ZooChat Big Year 2018

Took my day off in lieu for working Boxing Day today and set off to try to hit 100 birds in January, which I've never before managed. I made it - with the help of two 'second-ever-sighting' ducks along the way. 97-98 are Adwick Washlands, 99-101 are North Cave Wetlands and the last bird and the mammal are closer to home at Carr Vale in Bolsover.

Birds:
97. Smew - Mergellus albellus
98. Grey Partridge - Perdix perdix
99. Common Gull - Larus canus
100. European Green Woodpecker - Picus viridis
101. Green-winged Teal - Anas carolinensis
102. European Jay - Garrulus glandarius

Mammals:
9. Western Roe Deer - Capreolus capreolus

:)
 
1/2/2018
102. black fronted dotterel
103. diamond dove
104. hoary headed grebe
105. ORANGE CHAT**
106. red capped robin
107. tree martin
 
Hix said:
Fish
170. Milkfish
171. Crocodile Longtom
172. Harlequin Rockcod
173. Flagtail Blanquillo
174. Small-spotted Dart
175. Sordid Snapper
176. Goldspot Emperor
177. Goldsaddle Goatfish
178. Dot-Dash Goatfish
179. Citron Butterflyfish
180. Klein's Butterflyfish
181. Blackspot Sergeant
182. Yellowaxil Chromis
183. Blue-spotted Wrasse
184. Tripletail Wrasse
185. Exquisite Wrasse
186. Ladder Wrasse
187. Palenose Parrotfish
188. Bluestriped Fangblenny
189. Zebra Dartfish
190. Bluespine Unicornfish
191. Red-tooth triggerfish
192. Wedgetail Triggerfish
193. Fringelip Mullet

Inverts
8. Salp
9. Banded Coral Shrimp

:p

Hix
Click to expand...
A NIght Dive last night picked up a few more fish and inverts (first three fish were from a previous dive), plus plenty of crabs and shrimp that are yet to be identified.

Fish
194. Throatspot Blenny
195. Large Whipgoby
196. Banded Lizardfish
197. White-tipped Reef Shark
198. Radiated Lionfish
199. Iridescent Cardinalfish
200. Blackblotched Porcupine Fish

Inverts
10. Crown-of-Thorns Starfish
11. Banded Sea Urchin
12. Lions Paw Sea Cucumber
13. Black Longspine Sea Urchin
14. Savigny's Sea Urchin
15. Magnificent Sea Anemone
16. Triton Conch (aka Triton's Trumpet)

:p

Hix
 
lintworm said:
4. Culpeo
5. South-American grey fox

I expect some few hundred European rabbits later today from Santiago airport and those will be the last mammals from continent number 1 this month...
Click to expand...

I just got back from a 10 day working trip to Tanzania, which I mainly spent confined in a hotel compound in the town of Moshi. Though I managed to sneak in 2 nights in the Serengeti, which gave a huge boost to the mammal numbers.

Moshi
6. Vervet monkey
7. Ochre bush squirrel
8. Sykes's guenon
9. Eastern black-and-white colobus
10. Small-eared greater galago

On the road to Serengeti
11. Unstriped ground squirrel

Ngorongoro conservation area & Serengeti NP
12. Eastern black rhino
13. Olive baboon
14. White-bearded wildebeest ssp. mearnsi
15. Grant's zebra
16. Topi
17. Cokes' hartebeest
18. Spotted hyena
19. African elephant
20. Bat-eared fox
21. Cavendish' dikdik
22. Steenbok
23. Masai giraffe
24. Eland
25. Thomson's gazelle ssp. nasalis
26. Grant's gazelle ssp. robertsi
27. Common hippo
28. Klipspringer ssp. schillingsii
29. African savanna hare
30. Impala
31. Bohor reedbuck
32. Black-necked rock hyrax
33. Yellow-spotted bush hyrax
34. Leopard
35. Cheetah
36. Serval
37. African lion
38. Black-backed jackal
39. African golden wolf
40. Zebra mongoose
41. Dwarf mongoose
42. Common warthog
43. African buffalo
44. African grass rat

A visit to the Serengeti was necessary to finally see two of my most wanted African mammals: leopard and cheetah, of which we saw 3 and 2 respectively over 1.5 days of driving through the Serengeti. I only visited the southern Ndutu sector and a little bit of the Seronera sector, so the focus is mainly on grassland species and we missed species common elsewhere in the park like oribi, bushbuck and waterbuck. But nevertheless the overall score of 39 new mammals in such a short time period is still quite impressive, even by African standards.
 
