ZooChat Big Year 2015

[jbnbsn99]

439 Common Goldeneye - Bucephala clangula

 

[Ituri]

277 Northern Pygmy-Owl - Glaucidium gnoma
278 Purple Finch - Haemorhous purpureus

Technically not a new bird for the year, because I heard some in Oregon back in February, but I got a genuinely good look at a White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) today!

 

[lintworm]

Some additions from the Usambara's, this is my last week in Africa for this year and I am hoping for 12 lifers, to end the year with a total of 800 bird species on my life list.


507. Lesser honeyguide
508. Trumpeter hornbill
509. Brown-crowned tchagra
510. Retz's helmet shrike

Helmet shrikes are now my new favourite birds on the African mainland, they are very enjoyable to watch and a very diverse group. It is a shame they are almost not represented in zoos....

511. Yellow-bellied waxbill
512. Harlequin quail
513. African cuckoo hawk

Herps:
25. Black centipede eater (Aparallactus guentheri)
26. Trachylepis maculilabris (a species of skink )

 

[zooboy28]

Still been a slow bird year, still because of a lack of effort on my part. Recently spotted one new bird in Melbourne, Australia; and three in the lower North Island of New Zealand:

Birds
111 Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybridus
112 North Island Kaka Nestor meriondalis
113 Lesser Redpoll Acanthis cabaret
114 New Zealand Wood Pigeon Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae

Its unlikely I will see anything new locally this year, but I'm hopeful of seeing one or two new things before the year is out.

But, very surprisingly, I did see a new bird, and its a lifer:

Birds
115 Tawny Frogmouth Podargus strigoides

It was sitting on the ground in a park at midday yesterday - my dog was rather interested in it, but it wasn't so keen to get acquainted.

 

[Hix]

26. Trachylepis maculilabris (a species of skink )

Speckle-lipped Skink.

 

[Hix]

Invertebrates
10. Christmas Island Blue Crab (Discoplax celeste), an endemic species.



Hix

 

[lintworm]

511. Yellow-bellied waxbill
512. Harlequin quail
513. African cuckoo hawk

Herps:
25. Black centipede eater (Aparallactus guentheri)
26. Trachylepis maculilabris (a species of skink )

Last update from the E Usambara, tomorrow I am leaving for Dar es Salaam and monday evening I will fly back to Europe...

514. Eastern green tinkerbird
515. Black-bellied starling

 

[boof]

224. Azure Kingfisher
225. Red kneed dotterel

 

[lintworm]

Last update from the E Usambara, tomorrow I am leaving for Dar es Salaam and monday evening I will fly back to Europe...

514. Eastern green tinkerbird
515. Black-bellied starling

Probably my last update this year, I am flying back to Zurich in a few hours and I do not expect to see anything new in Switzerland / Netherlands.

Today I went to look for something that looked like mudflats (so with possibility of crab plovers...) but I never reached there, but still got 2 new bird species for this year:

516. Dimorphic egret
517. Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Herps:
27. Yellow-headed dwarf gecko

 

[Hix]

A very enjoyable Christmas Day scuba diving, seeing five more species of fish forthis year, two of them lifers (one quite attractive, the other very ugly and one of the deadliest creatures in the oceans), plus a beautiful hybrid and two rare colour morphs.

Went spotlighting after dinner, but all I saw were some chooks, black rats, and a bunch of spiders (plus centipedes and crabs).

Fish
203. Giant Moray
204. Stonefish
205. Saddled Butterflyfish
206. Threespot Angelfish
207. Arrow Dartfish (also known as Black Firegoby)

Mammals
20. Black Rat



Hix

 

[LaughingDove]

One more addition from Richmond Park today. Almost certainly my last for the year.

269) Stonechat

 

[Chlidonias]

233) Californian quail Callipepla californica

A pair seen on my way to work yesterday.

 

[Hix]

Fish
208. Clown Coris
209. Paletail Puller
210. Mackerel Tuna
211. Scaly Puller

Invertebrates
11. Christmas Tree Worms (Spirobranchus giganteus)



Hix

 

[Hix]

Spent part of the last day of the year exploring Christmas Island, until it started to rain and I returned home. A bit later I went snorkeling in a tidal rockpool and picked up a few more fish and inverts.

Fish
212. Bullethead Parrotfish
213. Sleek Unicornfish
214. Whiteband Damsel
215. Christmas Blenny
216. Rippled Rockskipper
217. Broadstripe Cardinalfish
218. Bigtail Fusilier


Invertebrates
12. Coral Banded Shrimp
13. Yellow Nipper Crab
14. Red Nipper Crab
15. Wolf Spider (Hogna crispipes)
16. Christmas Island Paper Wasp (Polistes balder)
17. Yellow Locust (Valanga irregularis)
18. Bennett's Featherstar

There were at least three other featherstars but I can't identify them positively (there doesn't appear to be a field guide for them). Also a Nephila sp. spider.



Hix

 

[DesertRhino150]

I forgot to add another sighting from back on Thursday 26th November. Went to Frinton-on-Sea, a good local sea-watching site where just a couple of days prior to my visit there had been sightings of eiders, common scoter, long-tailed duck, dozens of red-throated diver, Slavonian grebe, gannets, great skua, guillemots, razorbills and little auks - none of which I have seen this year.

On my visit, the sea was completely empty of all bird life bar a few black-headed gulls. But the trip was made worthwhile by a very obliging lifer, eating flies off the sea wall:

153. Purple sandpiper Calidris maritima

Managed a final trip to Abberton Reservoir this year, which allowed me to add one final lifer to my year list:

154. Slavonian grebe Podiceps auritus

And it begins all over again tomorrow!

 

[nanoboy]

Happy new year, everyone! If anyone is doing a tally, note that I am on a maximum of 185 species. I will not know the final number until I get to a desktop in a few weeks. The last bird I saw for the year was a lifer too: Baillon's Crake.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

I have a few more birds and at least one amphibian to add on but I'm not sure I'll have time to do it tonight as I'm not with my notes atm.

~Thylo

 

[Chlidonias]

the year is over, but I'll hold off on posting the full tallies for a couple of weeks so everyone can get their final sightings in.

However, the top places will be undisputed:

Birds, mammals and herptiles all go to lintworm.

Fish go to Hix.

 

[LaughingDove]

One more addition from Richmond Park today. Almost certainly my last for the year.

269) Stonechat

One or two species that I somehow missed off from the year:

270) Canada Goose (really not sure how I missed that off)
[271) Rock Kestrel (from Tanzania). Does this count? Some places list it as a subspecies of the common Kestrel, whilst others list it as a full species...]

 

[Chlidonias]

[271) Rock Kestrel (from Tanzania). Does this count? Some places list it as a subspecies of the common Kestrel, whilst others list it as a full species...]

if it can be treated as a legitimate split - and you consider it to be a full species - then you can count it.

A quick google suggests it is commonly split now.