Zoochat Big Year 2024

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?
This is the final Clements update, so I won't be able to follow it anymore going forward. As mentioned AviList is a merging of several bird taxonomies, but in practice it will supposedly look quite different to Clements.
 
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By the looks of it, it appears I have forgotten to add these two species from February, May, August & the other week respectively: :oops:

142) Common shelduck Tadorna tadorna
143) Common reed bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

18) Common seal Phoca vitulina

335) Narrow-winged grey Eudonia angustea

On Thursday I travelled across to LWT Gibraltar Point with my university to do some Sea Buckthorn management. Whilst I was there I gained two bird year ticks

144) Barn owl Tyto alba
145) Sanderling Calidris alba


Today I went to Sherwood Forest, again with uni, but with the society I am part of. Very quiet on the bird front but lots of interesting fungi species, plus:

336) Beech Midget Phyllonorycter maestingella
337) Cherry gall wasp Cynips quercusfolii
 
One more from Frampton Marsh today as I limp towards the 200 UK bird milestone.

Birds:
199. Grey Plover - Pluvialis squatarola

(UK: 196)

Most of the rest of my post this year will be of this nature, odd species grabbed here and there.

Most of them.

All being well, very much not all...

;)
 
There's only two months left in the year. I haven't posted any updates in a long while (issues with the laptop the list was stored on), so here is where everyone is now.


BIRDS:

Tetzoo Quizzer – 590
birdsandbats – 505
MRJ – 465
Mehdi – 441
endogenylove – 309
oflory – 281
CMP – 276
KiwiBirb – 250
WhistlingKite24 – 249
Platypusboy – 249
ThylacineAlive – 234
DesertTortoise – 218
Mr. Zootycoon – 216
Ituri – 214
boof – 214
Hix – 199
Maguari – 199
Osedax – 191
Lota lota – 187
Bisonblake – 175
Dr. Loxodonta – 172
Crotalus – 152
Bactrian Deer – 151
Prochilodus246 – 145
CarnotaurusSastrei – 143
DaLilFishie – 139
red river hog – 137
Junklekitteb – 117
Najade – 116
Lafone – 97
BerdNerd – 95
amur leopard – 82
Pleistohorse – 74
PizzaB – 70
Chlidonias – 65
KevinB – 54
WalkingAgnatha – 52
DesertRhino – 49
Yoshistar888 – 44
Great Argus – 41
RonBurgundy – 28
Pigeon – 27
Birdsage – 15
Jonathan Petersson – 12


MAMMALS:

endogenylove – 82
Giant Eland – 68
Tetzoo Quizzer – 61
birdsandbats – 55
Najade – 45
MRJ – 42
Pleistohorse – 36
Mehdi – 28
WhistlingKite24 – 28
CMP – 27
red river hog – 26
ThylacineAlive – 25
Mr. Zootycoon – 25
KiwiBirb – 24
Maguari – 23
DesertTortoise – 21
Hix – 20
Osedax – 20
oflory – 20
Dr. Loxodonta – 20
Prochilodus246 – 18
CarnotaurusSastrei – 17
PizzaB – 16
Platypusboy – 14
Bisonblake – 12
Crotalus – 12
Lafone – 11
Junklekitteb – 10
amur leopard – 10
Lota lota – 9
DaLilFishie – 9
KevinB – 8
BerdNerd – 8
Bactrian Deer – 7
DesertRhino – 5
Pigeon – 5
Jonathan Petersson – 4
Ituri – 4
Yoshistar888 – 3
WalkingAgnatha – 2
RonBurgundy – 2
Birdsage – 2
Chlidonias – 2
Great Argus – 1


REPTILES:

birdsandbats – 47
Mehdi – 28
WhistlingKite24 – 22
MRJ – 20
DaLilFishie – 20
Tetzoo Quizzer – 20
CarnotaurusSastrei – 19
Osedax – 19
DesertTortoise – 17
Crotalus – 16
endogenylove – 15
red river hog – 14
Bisonblake – 12
ThylacineAlive – 12
CMP – 11
KiwiBirb – 9
Platypusboy – 7
Mr. Zootycoon – 7
PizzaB – 6
Hix – 5
Dr. Loxodonta – 5
Najade – 5
amur leopard – 5
Pigeon – 4
oflory – 4
BerdNerd – 4
Maguari – 3
Yoshistar888 – 2
Bactrian Deer – 2
Lota lota – 2
Great Argus – 1
WalkingAgnatha – 1
Birdsage – 1
Junklekitteb – 1
Prochilodus246 – 1