Here's the first month's round-up:


BIRDS:

robmv – 113
Mr. Zootycoon – 107
boof – 107
Maguari – 102
DesertRhino150 – 82
Ituri – 74
Vision – 74
ThylacineAlive – 73
LaughingDove – 72
Swampy – 63
lintworm – 62
KevinVar – 60
Chlidonias – 48
Macaw16 – 45
animal_expert01 – 41
birdsandbats – 27
d1am0ndback – 19
jayjds2 – 17
Hix – 16
Zoo Tycooner FR – 14
Coelacanth18 – 12
Pleistohorse – 8


MAMMALS:

lintworm – 44
ThylacineAlive – 19
Maguari – 9
birdsandbats – 6
LaughingDove – 5
Ituri – 4
animal_expert01 – 4
Swampy – 4
DesertRhino150 – 3
Macaw16 – 3
KevinVar – 3
Hix – 3
jayjds2 – 3
Pleistohorse – 3
Mr. Zootycoon – 3
Coelacanth18 – 2
Vision – 1
d1am0ndback – 1
Chlidonias – 1


HERPTILES:

animal_expert01 – 11 Herptiles total (9 Reptiles, 2 Amphibians)


FISH:

Hix – 200
animal_expert01 – 5


INVERTEBRATES:

Hix – 16 assorted
animal_expert01 – 4 assorted
DesertRhino150 – 3 assorted (2 hymenopterans, 1 beetle)
Mr. Zootycoon – 3 assorted
birdsandbats – 2 assorted
KevinVar – 1 lepidopteran
jayjds2 – 1 fly
 
boof said:
With my job I'm always rostered to work night shift on New year's eve. In April 2017 I transfered from the Illawarra area of New South Wales to Nyngan in the centre of New South Wales. When I was working in the Illawarra on New year's eve my first year bird would always be a silver gull at one of the McDonald's carparks. It was good to start the year off with a Tawny Frogmouth. It will be interesting to read everyone's first bird.
Click to expand...
Below are the first year-birds of all thread participants (in the order they were posted):

@Chlidonias - Tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
@animal_expert01 - Noisy Miner Manorina melanocephala
@boof - Tawny Frogmouth Podargus strigoides
@Vision - Western Jackdaw Coloeus monedula
@Swampy - Common Blackbird Turdus merula
@LaughingDove - Great Tit Parus major
@birdsandbats - Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
@DesertRhino150 - Common Blackbird Turdus merula
@Maguari - Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
@Zoo Tycooner FR - Barbary Dove Streptopelia risoria
@robmv - Canada Goose Branta canadensis
@Mr. Zootycoon - Great Tit Parus major
@Ituri - Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis
@Pleistohorse - Common Raven Corvus corax
@KevinVar - Common Blackbird Turdus merula
@d1am0ndback - Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata
@jayjds2 - House Sparrow Passer domesticus
@Coelacanth18 - Feral Pigeon Columbia livia
@Hix - Christmas Island Frigatebird Fregata andrewsi
@Macaw16 - Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus
@lintworm - Southern Caracara Caracara plancus
@ThylacineAlive - Feral Pigeon Columbia livia
 
Chlidonias said:
Mr. Zootycoon – 107
Click to expand...

Almost! Yesterday I spotted a very unexpected lifer while driving home, so:

Birds
108. Black swan [Cygnus atratus]

Although scarce, the black swan is an established exotic in the Netherland with up to 70 breeding pairs.
 
Birds:
42. Sacly Breasted Lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus)
43. Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus)
44. Peaceful Dove (Geopelia striata)

Mammals:
5. Black Rat (Rattus rattus)
 
lintworm said:
I just got back from a 10 day working trip to Tanzania, which I mainly spent confined in a hotel compound in the town of Moshi. Though I managed to sneak in 2 nights in the Serengeti, which gave a huge boost to the mammal numbers.

