Zoochat Big Year 2024

An unexpected rarity that a friend and I found today! This is actually the second time I've self-found this species in this specific county!:

Birds
504. Eurasian Wigeon Mareca penelope
The 2024 Clements update was officially released today. Clements is the taxonomy I use for my personal lists, so its yearly updates are when I update my lists. While there were actually quite a few changes which affected my lists this year, only one actually impacted my year list this year - the split of House Wren. I've seen both Northern and Southern House Wrens this year, so my bird total for the year is now 505:

Birds
505. Northern House Wren Troglodytes aedon

This is also the final Clements update ever, next year around this time I will begin to translate my lists to the new AviList taxonomy.
 
The 2024 Clements update was officially released today. Clements is the taxonomy I use for my personal lists, so its yearly updates are when I update my lists. While there were actually quite a few changes which affected my lists this year, only one actually impacted my year list this year - the split of House Wren. I've seen both Northern and Southern House Wrens this year, so my bird total for the year is now 505:

Birds
505. Northern House Wren Troglodytes aedon

This is also the final Clements update ever, next year around this time I will begin to translate my lists to the new AviList taxonomy.
A new species for me too. I saw the house wren earlier this year in Panama, so that is southern. I've seen the northern before, but not this year as the only time I spent in the US this year was a few hours at LAX.
 
A new species for me too. I saw the house wren earlier this year in Panama, so that is southern. I've seen the northern before, but not this year as the only time I spent in the US this year was a few hours at LAX.
Overall, I got a net gain on my life list of one. I gained a house wren and a booby but lost a redpoll. Plus some other changes that didn't affect my list list (I've only seen one taxa of herring gull, plain-xenops, and Rufous-naped Wren).
 
Two long awaited lifers

Mammal

26. North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) (Lifer)

I had a wonderful (And close) sighting of a family of NAROs when looking for some ardids that were new for my county. Later, a long-staying Swallow-tailed Kite was refound, and I fortunately saw it from about a mile away.

Birds
274. Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)
275. Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus) (Lifer)
276. Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)

As of now, I don't have any heard-only birds, something I'm proud of with a year of 4 owls and a nightjar species.

Fish
14. Brook silverside (Labidesthes sicculus) (Lifer)
15. Banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus)
16. Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus)

Saw the latter two on a visit to Montrose, where I saw Nagamo, the child of Imani and grandchild of Monty and Rose

Insects
267. Four-banded stink wasp (Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus)
268. Sculptured moth (Eumarozia malachitana) (Lifer)

I had hoped to visit the mega shorebird hotspots along the Illinois River before my classes start Monday, but unfortunately, I've been down with a fever since I finished with my work on Wednesday, so I'm probably not going to get to 300 birds.
Reptiles
7. Common Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)
8. Eastern Foxsnake (Pantherophis vulpinus) (Lifer)
9. Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
Amphibians
Half Day FP, Lake Co.1. American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
2. Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans)
Timber Ridge FP, Dupage Co.3. Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens)
Haven't done an update in a while. Here are some herps, the skink from Southern Illinois which I finally properly IDed. The Plains Garter Snake was seen while walking to class today, the Engineering quad at my campus has many of them but this is the first I've seen this year as opposed to the much more prevalent common garter snake.

Reptiles

10. Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)
11. Plains garter snake (Thamnophis radix)

This might be it for the year. There are at least two turtle species I could've easily gotten but never made the effort to. I might try herping more seriously next year, I can't let @birdsandbats nearly best my number in my home state!

Apparently I haven't updated my amphibians this year, which is a shame, as I had some nice ones.

Amphibians
Sam Parr st. park April 8 (Day of the eclipse)
Finally saw a Boreal Chorus frog, I heard them in some puddles on the side of the road and knew I couldn't pass up the chance to find one. Sure enough I spotted one right away. Much easier than trying to track one down in the middle of a flooded woods.​
4. Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi)
5. Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata) (Lifer)

Various locations
6. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)

In Southern IL during fieldwork, Aug
7. Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus)

In Smokey Mountain NP, June
8. Imitator Salamander (Desmognathus imitator) (Lifer)
9. Cherokee Blackbelly Salamander (Desmognathus gvnigeusgwotli) (Lifer)
10. Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola) (Lifer)

Salamanders have to be one of my favorite taxa, it was good fun looking out for them while hiking the mountains of TN and NC back in June. A lot of the ones I found are probably best left at Desmognathus sp., but these three species were definite and probably made up the majority of what I saw.
 
Overall, I got a net gain on my life list of one. I gained a house wren and a booby but lost a redpoll. Plus some other changes that didn't affect my list list (I've only seen one taxa of herring gull, plain-xenops, and Rufous-naped Wren).

I have a number of Kenyan birds that will be impacted by these revisions, though I don't think my lifelist will change as a result, just updated scientific names. I hadn't seen a confirmed Scopoli's Shearwater until after the split, too. The redpoll split loses me a species on my combined lifelist, but my wild lifelist will remain unchanged as I've never seen a wild redpoll.

~Thylo
 
I have a number of Kenyan birds that will be impacted by these revisions, though I don't think my lifelist will change as a result, just updated scientific names. I hadn't seen a confirmed Scopoli's Shearwater until after the split, too. The redpoll split loses me a species on my combined lifelist, but my wild lifelist will remain unchanged as I've never seen a wild redpoll.