AMPHIBIANS:

birdsandbats – 34
Mr. Zootycoon – 15
CMP – 12
Crotalus – 10
Mehdi – 8
DesertTortoise – 7
Osedax – 6
KiwiBirb – 6
red river hog – 5
Maguari – 5
Najade – 5
Tetzoo Quizzer – 5
Dr. Loxodonta – 5
BerdNerd – 4
Bisonblake – 3
endogenylove – 3
CarnotaurusSastrei – 3
MRJ – 2
Bactrian Deer – 2
Platypusboy – 2
Prochilodus246 – 2
WhistlingKite24 – 2
DaLilFishie – 2
amur leopard – 2
Great Argus – 1
KevinB – 1
Lota lota – 1
oflory – 1
PizzaB – 1
ThylacineAlive – 1


FISH:

DaLilFishie – 279
WhistlingKite24 – 35
birdsandbats – 26
Mr. Zootycoon – 26
Bisonblake – 18
CMP – 16
Yoshistar888 – 13
DesertTortoise – 13
Crotalus – 12
red river hog – 11
MRJ – 9
Bactrian Deer – 7
ThylacineAlive – 6
CarnotaurusSastrei – 5
Lota lota – 4
Maguari – 4
Tetzoo Quizzer – 4
Prochilodus246 – 3
amur leopard – 2
Pigeon – 1
PizzaB – 1
Najade – 1


INVERTEBRATES:

Prochilodus246 – 337
WhistlingKite24 – 311
CMP – 268
Mr. Zootycoon – 246 (including 112 moths; 44 butterflies; 44 dragonflies; 18 grasshoppers; 16 bees; 12 gastropods)
DaLilFishie – 159
Tetzoo Quizzer – 116
red river hog – 110
Crotalus – ?? (including 29 butterflies; 20 Odonata)
Maguari – 68
MRJ – 62
Yoshistar888 – 43
KevinB – 32
BerdNerd – 28
DesertTortoise – 27
Lafone – 13
PizzaB – 7
WalkingAgnatha – 6 (including 5 arthropods; 1 mollusc)
Bactrian Deer – 4
Hix – 4
PizzaB – 3
Great Argus – 2
DesertRhino – 1
 
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.
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.
I've not updated my invert list in a while. Some really nice species in this group.
Inverts
268. Flat-faced longhorn beetle (Astylidius parvus) (Lifer)
269. Virginian tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica)
270. Cream-edged dichomeris moth (Dichomeris flavocostella) (Lifer)
271. Hairy dichomeris moth (Dichomeris setosella) (Lifer)

272. American rubyspot (Hetaerina americana)
273. Two-spotted longhorn bee (Melissodes bimaculatus)
274. Heavy ochre harp ground beetle (Stenolophus ochropezus) (Lifer)
275. Carolina satyr (Hermeuptychia sosybius) (Lifer)
276. Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea) (Lifer)

277. Versute sharpshooter (Graphocephala versuta)
278. Double-banded scoliid wasp (Scolia bicincta) (Lifer)
279. Red-abdomen mole cricket hunter (Larra analis) (Lifer)

280. Beggar moth (Eubaphe mendica)
281. Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus)
282. Blue-winged scoliid wasp (Scolia dubia)
283. White-marked tussock caterpillar (Orgyia leucostigma) (Lifer)
284. Maize calligrapher (Toxomerus politus)
285. Common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens)
286. Poison ivy sawfly (Arge humeralis) (Lifer)
287. Bronze copper (Tharsalea hyllus) (Lifer)

288. American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus)
289. Plain-tailed hanging-theif (Diogmites neoternatus) (Lifer)
290. Wheel bug (Arilus cristatus)
291. Gold moth (Basilodes pepita) (Lifer)
292. Cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) (Lifer)
293. Visored Pygmy Spittlebug (Clastoptera testacea) (Lifer)
294. Red-headed bush cricket (Phyllopalpus pulchellus) (Lifer)