Moshi
6. Vervet monkey
7. Ochre bush squirrel
8. Sykes's guenon
9. Eastern black-and-white colobus
10. Small-eared greater galago

On the road to Serengeti
11. Unstriped ground squirrel

Ngorongoro conservation area & Serengeti NP
12. Eastern black rhino
13. Olive baboon
14. White-bearded wildebeest ssp. mearnsi
15. Grant's zebra
16. Topi
17. Cokes' hartebeest
18. Spotted hyena
19. African elephant
20. Bat-eared fox
21. Cavendish' dikdik
22. Steenbok
23. Masai giraffe
24. Eland
25. Thomson's gazelle ssp. nasalis
26. Grant's gazelle ssp. robertsi
27. Common hippo
28. Klipspringer ssp. schillingsii
29. African savanna hare
30. Impala
31. Bohor reedbuck
32. Black-necked rock hyrax
33. Yellow-spotted bush hyrax
34. Leopard
35. Cheetah
36. Serval
37. African lion
38. Black-backed jackal
39. African golden wolf
40. Zebra mongoose
41. Dwarf mongoose
42. Common warthog
43. African buffalo
44. African grass rat

A visit to the Serengeti was necessary to finally see two of my most wanted African mammals: leopard and cheetah, of which we saw 3 and 2 respectively over 1.5 days of driving through the Serengeti. I only visited the southern Ndutu sector and a little bit of the Seronera sector, so the focus is mainly on grassland species and we missed species common elsewhere in the park like oribi, bushbuck and waterbuck. But nevertheless the overall score of 39 new mammals in such a short time period is still quite impressive, even by African standards.
Click to expand...

Chlidonias said:
Lintworm's mammals have all been disallowed... :p
Click to expand...

45. Alpine chamois

:p

And here come the birds from Tanzania:


63. Common ostrich
64. Cattle egret
65. Black-headed heron
66. Hamerkop
67. European white stork
68. Abdim's stork
69. African openbill stork
70. Marabou stork
71. Hadada ibis
72. Glossy ibis
73. African spoonbill
74. Egyptian goose
75. Knob-billed duck
76. White-faced whistling duck
77. Red-billed teal
78. Yellow-billed kite
79. Black-shouldered kite
80. Secretary bird
81. Hooded vulture
82. African white-backed vulture
83. Ruppell's griffon vulture
84. Lappet-faced vulture
85. Montagu's harrier
86. Eastern chanting goshawk
87. Dark chanting goshawk
88. Augur buzzard
89. Mountain buzzard
90. Tawny eagle
91. Bateleur
92. African crowned eagle
93. Common kestrel
94. Lesser kestrel
95. Greater kestrel
96. Lanner falcon
97. Helmeted guineafowl
98. Coqui francolin
99. Grey-breasted spurfowl
100. Black crake
101. Common moorhen
102. Grey-crowned crane
103. Kori bustard
104. Black-bellied bustard
105. Black-winged stilt
106. Two-banded courser
107. Collared pratincole
108. Blacksmith lapwing
109. Spur-winged lapwing
110. Crowned lapwing
111. Ruff
112. Little stint
113. Wood sandpiper
114. Common sandpiper
115. African grey-headed gull
116. African green pigeon
117. Speckled pigeon
118. Emerald-spotted wood dove
119. RIng-necked dove
120. Red-eyed dove
121. African mourning dove
122. Laughing dove
123. Dusky turtle dove
124. Fischer's lovebird
125. White-bellied go-away-bird
126. Schalow's turaco
127. Greater spotted cuckoo
128. White-browed coucal
129. Spotted eagle owl
130. Little swift
131. African palm swift
132. Speckled mousebird
133. Grey-headed kingfisher
134. Brown-hooded kingfisher
135. Woodland kingfisher
136. Little bee-eater
137. Cinnamon-chested bee-eater
138. White-throated bee-eater
139. European roller
140. Lilac-breasted roller
141. African grey hornbill
142. Crowned hornbill
143. Trumpeter hornbill
144. White-eared barbet
145. Brown-breasted barbet
146. Usambiro barbet
147. Rufous-naped lark
148. Fischer's sparrow-lark
149. Sand martin
150. Red-rumped swallow
151. Barn swallow
152. Lesser striped swallow
153. Wire-tailed swallow
154. Black saw-wing
155. African pied wagtail
156. Rosy-breasted longclaw
157. Grassland pipit
158. Common bulbul
159. White-browed robin-chat
160. Little rock thrush
161. Northern anteater chat
162. Whinchat
163. Capped wheatear
164. Schalow's wheatear
165. Northern wheatear
166. Blackcap
167. Zitting cisticola
168. Tawny-flanked prinia
169. Grey-backed cameroptera
170. Bar-throated apalis
171. Southern black flycatcher
172. Spotted flycatcher
173. African dusky flycatcher
174. African paradise flycatcher
175. Golden-winged sunbird
176. Amethyst sunbird
177. Variable sunbird
178. Collared sunbird
179. Common fiscal
180. Grey-backed fiscal
181. Magpie shrike
182. Tropical boubou
183. Black-backed puffback
184. Black-crowned chagra
185. Northern white-crowned shrike
186. Fork-tailed drongo
187. Pied crow
188. Cape rook
189. Red-billed oxpecker
190. Red-winged starling
191. Waller's starling
192. Greater blue-eared starling
193. Ruppell's long-tailed starling
194. Violet-backed starling
195. Superb starling
196. Hildebrandt's starling
197. Wattled starling
198. Speckle-fronted weaver
199. Swahili sparrow
200. Grey-headed sparrow
201. White-browed sparrow-weaver
202. Rufous-tailed weaver
203. White-headed buffalo weaver
204. Red-billed buffalo weaver
205. Black-headed weaver
206. Spectacled weaver
207. Red-headed weaver
208. Baglafecht's weaver
209. Red-billed quelea
210. Yellow bishop
211. Jackson's widowbird
212. White-winged widowbird
213. Southern red bishop
214. Red-cheeked cordonbleu
215. Red-billed firefinch
216. Bronze mannikin
217. Pin-tailed whydah
218. Yellow-fronted canary
219. Streaky seedeater

