ZooChat Big Year 2014

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Then you've done the right thing by not listing them yet. Hopefully you'll see them again in good light and confirm their identity.

:p

Hix
 
Then you've done the right thing by not listing them yet. Hopefully you'll see them again in good light and confirm their identity.

:p

Hix

Indeed. But in the meantime:

Birds
49) Forster's Tern

No lifeticks yet in Florida but hopefully this shall change soon. Though the tern and heron were wild lifeticks.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Indeed. But in the meantime:

Birds
49) Forster's Tern

No lifeticks yet in Florida but hopefully this shall change soon. Though the tern and heron were wild lifeticks.

~Thylo:cool:

Birds
50) Willet Tringa semipalmata
51) Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea

~Thylo:cool:
 
Ironically, given the last string of posts about ID caution and somewhat awkwardly, given my forthright defence of the ID (that'll teach me! :rolleyes: ), I've had information casting doubt on the Natterer's Bat ID, so I'm demoting it to 'ID tentative' until this is resolved, if it ever is! This means it is off the annual count and mammals are back to 36 - last addition noctule...

...except that I've been back in my university town of Bangor this weekend and have been out and about doing some wildlifing. Another Anglesey trip with no Black Guillemots (indeed no lifers at all), but I didn't do too badly!


South Stack:

275. Red-billed Chough - Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

Point Lynas:

37. Harbour Porpoise - Phocoena phocoena
38. Grey Seal - Halichoerus grypus

Almost run over by me while driving across Anglesey (but in good light so still the best view I've had in the wild):

39. Least Weasel - Mustela nivalis

Bangor Pier:

276. Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres

Great Orme:

277. Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus
278. Rock Pipit - Anthus petrosus


EDIT: That also brings my UK-only bird list to 140, back over 50% of the list (for now!).
 
Tried for large shearwaters today but failed, added a few year ticks though

220. Pomarine skua
221. Sooty shearwater
222. Balearic shearwater

Last few from cornwall and devon

223. Arctic skua
224. Great skua
225. Spotted redshank

I annoyingly missed a storm petrel that flew past which would have been a life tick.
 
Half an hour of fiddling with the spreadsheet and deleting duplicates, here's the list to date:

1 Australasian Darter
2 Australasian Gannet
3 Australasian Grebe
4 Australasian Shoveler
5 Australian King-Parrot
6 Australian Magpie
7 Australian Pelican
8 Australian Pied Oystercatcher
9 Australian Reed-Warbler
10 Australian Shelduck
11 Australian White Ibis
12 Australian Wood Duck
13 Banded Lapwing
14 Bell Miner
15 Black Falcon
16 Black Kite
17 Black Swan
18 Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
19 Black-fronted Dotterel
20 Black-shouldered Kite
21 Black-winged Stilt
22 Blue-billed Duck
23 Brolga
24 Brown Falcon
25 Brown Thornbill
26 Buff-banded Rail
27 Cape Barren Goose
28 Chestnut Teal
29 Common Blackbird
30 Common Bronzewing
31 Common Greenshank
32 Common Myna
33 Common Starling
34 Crested Pigeon
35 Crested Tern
36 Crimson Rosella
37 Dusky Moorhen
38 Dusky Woodswallow
39 Eastern Great Egret
40 Eastern Rosella
41 Eastern Spinebill
42 Eastern Yellow Robin
43 Eurasian Coot
44 Eurasian Skylark
45 European Goldfinch
46 Fairy Tern
47 Flame Robin
48 Freckled Duck
49 Galah
50 Golden Whistler
51 Golden-headed Cisticola
52 Great Cormorant
53 Great Crested Grebe
54 Grey Butcherbird
55 Grey Fantail
56 Grey Shrike-thrush
57 Grey Teal
58 Hardhead
59 Hoary-headed Grebe
60 Horsfield's Bushlark
61 House Sparrow
62 Latham's Snipe
63 Laughing Kookaburra
64 Lewin's Honeyeater
65 Little Black Cormorant
66 Little Corella
67 Little Pied Cormorant
68 Little Raven
69 Little Wattlebird
70 Long-billed Corella
71 Magpie-lark
72 Masked Lapwing
73 Musk Duck
74 Musk Lorikeet
75 New Holland Honeyeater
76 Noisy Miner
77 Northern Mallard
78 Pacific Black Duck
79 Pacific Gull
80 Pied Cormorant
81 Pied Currawong
82 Pink-eared Duck
83 Powerful Owl
84 Purple Swamphen
85 Rainbow Lorikeet
86 Red Wattlebird
87 Red-browed Finch
88 Red-browed Treecreeper
89 Red-capped Robin
90 Red-kneed Dotterel
91 Red-necked Avocet
92 Red-necked Stint
93 Red-rumped Parrot
94 Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
95 Royal Spoonbill
96 Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
97 Scarlet Robin
98 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
99 Silver Gull
100 Silvereye
101 Song Thrush
102 Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
103 Spotless Crake
104 Spotted Dove
105 Spotted Pardalote
106 Straw-necked Ibis
107 Striated Pardalote
108 Striated Thornbill
109 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
110 Superb Fairy-wren
111 Swift Parrot
112 Tawny Frogmouth
113 Tree Martin
114 Wedge-tailed Eagle
115 Welcome Swallow
116 Whiskered Tern
117 Whistling Kite
118 White-browed Scrubwren
119 White-browed Woodswallow
120 White-eared Honeyeater
121 White-faced Heron
122 White-fronted Chat
123 White-naped Honeyeater
124 White-plumed Honeyeater
125 White-throated Treecreeper
126 Willie Wagtail
127 Yellow Thornbill
128 Yellow-billed Spoonbill
129 Zebra Finch

