ZooChat Big Year 2014

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lintworm said:
Are great white egrets that rare in the UK? In the Netherlands they are extremely common nowadays.
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They're definitely not rare - I saw two of at least four egrets that have been hanging around in the area for well over a month now, but they still seem to be quite local and are rare breeders. A 2012 breeding pair in Somerset is the only record I can find.
 
531. Rufous Sparrow

That's 300 species identified from Tanzania.

:p

Hix
 
These are all species that I have added before but I have seen multiple subspecies but only put the species down once. I will list all of the subspecies of each species but obviously one has been already counted

178) great crested grebe (australis and cristatus)
179 and 180) Great cormorant (carbo, sinensis, novaehollandiae)
181) cattle egret (coromandus and ibis)
182) great white egret (alba and modesta)
183) Eurasian coot (atra and australis)
184) Common Kestrel (tinnunculus and rupicolaeformis)
185 and 186) Peregrine Falcon (peregrinus, submelanogenys, pelegrinoides)
187) Common tern (hirundo and longipennis)
188) Rock dove (livia and palastinae)
189) Great Spotted woodpecker (major and pinetorum)
190 and 191) Yellow wagtail (flava, flavissima, beema)
192) White wagtail (yarrelli, dukhnensis)
193) Dunnock (modularis and occidentalis)
194) European robin (rubecula and melophilus)
195) Common Chiffchaff (collybita and abietinus)
196) Marsh tit (palustris and dresseri)
197) Willow tit (salicarius and kleinschmidti)
198) Coal tit (ater and britannicus)
199) Blue tit (caeruleus and obscurus)
200) Eurasian treecreeper (familiaris and britannica)
201) Eurasian Jackdaw (spermologus and sommerringii)
202) Common chaffinch ( coelebs and gengleri)
203) European goldfinch (gengleri and carduelis)
204) European greenfinch (chloris and harrisoni)

:)
 
I'm not sure I understand your rationale for adding 27 more birds to your year list when you've already seen all those species this year?
 
Chlidonias said:
I'm not sure I understand your rationale for adding 27 more birds to your year list when you've already seen all those species this year?
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They are sperate subspecies and I have seen other people list seeing subspecies as 2 if they have seen 2 different subspecies that year. I also did this for two species (great tit and long tailed tit) where I saw British and European subspecies about 4 weeks ago and asked people to let me know if i ahould list them separately but no one said I shouldn't so I assumed I should. If I can only list the species once and not include two subspecies then I think I am on 175.
I will leave it to a general consensus and if most people think I can't list extra subspecies I won't complain (though it would be nice to be over 200 species ;))
:)
 
There are some instances where someone has seen two different subspecies, and listed only the species, but later one of the subspecies has been elevated to a full species so it can be counted.

:p

Hix
 
Nope. Subspecies don't count. Only if they've been officially raised by the governing ornithological boards can you count them.
 
Ok, thats fine.
would have been nice if someone had told me that when I asked here: (first comment on page 62) :rolleyes:
LaughingDove said:
175) long tailed tit, Eastern European ssp (let me know if this can count separately from the UK ssp)
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I would actually agree that subspecies shouldn't count which is why I just put one on at first to see if it could count and since no one told me otherwise I thought they could. I definitely remember somone else listing subspecies but I will have alook through the thread and see.
:)
 
West Texas Twitch

I don't twitch often, but when I do, I need a hotel. I just got back from Arizona and lo and behold a Code 4 rare bird shows up in west Texas. I had the opportunity to chase it. I did. Flying all the way in from Siberia, I present the Common Crane - a first record for Texas.

409 Common Crane - Grus grus
410 Chestnut-collared Longspur - Calcarius ornatus
 
mstickmanp said:
I tried multiple times and drove many miles looking for this bird, and finally found one!

266. Varied Thrush
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Never birded a cemetery before, but this bird was a good excuse to do so.

267. Painted Redstart

*Mute Swan (in the cemetery entrance pond)

Overall I have seen 277 including all ABA non-countable exotics.
 
532. Gull-billed Tern

:p

Hix
 
one month left in the year, and the stats at the moment are:

BIRDS:
Chlidonias – 570
Maguari – 547
Hix – 532
jbnbsn99 – 410
Ituri – 345
boof – 325
mstickmanp – 267
lintworm – 258
Hevden – 245
robmv – 210
LaughingDove – 177-ish
nanoboy – 156
DesertRhino150 – 130
Pleistohorse – 116
zooboy28 – 92
ThylacineAlive – 72
BeardsleyZooFan – 68
JBZvolunteer – 55

MAMMALS:
Maguari – 72
Chlidonias – 71
Hix – 68
lintworm – 54
Ituri – 45
jbnbsn99 – 34
Pleistohorse – 26
DesertRhino150 – 23
LaughingDove – 23
vogelcommando – 18
mstickmanp – 18
zooboy28 – 17
JBZvolunteer – 10
dean – 8
ThylacineAlive – 7
BeardsleyZooFan – 7

HERPTILES:
lintworm – 62 Herptiles total
Maguari – 35 Herptiles total (16 Amphibians, 19 Reptiles)
Hix – 20 Reptiles
Ituri – 20 Herptiles total (4 Amphibians, 16 Reptiles)
BeardsleyZooFan – 12 Herptiles total (3 Amphibians, 9 Reptiles)
ThylacineAlive – 8 Herptiles total (3 Amphibians, 5 Reptiles)
LaughingDove – 8 Herptiles total (2 Amphibians, 6 Reptiles)
DesertRhino150 – 5 Herptiles total (2 Amphibians, 3 Reptiles)
JBZvolunteer – 4 Reptiles

FISH:
DesertRhino150 – 4

COOL NATURE FEATURES:
lintworm – 1 (Aurora borealis)
 
Interesting! Slightly amazed that I have overtaken you on mammals, Chli - that bat group membership made a real difference!

I'll hopefully add at least a couple of birds before the year's out, and I may decide I'm sure enough on a couple of Ethiopian reptiles to count them, but there is basically no chance of my adding new herps at home and new mammals would need a sizeable slice of luck.

Of course, part of the reason I started listing this year was that I knew I had Costa Rica and Ethiopia lined up so wanted to see how high I would get - it was this year or never (or at least not for while!). While I hope to have a good birding year next year it is exceptionally (lottery-winning-level) unlikely that I'll have two extra-continental trips!
 
I think I have worked out the rules now and I am 175 not 177. It doesn't change my position though but for conpleteness sake I think it would be either all the subspecies (which I see I not allowed) or none of them which leaves me at 175.
:)
 
Take that up with the birding organizations. You can make sub-lists on subspecies, especially ones that you think have a good chance of being split.
 
There is a slight chance I could make it to 200 birds this year, I've got a lot to add to the list yet!
 
One hard-earned addition today (finally giving itself up after a two-and-a-half-hour yomp around Swynnerton Old Park):

211. Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)
 
I still have birds and reptiles to identify from Tanzania, and I'm off birding this weekend and hope to catch another couple of dozen or so, plus some mammals.

:p

Hix
 
Hevden said:
Another excellent 3rd for Britain life tick on saturday along with a couple of good year ticks

243. eastern-crowned warbler
244. Yellow-browed warbler
245. Rough-legged buzzard
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One more addition from carr vale yesterday

246. Willow tit
 
Maguari said:
Interesting! Slightly amazed that I have overtaken you on mammals, Chli - that bat group membership made a real difference!
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I was expecting it. (Actually I was expecting Hix to do so also, so hurry up Hix!). I may be able to get one or two more mammals this year but there's absolutely no certainty.

I haven't added any new birds for about two months either.
 
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