~Thylo
Wait, you've seen a captive Redpoll but not a wild one? :p Where?
 
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My Istanbul trip with my father was great fun, and the raptor passage this morning across the Bosphorus from Buyuk Camlica was truly spectacular - something like 2,500 lesser spotted eagles with other birds mixed in.

Mammals
20. Harbour porpoise

Birds
266. Alpine swift
267. Alexandrine parakeet
268. Common mynah
269. Red-breasted flycatcher
270. Yelkouan shearwater
271. Syrian woodpecker
272. Lesser whitethroat
273. Common redstart
274. Black stork
275. White stork
276. Short-toed eagle
277. Lesser spotted eagle
278. Booted eagle
279. Levant sparrowhawk


A little twitch for my third shrike of the year so far.

280. Isabelline shrike

Next week to Gambia and hopefully lots of new species!
 
Haven't done an update in a while. Here are some herps, the skink from Southern Illinois which I finally properly IDed. The Plains Garter Snake was seen while walking to class today, the Engineering quad at my campus has many of them but this is the first I've seen this year as opposed to the much more prevalent common garter snake.

Reptiles

10. Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)
11. Plains garter snake (Thamnophis radix)

This might be it for the year. There are at least two turtle species I could've easily gotten but never made the effort to. I might try herping more seriously next year, I can't let @birdsandbats nearly best my number in my home state!

Apparently I haven't updated my amphibians this year, which is a shame, as I had some nice ones.

Amphibians
Sam Parr st. park April 8 (Day of the eclipse)
Finally saw a Boreal Chorus frog, I heard them in some puddles on the side of the road and knew I couldn't pass up the chance to find one. Sure enough I spotted one right away. Much easier than trying to track one down in the middle of a flooded woods.​
4. Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi)
5. Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata) (Lifer)

Various locations
6. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)

In Southern IL during fieldwork, Aug
7. Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus)

In Smokey Mountain NP, June
8. Imitator Salamander (Desmognathus imitator) (Lifer)
9. Cherokee Blackbelly Salamander (Desmognathus gvnigeusgwotli) (Lifer)
10. Seal Salamander (Desmognathus monticola) (Lifer)

Salamanders have to be one of my favorite taxa, it was good fun looking out for them while hiking the mountains of TN and NC back in June. A lot of the ones I found are probably best left at Desmognathus sp., but these three species were definite and probably made up the majority of what I saw.
I made that post prematurely, here are two more amphibian species I had:
Amphibians
11. Cherokee Mountain Dusy Salamander (Desmognathus adatsihi) (Lifer)
12. Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri)

Also, one last mammal, unless I see a live skunk later this year:
Mammal
27. Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) (Lifer)

It's probably wrong to call Meadow Vole a lifer, they're probably the species in my backyard. However, I got great views of tons of them back in August at dusk at Springbrook prairie in DuPage Co.
 
The 2024 Clements update was officially released today. Clements is the taxonomy I use for my personal lists, so its yearly updates are when I update my lists. While there were actually quite a few changes which affected my lists this year, only one actually impacted my year list this year - the split of House Wren. I've seen both Northern and Southern House Wrens this year, so my bird total for the year is now 505:

Birds
505. Northern House Wren Troglodytes aedon

This is also the final Clements update ever, next year around this time I will begin to translate my lists to the new AviList taxonomy.
I have just been through the update. I had plenty of renaming, mostly scientific but some common. The only new species were the aforementioned house wrens and the Sri Lankan sharma, split from the white-rumped sharma. I had the booby and herring gull splits previously. Of course, I had to go through the lumps and lost the western whistler back into the Australian golden whistler and Germain's swiftlet into the eatable-nest swiftlet. so no change in total numbers.

Any reasons for changing your taxonomy?
 
I have just been through the update. I had plenty of renaming, mostly scientific but some common. The only new species were the aforementioned house wrens and the Sri Lankan sharma, split from the white-rumped sharma. I had the booby and herring gull splits previously. Of course, I had to go through the lumps and lost the western whistler back into the Australian golden whistler and Germain's swiftlet into the eatable-nest swiftlet. so no change in total numbers.

Any reasons for changing your taxonomy?
IOC, Clements & Birdlife are merging into one unified taxonomy sometime down the line, supposedly the list will come out sometime in 2025, presumably under the name 'AviList'.
 
Mammals
9 Fallow Deer Dama dama
10 Wild Boar Sus scrofa (a family party of boar, sow and piglet was a British tick)
11 Soprano Pipistrelle Pipistrelle pygmaeus
Mammals
9 Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis
...
58 Sloggett’s Ice Rat Otomys sloggetti (lifer)
Before your African trip you were already on 11 mammals, so you should now be on 61 total.

Birds
148 Water Rail Rallus aquaticus
149 Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos
150 Little Gull Hydrocoloeus minutus
151 Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula
152 Grey Plover Pluvialis squaratola
Bird
155 Egyptian Goose Alopochen aegyptiacus
Birds
156 Common Ostrich Struthio camelus
...
...
592 Golden-breasted Bunting Emberiza flaviventris
However for birds you went in the opposite direction - you were on 153 before the trip because of a miscount (you had jumped from 152 to 155), so I think your total should now be 590.
 
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