ZooChat Big Year 2020

carl the birder said:
you cant count a bird if it was ringed that day? that werid it just as wild as that day then the day afther that
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Yeah, this is the official ruling in a lot of European countries - as far as I've been able to figure out, this has a few main reasons:

1) The safety and welfare of the bird: allowing people to count the bird while it is in the hand or immediately after release could allow for the bird being held for a lot longer than necessary (for example: "my friend will be here in 20 minutes, could you wait for releasing it until they arrive?")

2) The privacy and work efficiency of the ringers: some ringing stations, definitely in migrant hotspots get rarities pretty much daily, if all of those stations would constantly be flooded with twitchers waiting for a rarity to show up they could no longer ring birds effectively. By only making birds countable the day after ringing, ringing stations have time to prepare for a lot of people coming the next day.

3) Unfair advantages for people that know ringers: some vagrants (mainly warblers) are all fairly regularly captured by banding stations but only very rarely encountered in the field in Northwestern Europe. This is for a few main reasons: they're very skulky, they're very hard to identify, and they're very scarce in numbers. Ringing stations often play song/calls of rare species continuously all night long in hopes of convincing them to come down, and thus create situations where birds that are normally almost never seen can be captured multiple times a year. This isn't really a natural situation at all because the birds are directly called in even though they would otherwise migrate over, and twitchers that are good friends with people in otherwise inaccessible ringing stations would have a huge advantage over everybody else if they could count them as wild.

There's a few other reasons I've heard of as well (among others that ringing just isn't really within the spirit of birding because it simplifies identification immensely), but overall in my opinion waiting until the next morning for a bird to become countable is a fairly good solution for the "official" birding competition where everyone is competing against each other for the best year list, life list, etc. It makes it so that these birds (that are on migration and only came down because they heard the song being played) have a chance to move on before any birder gets to see them, it makes it so that ringing stations aren't overrun by twitchers, and it evens out the playing field so that everyone has equal chances competitively.

Personally I'm not that bothered, and everyone does what they want for a personal list. If I only saw a bird while it was being held (or only immediately after, when it dives in a bush not to be seen again) I don't think I would count it - the bird isn't really displaying any natural behaviour then and is by all meanings of the word still "captive", or at least still has direct effects of being held "captive". On the other hand, if I saw a bird on the same day, a few hours after it was ringed and after it had resumed normal natural behaviour I think I wouldn't have any problems counting it then - as you say, they're still wild birds.
 
Yikes, today was a shocker. Edwards’s lake is a decently good place for birds considering it’s only a few kilometres away, main bird target was of course the elusive tawny frogmouth which still eludes me, although the by-fly was pretty good, a Reed Warbler, a White Browed scrubwren , superb fairy wren and a kelp gull.

But that wasn’t why I was upset, the frogs were my overall target and did they deliver.....

In sound, I kid you not there were thousands of pobblebonks and hundreds of marsh frogs calling, I did not see a single one, I searched for an hour scanning every single patch of land where I heard frogs.

Do feral domestic Muscovy ducks (establishes) count?

Invertebrates

72. Common Flatwing (Austroargiolestes icteromelas)
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Yikes, today was a shocker. Edwards’s lake is a decently good place for birds considering it’s only a few kilometres away, main bird target was of course the elusive tawny frogmouth which still eludes me, although the by-fly was pretty good, a Reed Warbler, a White Browed scrubwren , superb fairy wren and a kelp gull.

But that wasn’t why I was upset, the frogs were my overall target and did they deliver.....

In sound, I kid you not there were thousands of pobblebonks and hundreds of marsh frogs calling, I did not see a single one, I searched for an hour scanning every single patch of land where I heard frogs.

Do feral domestic Muscovy ducks (establishes) count?

Invertebrates

72. Common Flatwing (Austroargiolestes icteromelas)
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Frogs are very difficult to spot when it's daytime, especially if it's sunny! I highly recommend returning to the spot at night (ideally with a headtorch) - if it's raining or if the ground is wet from recent rain, you have a good chance of spotting a frog on the move :) Going at night might also help you in tracking down that Tawny!

Kelp Gull is a strange find that far in land! They are normally really specialised on rocky cliffs along the coast.

Muscovy Ducks are not considered established in Australia so they do not count, no.
 
Dannelboyz said:
Frogs are very difficult to spot when it's daytime, especially if it's sunny! I highly recommend returning to the spot at night (ideally with a headtorch) - if it's raining or if the ground is wet from recent rain, you have a good chance of spotting a frog on the move :) Going at night might also help you in tracking down that Tawny!

Kelp Gull is a strange find that far in land! They are normally really specialised on rocky cliffs along the coast.

Muscovy Ducks are not considered established in Australia so they do not count, no.
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I would go out at night for frogs.

If there was not a curfew :(
 
Yoshistar888 said:
I would go out at night for frogs.

If there was not a curfew :(
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You might have to wait a week or so till the curfew is eased. It is easier if you can go out with one or two mates, so you can triangulate the frogs with your torches as frogs tend to throw their voices making it difficult to spot them with one torch. Make sure you keep the torches up against your head with the beam in line with your eyesight whenever spotlighting. Actually powerful head lamps are better still.
 
MRJ said:
You might have to wait a week or so till the curfew is eased. It is easier if you can go out with one or two mates, so you can triangulate the frogs with your torches as frogs tend to throw their voices making it difficult to spot them with one torch. Make sure you keep the torches up against your head with the beam in line with your eyesight whenever spotlighting. Actually powerful head lamps are better still.
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Great suggestion but one problem, I’m lacking in the ‘mate’ department. I’ll definitely think about it though.
 