295. Five-banded thynnid wasp (Myzinum quinquecintum)
296. Versute sharpshooter (Graphocephala versuta)
297. Margined blister beetle (Epicauta funebris) (Lifer)
298. False milkweed bug (Lygaeus turcicus)
299. Twice-stabbed stink bug (Cosmopepla lintneriana)
300. Metric paper wasp (Polistes metricus)
301. Red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) (Lifer)
302. Coppery leafhopper (Jikradia olitoria)
303. Hyaline grass bug (Liorhyssus hyalinus) (Lifer)
304. Spotted beet webworm moth (Hymenia perspectalis)
305. Lucerne moth (Nomophila nearctica)
306. Helmeted squash bug (Euthochtha galeator)
307. American snout (Libytheana carinenta)
308. American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) (Lifer)
309. Citrus flatid planthopper (Metcalfa pruinosa)
310. Rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax) (Lifer)
311. Bridled arches moth (Lacinipolia lorea) (Lifer)
 
I'm at the Gold Coast for a tourism event. The Gold Coast is one of my least favorite places, devoid of character and all but the hardiest wildlife. Still today we had a chance to walk up the bluff at Burleigh Heads. Tomorrow I am going up to O'Reilly's in the Lamington National Park for a couple of nights. They have a new night tour I am eager to try.

Mammals
43. Black flying fox Pteropus alecto
44. Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae

Birds
463. Pied butcherbird Cracticus nigrogularis

Reptiles
21. Australian water dragon Intellagama lesueurii
 
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Birds
463. Masked lapwing Vanellus miles
Did you forget to tick them earlier or do you just not see them in Vic/not nearly as omnipresent as they are in NZ?
Listed near the start of the year as Black-shouldered Lapwing V. novaehollandiae.

There is a split between miles (Masked) and novaehollandiae (Black-shouldered), which some people follow and some don't, but the birds on the Gold Coast are still novaehollandiae (the nominate subspecies miles is found well north of there).
 
Listed near the start of the year as Black-shouldered Lapwing V. novaehollandiae.

There is a split between miles (Masked) and novaehollandiae (Black-shouldered), which some people follow and some don't, but the birds on the Gold Coast are still novaehollandiae (the nominate subspecies miles is found well north of there).
I do split them and must admit I was tired and did not check distribution. I normally see miles in Mission Beach but have not been there this year. One less for me. (I have just edited the post to correct) And yes, they are common in Victoira.
 
For non-Australians, here are a couple of photos of wild birds of (top) nominate miles by @Chlidonias and (bottom) novaehollandiae by @WhistlingKite24 to show how different they look. They do hybridise where the ranges meet however. Apart for the obvious "black shoulders" on novaehollandiae, the wattles are also distinctly different in size and shape.

full


full
 
Love masked lapwings. How interesting to see the difference - while we see the former in a fair number of collections here (of course not going to see one in the wild!), not sure anyone has the latter.
 
Love masked lapwings. How interesting to see the difference - while we see the former in a fair number of collections here (of course not going to see one in the wild!), not sure anyone has the latter.
The nominate is found not just in northern Australia but also through New Guinea and the Moluccas, which I suspect is why it is common enough in overseas zoos.
 
Forgot some birds I had seen before the trip
185 Great egret (Ardea alba)
186 Little stint (Calidris minuta)
187 Black Kite (Milvus migrans)
Had some excellent views of a rare lifer three weeks ago. The bird's presence was discovered when someone uploaded a photo to Artportalen (a Swedish reporting system for any kind of organism), thinking it was a common wheatear. Someone noticed the picture and commented that it was an Isabelline. This discovery happened late in the day—some people tried to see it in the last minutes of daylight but didn’t succeed. The next morning, it was spotted again. I was at work, anxiously checking my phone constantly to see if the bird was still there. I was just waiting for my shift to end so I could get away. To my relief, the bird was still there, and it even showed itself very nicely.

188 Isabelline wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina)
isabelline-wheatear-oenanthe-isabellina.757675
 
Reptiles
19. Cunningham Skink (Egernia cunninghami)
Just got back a couple of days ago from a 3-day hike along the Six Foot Track from near Jenolan to Katoomba. I wasn't expecting any new species but I got a couple of well overdue lifers! Also bumped into some Taronga workers who were doing a koala survey for the Blue Mountains Koala Project. I didn't manage to spot any koalas however.

