm going to try to join this year even though I'm not very good at identifying birds. Hopefully I'll get better. Right now I'm in Florida and today at the beach I saw a few species.

1. Brown pelican
2. Laughing gull
3. Ring billed gull
4. Lesser black backed gull
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Yesterday I started the long drive from Florida back to Canada. From the car I was able to see more birds.

5. Rock pigeon
6. European starling
7. Muscovy duck
8. Great egret
9. American crow
10. American black vulture
11. Wild turkey
12. Bald eagle
13. Canada goose
 
I took a trip to the large wetlands center just east of Dallas this morning (John Bunker Sands Wetlands Center) to see if I could massively up my list. Like all plans, it didn't go according to plan, and I was only able to ID 22 birds, though a few of those were year birds. The highlight of JBS is one of the few nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in the region, and definitely the easiest eagles to see. From there, I went to the local Audobon center to do some feeder watching. Aaaand... they had reved every single one of their feeder... My luck is wondermous.

Still pulled out a few more year birds for the day. Tomorrow will bring the western part of the DFW area.
53 Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus
54 Great Egret - Ardea alba
55 Northern Harrier - Circus cyaneus
56 Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus
57 Marsh Wren - Cistothorus palustris
58 Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia
59 Swamp Sparrow - Melospiza georgiana
60 Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus
61 Brewer's Blackbird - Euphagus cyanocephalus
62 Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca
63 Spotted Towhee - Pipilo maculatus
64 White-throated Sparrow - Zonotrichia albicollis
65 Harris's Sparrow - Zonotrichia querula
66 White-crowned Sparrow - Zonotrichia leucophrys

Overall, a good day for sparrows with 6 new species on the year.
 
I've spent the last couple of days trying to pick up a few of the rarities that have been sighted around town lately. The Varied Thrush has eluded me, but I did manage to get the Eurasian Wigeon and White-throated Sparrow. Also picked up a few typical winter birds.

45 Eurasian Wigeon
46 Merlin
47 White-throated Sparrow
48 Evening Grosbeak
49 Bohemian Waxwing
50 Eurasian Collared-Dove
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Well being as there's snow everywhere up here, I haven't gotten out just yet but I figured I'd through my hat in with what I've seen already:

1) American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos

~Thylo:cool:
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Well still haven't gotten out and am unlikely to until probably next weekend (though we'll see what tomorrow brings). Got another bird from my window, though:

2) Black-Capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

~Thylo:cool:
 
mstickmanp said:
Still haven't had time to go birding, but I did get a couple just outside my house.

7. Common Raven
8. European Starling
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Also had a slow day at my first real birding day of the year. I went to the North Etiwanda Preserve by my house, which has been very alive with birds in past years, but today was very quiet.

9. Bewick's Wren
10. California Towhee
11. Song Sparrow
12. White-crowned Sparrow
13. California Gull

I saw the gull on my way to the preserve.
 
After finally going through my photos today, it appears that an Accipiter that I had identified as a Cooper's Hawk in the field, was actually a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I still had Cooper's Hawk earlier in the day so it's an addition not a replacement.

51 Sharp-shinned Hawk
 
You guys are roaring ahead! Let's see who will get to 100 species first.

I haven't even started my year's list yet, but now that I have finally identified the last species in my 2013 pics, I am ready to rumble! (Well, maybe from next weekend. :))
 
No real birding trips yet but some first walks with the stroller got me to 13:

1) Canada Goose
2) Mute Swan
3) Egyptian Goose
4) Mallard
5) Eurasian Coot
6) Black-headed gull
7) Feral pigeon
8) Wood pigeon
9) Indian ring-necked parakeet
10) Monk parakeet
11) Magpie
12) Carrion crow
13) Eurasian starling

all of them in the parks nearby. I also heard common black birds, tits and chaffinches everywhere but I didn't manage to see any of those yet.
 
The 3rd of January I went birding to a cloud forest not very far away and had 6 lifers:)... and the next day got another species and my second mammal.