Another two days of rarity-searching at the coast without rarities didn't get me any birds, but did get me a few good inverts (we extended the latest record of the very rare rosy wave by 16 days!). The bird additions were from this morning, a very nice little crake near Lier, Antwerpen being skulky as ever, but occasionally showing very well.

BIRDS:
256) Water rail, Rallus aquaticus
257) Little crake, Zapornia parva

INVERTS:
149) Rosy wave, Scopula emutaria
150) Red-veined darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii
151) Latticed heath, Chiasmia clathrata
 
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Yoshistar888 said:
Yikes, today was a shocker. Edwards’s lake is a decently good place for birds considering it’s only a few kilometres away, main bird target was of course the elusive tawny frogmouth which still eludes me, although the by-fly was pretty good, a Reed Warbler, a White Browed scrubwren , superb fairy wren and a kelp gull.

But that wasn’t why I was upset, the frogs were my overall target and did they deliver.....

In sound, I kid you not there were thousands of pobblebonks and hundreds of marsh frogs calling, I did not see a single one, I searched for an hour scanning every single patch of land where I heard frogs.

Do feral domestic Muscovy ducks (establishes) count?

Invertebrates

72. Common Flatwing (Austroargiolestes icteromelas)
Click to expand...

Invertebrates

73. Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi)
74. Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)
75. Slender Ringtail (Austrolestes analis)

 
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Originally I thought it was a trapdoor due to the fact that funnel webs normally nest in more concealed areas, until I saw the spider which, based on its sheer size alone makes it definitely.

76. Victorian Funnelweb Spider (Hadronyche modesta)
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Originally I thought it was a trapdoor due to the fact that funnel webs normally nest in more concealed areas, until I saw the spider which, based on its sheer size alone makes it definitely.

76. Victorian Funnelweb Spider (Hadronyche modesta)
Click to expand...

Slugs in the garden

77. Chestnut Slug (Deroceras invadens)
78. Milky Slug (Deroceras reticulatum)
 
Vision said:
Yeah, this is the official ruling in a lot of European countries - as far as I've been able to figure out, this has a few main reasons:

1) The safety and welfare of the bird: allowing people to count the bird while it is in the hand or immediately after release could allow for the bird being held for a lot longer than necessary (for example: "my friend will be here in 20 minutes, could you wait for releasing it until they arrive?")

2) The privacy and work efficiency of the ringers: some ringing stations, definitely in migrant hotspots get rarities pretty much daily, if all of those stations would constantly be flooded with twitchers waiting for a rarity to show up they could no longer ring birds effectively. By only making birds countable the day after ringing, ringing stations have time to prepare for a lot of people coming the next day.

3) Unfair advantages for people that know ringers: some vagrants (mainly warblers) are all fairly regularly captured by banding stations but only very rarely encountered in the field in Northwestern Europe. This is for a few main reasons: they're very skulky, they're very hard to identify, and they're very scarce in numbers. Ringing stations often play song/calls of rare species continuously all night long in hopes of convincing them to come down, and thus create situations where birds that are normally almost never seen can be captured multiple times a year. This isn't really a natural situation at all because the birds are directly called in even though they would otherwise migrate over, and twitchers that are good friends with people in otherwise inaccessible ringing stations would have a huge advantage over everybody else if they could count them as wild.

There's a few other reasons I've heard of as well (among others that ringing just isn't really within the spirit of birding because it simplifies identification immensely), but overall in my opinion waiting until the next morning for a bird to become countable is a fairly good solution for the "official" birding competition where everyone is competing against each other for the best year list, life list, etc. It makes it so that these birds (that are on migration and only came down because they heard the song being played) have a chance to move on before any birder gets to see them, it makes it so that ringing stations aren't overrun by twitchers, and it evens out the playing field so that everyone has equal chances competitively.

Personally I'm not that bothered, and everyone does what they want for a personal list. If I only saw a bird while it was being held (or only immediately after, when it dives in a bush not to be seen again) I don't think I would count it - the bird isn't really displaying any natural behaviour then and is by all meanings of the word still "captive", or at least still has direct effects of being held "captive". On the other hand, if I saw a bird on the same day, a few hours after it was ringed and after it had resumed normal natural behaviour I think I wouldn't have any problems counting it then - as you say, they're still wild birds.
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i sweden most ringing staions is lokede in some of the best birdng places in swede. and often theri is loots of regular birder close to the ringin are. i wood be a bitt rude to not show the rare bird to the birders close to the station. i dont realy agre on the easy id part. some specis can only be indentfied in hand or with DNA. alos you have a point on the 1 past but. i they chek the birds fatt level and general helth. and if they are ok the the put it out on bird alarm (rare bird alert app in sweden)
 
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22/9/2020
172. PIED HONEYEATER.* ( my first lifer this year.)
173. black honeyeater
I recently have been seeing birdline NSW reports of these two honeyeaters in a national park not too far from my place. ( 250 kilometres from my home town.) A bit far for a day trip. Yesterday I read a report of them being a bit closer to home. (130 kilometres) so I headed out on a twitch. As luck would have it, the first bird I spotted when I arrived at the site was a pied honeyeater. Almost too easy. There were plenty of them. The males were easy to spot due to their display flight. The black honeyeaters were a bit harder to spot. The males wouldn't sit still. They were too busy fighting of rivals and chasing the girls. Although they weren't a lifer, it's only the second time I've seen them.
 
A pleasingly slightly random set of additions from an excursion up to Spurn (via an ibis stop on the way) on Sunday in search of migrants:

Birds:
193. Glossy Ibis - Plegadis falcinellus
194. Lapland Bunting - Calcarius lapponicus
195. Whinchat - Saxicola rubetra
196. Little Stint - Calidris minuta

(UK: 194)

:)
 
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