130 Gang Gang Cockatoo

131 Noisy Friarbird
A lone individual was reported on Friday in a tiny park in Viewbank (a densely populated Melbourne suburb) far to the west of its normal range. We found the bird within two minutes of arrival on Saturday morning because of its distinctive call. It was a special tick for a rather scary, prehistoric-looking bird.
 

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it looks like a skeksi in a tree! Well done.

Why thank you! We were quite happy with the tick, especially since we dipped twice on the Red-Whiskered Bulbuls a couple km away. From what I read, Bulbuls (an introduced species) were thought to be extinct in Victoria, with the last reliable sighting being in 2009. As per usual, everyone else seems to be seeing them except us.

Man, you are showing your age! I had to Google what a Skeksis was. Then again, maybe the 1982 movie has only just been released in NZ. ;)
 
I noticed I had missed Pectoral Sandpiper which was actually 280. That makes Pinyon Jay 281.

First day birding in Arizona this year.

282 Neotropical Cormorant
283 Green Heron
284 Inca Dove
285 Verdin
286 Curve-billed Thrasher
287 Lucy's Warbler
288 Abert's Towhee
289 White-winged Dove
290 Gila Woodpecker
291 Gambel's Quail
292 Common Gallinule

39 Desert Cottontail
40 Arizona Cotton Rat

I spent the earlier part of the weekend in southern Arizona where I visited the world-famous birding site, Madera Canyon, as well as Mt Lemmon and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Had a spectacular time and saw many life birds. Also added a few mammals and reptiles as well. One interesting miss came in the late evening when I noticed large bats flying around the canyon. I stupidly assumed that they were insectivorous bats and identifying them was beyond my skill. The following day, having left the canyon I discovered that the hummingbird feeders near where I saw the bats were frequently visited by long-tongued and long-nosed bats! It is more than likely that those were the bats I saw, so I missed out on the opportunity to watch them feed at close range! Another interesting tidbit. I saw seven species of hummingbird in one day.

Madera Canyon
293 Elf Owl
294 Acorn Woodpecker
295 Mexican Jay
296 Bridled Titmouse
297 Broad-billed Hummingbird
298 Magnificent Hummingbird
299 Elegant Trogon
300 Arizona Woodpecker
301 Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher

302 Painted Redstart
303 Yellow-eyed Junco
304 Dusky-capped Flycatcher
305 Montezuma Quail
306 Plain-capped Starthroat
307 Canyon Towhee
308 Rufous-winged Sparrow

6 Desert Grassland Whiptail


Mt Lemmon
309 Greater Pewee

41 Cliff Chipmunk


Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
310 Cactus Wren

7 Ornate Tree Lizard
 
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Birds
50) Willet Tringa semipalmata
51) Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea

~Thylo:cool:

Birds
52) Sanderling Calidris alba
53) Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla
54) Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
55) Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus
56) Snowy Egret Egretta thula
57) Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus
58) Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea
59) Double-Crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus

~Thylo:cool:
 
I went for a six-hour walk through the bush today, at Lewis Pass, and added a few common birds to the year list:

557) NZ robin Petroica australis
558) NZ tomtit Petroica macrocephala
559) Tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
 
Birds
52) Sanderling Calidris alba
53) Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla
54) Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
55) Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus
56) Snowy Egret Egretta thula
57) Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus
58) Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea
59) Double-Crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus

~Thylo:cool:

60) Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
61) Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos

~Thylo:cool:
 
A couple ones I forgot to include from Madera Canyon

311 Greater Roadrunner

42 Arizona Gray Squirrel

Phoenix Zoo
312 Rosy-faced Lovebird
313 Gilded Flicker
314 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
315 Ladder-backed Woodpecker

43 Harris's Antelope Squirrel

8 Zebra-tailed Lizard
9 Desert Spiny Lizard
10 Tiger Whiptail
 
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Had perhaps the most surreal sighting of the year today- was in my room with the window open and heard a vaguely familiar bird call outside. Looked out and there, flying at quite a height accompanied by three herring gulls:

112. Northern gannet

Considering this was in Essex (nowhere near their breeding range) and about 3km inland, it was rather startling. Having examined soundbites of gannet calls, looked at videos of gannets in flight and checked if they ever go inland (they do, occasionally) I feel that it was the only thing I could have seen.

Migration is now in full swing in our neck of the woods- as well as large flocks of swallows and house martins, a hobby, several blackcaps and a turtle dove all passing through, managed to get another two new species of migrant bird.

113. Lesser whitethroat
114. Spotted flycatcher
 
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