47. Bright rumped attila
48. Summer tanager
49. Chesnut breasted Chlorophonia
50. Nariño Tapaculo
51. Blackburnian warbler
52. Saffron crowned Tanager
53. Golden naped Tanager
54. Blue capped Tanager
55. Pale eyed thrush
56. Rufous collared sparrow
57. Emerald toucanet
58. Slate throated whitestart
59. Scarlet fronted parakeet
60. Grenn and black fruiteater
61. Blue winged mountain tanager
62. White sided flowerpiercer
63. Golden faced tyrannulet
64. Golden crowned flycatcher
65. Tawny bellied Hermit
66. Booted raquettail
67. Bronze inca
68. Collared inca
69. Chesnut breated wren
70. Metallic green Tanager
71. Andean emerald
72. Grey breasted wood wren
73. White necked jacobin
74. Brown violetear
75. Fawn breated brilliant
76. Black winged saltator
77. Chesnut frinted Macaw

Mammals

2. Central american agouti
 
I don't think i will last so long on this thread, as I get busy I tend to forget to record things. These are the ones I have seensince Wednesday. Without binoculars hasten to add.

Mammals
European brown hare
European rabbit
Grey squirrel
stoat
Muntjac deer

Birds
Wood pigeon
Collard dove
French/red legged partridge
ring neck/Eurasian pheasant
Buzzard
sparrow hawk,
Robin
Greater spotted woodpecker
Green woodpecker
mistle thrush
song thrush
blackbird
blue tit
great tit
wren
chaffinch
House sparrow
Tree sparrow
goldfinch
green finch
Great crested grebe
mallard
black headed gull
coot
Moor hen
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Well still haven't gotten out and am unlikely to until probably next weekend (though we'll see what tomorrow brings). Got another bird from my window, though:

2) Black-Capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

~Thylo:cool:
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And I'm off! Finally got a chance to do a little bit of birding. I'm still working on a few IDs, though.

3) Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus
4) Bluejay Cyanocitta cristata

~Thylo:cool:
 
67 Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius
68 Forster's Tern - Sterna forsteri
69 Rock Pigeon - Columba livia
70 Hermit Thrush - Catharus guttatus
71 Yellow-rumped Warbler - Setophaga coronata
72 Field Sparrow - Spizella pusilla
 
arcticwolf said:
Yesterday I started the long drive from Florida back to Canada. From the car I was able to see more birds.

5. Rock pigeon
6. European starling
7. Muscovy duck
8. Great egret
9. American crow
10. American black vulture
11. Wild turkey
12. Bald eagle
13. Canada goose
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After 3 days of driving I finally arrived home. I was only able to spot one more species before getting back.

14. Red tailed hawk
 
ThylacineAlive said:
And I'm off! Finally got a chance to do a little bit of birding. I'm still working on a few IDs, though.

3) Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus
4) Bluejay Cyanocitta cristata

~Thylo:cool:
Click to expand...

5) White-Throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis
6) Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus
7) Dark-Eyed Junco Junco hyemalis

~Thylo:cool:
 
I love the way you guys are adding some flavour to your lists by briefly giving some background on the sightings. I'm going to join in soon too, honest!
 
Alright another photo-based addition here. While traveling the greenbelt on Wednesday, I saw a pair of geese that I assumed were probably just Canada Geese, but they seemed a bit small. Thinking that there was a chance these were indeed Cackling Geese rather than Canada Geese, I snapped a couple photos. After analyzing bill-to-head ratios in the photos I've decided that these birds are indeed Cackling Geese. For those who are unaware, it was recently decided that the four smallest subspecies of Canada Geese actually constituted a separate species, and that is now what is known as the Cackling Goose.

53 Cackling Goose.
 
Ituri said:
Alright another photo-based addition here. While traveling the greenbelt on Wednesday, I saw a pair of geese that I assumed were probably just Canada Geese, but they seemed a bit small. Thinking that there was a chance these were indeed Cackling Geese rather than Canada Geese, I snapped a couple photos. After analyzing bill-to-head ratios in the photos I've decided that these birds are indeed Cackling Geese. For those who are unaware, it was recently decided that the four smallest subspecies of Canada Geese actually constituted a separate species, and that is now what is known as the Cackling Goose.

53 Cackling Goose.
Click to expand...

Fantastic! Why not post the pics of special sightings too?
 
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