There are still loads of common East African birds missing, some which I will see in September....
 
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Lintworm said:
193. Ruppell's long-eared starling
Click to expand...

You might want to amend that.

:p

Hix
 
KevinVar said:
BIRDS
58. Eurasian Siskin (Spinus spinus)
59. European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
60. European Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
Click to expand...
After having barely any to no free time at all over the last couple of weeks I hope to do some proper birding again soon.
61. Northern Raven (Corvus corax)
62. Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
 
I went out today, looking for a lesser white-fronted goose in the area, but sadly missed it. I did find these two.
BIRDS:
75) Western marsh harrier, Circus aeruginosus
76) Eurasian skylark, Alauda arvensis
 
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DesertRhino150 said:
Another new bird for my year list turned up in the garden today:

82. Grey wagtail Motacilla cinerea
Click to expand...

A birdwatching boat trip on the River Blackwater today gave me seven new birds and a new mammal for the year list:

83. Ruddy turnstone Arenaria interpres
84. Eurasian oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus (NT)
85. Grey plover Pluvialis squatarola
86. Red-breasted merganser Mergus serrator
87. Great northern diver Gavia immer
88. Slavonian grebe Podiceps auritus (VU)
89. Common scoter Melanitta nigra

4. Harbour seal Phoca vitulina
 
Quite the eventful day today! Finally done with exams so I started the day off by going down to Brussels to twitch a pygmy cormorant that has been there for a few weeks. Quite the unexpected rarity in Belgium, and I'm glad it stuck around for long enough for me to go see it!

BIRDS:
77) Pygmy cormorant, Microcarbo pygmeus
78) Rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri
79) Great crested grebe, Podiceps cristatus
80) Eurasian nuthatch, Sitta europaea
81) Rook, Corvus frugilegus

After that, I drove up to the Northern Netherlands to spend the weekend here. Of course, when seeing that we'd pass right by a pair of ferruginous ducks on our way, I had to stop there for a few minutes!

82) Lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus
83) Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus
84) Great egret, Ardea alba
85) White stork, Ciconia ciconia
86) Eurasian oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus
87) Ferruginous duck, Aythya nyroca
 
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