ZooChat Big Year 2014

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I'm leaving for Arizona one more time on Saturday, so I'll finally be able to add some more birds. I've completely topped out on getable birds within a day of where I live.
 
nanoboy said:
147 Little Eagle (forgot to add to list from Western Treatment Plant visit in August)
148 Yellow-tailed Honeyeater (Bunyip National Park)
149 Pallid Cuckoo (Bunyip National Park)
150 Yellow-faced Honeyeater (Bunyip National Park)
151 Collared Sparrowhawk - (Banyule Flats)
Click to expand...

152 Brown Treecreeper [Eynesbury Box Forest]
153 Diamond Firetail [Eynesbury Box Forest]
154 Little Grassbird [Eynesbury Box Forest]
155 Weebill [You Yangs Western Plantation
156 White-winge Chough [You Yangs]

We visited Eynesbury Golf Course (which backs on to the forest) specifically to see Diamond Firetail. After an hour of wandering the fairways, dodging balls and carts, there wasn't a Firetail in sight. So, we packed up shop, and headed back to the car park. While sitting in the car having a sandwich, guess what lands in front the car? A Diamond Firetail!!
 
526. Grey Goshawk

:p

Hix
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Been quite some time since I last updated the list. Bird number 117 was actually added over a month ago, near the tail-end of migration time:

117. Willow warbler

And yesterday, went down to Heybridge Basin for the first time this winter. As well as seeing several hundred dark-bellied brents, a kestrel, sparrowhawk, half a dozen duck species, avocets and a kingfisher hunting in the estuary, managed to add three new year list species:

118. European golden plover
119. Eurasian wigeon
120. Stonechat

Cetti's warbler remains my bogey bird - heard two, saw none.
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Went to Old Hall Marshes for the second time this year - this time with a lot more new birds! As well as hundreds of brent geese, wigeon, dunlin, golden plover, two kingfishers, curlews, kestrels, marsh harriers, grey herons, little egrets and a host of other birds, I also added:

121. Northern pintail
122. Common snipe
123. Grey plover
124. Common ringed plover
125. Red knot
126. Short-eared owl
127. Red-breasted merganser

Also saw several mystery grebes, just missed a peregrine falcon and heard another Cetti's warbler - pretty sure they've been made up so someone can have a laugh at my expense.
 
First - a species that has been split from Common Bulbul - meaning in Ethiopia we saw (in different places) Somali, Common and...

544. Dark-capped Bulbul - Pycnonotus tricolor



Secondly - after a busy and stressful few weeks since returning from Ethiopia, I'm finally back on the proper wildlifing. Spent today at Leighton Moss, and managed some very Leighton Moss-y additions - including my best ever sighting of a UK mustelid, with plenty of time to watch for once!

545. Bearded Reedling - Panurus biarmicus
546. Great Bittern - Botaurus stellaris
547. Marsh Tit - Poecile palustris

71. Eurasian Otter - Lutra lutra

:)
 
Out bat-box-checking today, which yielded around 45 Soprano Pipistrelles, 17 Common Noctules and one lovely lifer...

72. Leisler's Bat - Nyctalus leisleri


We also heard what I'm reliably informed was the call of a Lesser Redpoll, but it didn't show itself!
 
A very pleasant day in North Wales yielded a couple of additions:

209. Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) at RSPB Conwy - not the most satisfying of views, but OK for a year tick
210. Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) near Capel Gwyn on Anglesey - a lifer for me and a very obliging one too
 
527. Green-backed Woodpecker

:p

Hix
 
Arizona again

I'm laying in bed at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon Arizona. Birder's Heaven. Today was a low species count day. We were trying for some way out species that required a lot of driving. We had a total of 52 species. That tally includes 3 lifers and 2 year birds.

394 Ferruginous Hawk - Buteo regalis
395 Brewer's Sparrow - Spizella breweri
396 Lark Bunting - Calamospiza melanocorys
397 Green Kingfisher - Chloroceryle americana
398 Cassin's Sparrow - Peucaea cassinii

So close to 400...
 
So here's something weird that I had missed for 6 months. Evidently, one of the birds I saw back in Idaho in March got left off of all my lists. I retroactive add in:

399 (really 175) Ring-necked Pheasant - Phasianus colchicus

Now for today. Not as great as I would have hoped, but still 3 lifers any day isn't a bad day. All these birds were at Madera Canyon Arizona. We went other places, but stuck out everywhere we went.

400 Red-naped Sapsucker - Sphyrapicus nuchalis
401 Greater Pewee - Contopus pertinax
402 Brown Creeper - Certhia americana
403 Townsend's Warbler - Setophaga townsendi

Tomorrow awaits.
 
Final Arizona count. Much driving today. It's getting harder and harder to find new species. I realize now how hard a true big year really is.

404 Bendire's Thrasher - Toxostoma bendirei
405 Le Conte's Thrasher - Toxostoma lecontei
406 Green-tailed Towhee - Pipilo chlorurus
407 Black-chinned Sparrow - Spizella atrogularis
408 Red Crossbill - Loxia curvirostra
 
528. Yellow-crested Woodpecker
529. Weyn's Weaver
530. Yellow-whiskered Greenbul

All from Mpanga Forest, Uganda.

:p

Hix
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Went to Old Hall Marshes for the second time this year - this time with a lot more new birds! As well as hundreds of brent geese, wigeon, dunlin, golden plover, two kingfishers, curlews, kestrels, marsh harriers, grey herons, little egrets and a host of other birds, I also added:

121. Northern pintail
122. Common snipe
123. Grey plover
124. Common ringed plover
125. Red knot
126. Short-eared owl
127. Red-breasted merganser

Also saw several mystery grebes, just missed a peregrine falcon and heard another Cetti's warbler - pretty sure they've been made up so someone can have a laugh at my expense.
Click to expand...

Added three new bird species today at Abberton Reservoir, including a very nice 'personal UK-first' tick for bird no. 130:

128. Common goldeneye
129. Peregrine falcon
130. Great white egret

Also saw a mass of arriving fieldfares, enormous numbers of shoveler, a probably red-crested pochard female and a swan goose - not sure whether that is countable or not?

Also unfortunately missed the merlin, white-fronted goose and goosander that have been hanging around in the area.
 
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Are great white egrets that rare in the UK? In the Netherlands they are extremely common nowadays.
 
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