Mammals
22. Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)
23. Red-necked Wallaby (Notamacropus rufogriseus banksianus)
24. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Reptiles
20. Lace Monitor (Varanus varius)
21. Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis)
22. Jacky Dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus)
 
I've not updated my invert list in a while. Some really nice species in this group.
Inverts
268. Flat-faced longhorn beetle (Astylidius parvus) (Lifer)

269. Virginian tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica)
270. Cream-edged dichomeris moth (Dichomeris flavocostella) (Lifer)
271. Hairy dichomeris moth (Dichomeris setosella) (Lifer)

272. American rubyspot (Hetaerina americana)
273. Two-spotted longhorn bee (Melissodes bimaculatus)
274. Heavy ochre harp ground beetle (Stenolophus ochropezus) (Lifer)
275. Carolina satyr (Hermeuptychia sosybius) (Lifer)
276. Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea) (Lifer)

277. Versute sharpshooter (Graphocephala versuta)
278. Double-banded scoliid wasp (Scolia bicincta) (Lifer)
279. Red-abdomen mole cricket hunter (Larra analis) (Lifer)

280. Beggar moth (Eubaphe mendica)
281. Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus)
282. Blue-winged scoliid wasp (Scolia dubia)
283. White-marked tussock caterpillar (Orgyia leucostigma) (Lifer)
284. Maize calligrapher (Toxomerus politus)
285. Common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens)
286. Poison ivy sawfly (Arge humeralis) (Lifer)
287. Bronze copper (Tharsalea hyllus) (Lifer)

288. American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus)
289. Plain-tailed hanging-theif (Diogmites neoternatus) (Lifer)
290. Wheel bug (Arilus cristatus)
291. Gold moth (Basilodes pepita) (Lifer)
292. Cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) (Lifer)
293. Visored Pygmy Spittlebug (Clastoptera testacea) (Lifer)
294. Red-headed bush cricket (Phyllopalpus pulchellus) (Lifer)

295. Five-banded thynnid wasp (Myzinum quinquecintum)
296. Versute sharpshooter (Graphocephala versuta)
297. Margined blister beetle (Epicauta funebris) (Lifer)
298. False milkweed bug (Lygaeus turcicus)
299. Twice-stabbed stink bug (Cosmopepla lintneriana)
300. Metric paper wasp (Polistes metricus)
301. Red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) (Lifer)
302. Coppery leafhopper (Jikradia olitoria)
303. Hyaline grass bug (Liorhyssus hyalinus) (Lifer)
304. Spotted beet webworm moth (Hymenia perspectalis)
305. Lucerne moth (Nomophila nearctica)
306. Helmeted squash bug (Euthochtha galeator)
307. American snout (Libytheana carinenta)
308. American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) (Lifer)
309. Citrus flatid planthopper (Metcalfa pruinosa)
310. Rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax) (Lifer)
311. Bridled arches moth (Lacinipolia lorea) (Lifer)
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.
Here are the birds I've had since the end of summer. Not to sound like a broken record, but this includes long awaited lifers and some nice rarities. Emphasis on 'long-awaited' with the Merlin and Vireo.

All were in Central Illinois, the shorebirds being from a day trip to Chautauqua NWR on the Illinois River, Merlin and Canada Warbler from separate days at Crystal Lake Park, and the Wood Stork was twitched at Clinton Lake.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I saw lifer Philadelphia Vireo in the tree right outside my bedroom window. I don't expect to have another lifer from my bedroom again!

Birds

277. Merlin (Flaco columbarius) (Lifer)
278. Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)
279. Franklin’s Gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan) (Lifer)
280. Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa)
281. Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) (Lifer)
282. Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)
283. Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis)
284. Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) (Lister)
285. Philadelphia Vireo (Vireo philadelphicus) (Lifer)
 
Leaving the Gold Coast, it is only about 1 hour 40 minutes' drive to O'Reilly's Guesthouse in the middle of the Green Mountains section of Lamington National Park, with mostly rainforest habitat. I was there for two nights, so really only one day.

O'Reilly's is set on private property within the National Park, which is literally across the road. It is like a small village, with a wide range of accommodation ranging from camping to luxury. The original guest house building is a delight with original features such as a library complete with grand piano and open fire.

This part of Australia is in the sub-tropics, and so elements of the temperate zone Bassian fauna from the south mix with more tropical zone species from the north, as well as a few regional endemics.

I particularly wanted to see the noisy pitta, Albert's lyrebird and the paradise riflebird. While I heard all three species I only managed to see the paradise riflebird, the most southern species of the bird-of-paradise Family.

The night tour was interesting and turned into a bit of a herp fest.

Mammals
45. Red-necked pademelon Thylogale thetis

Birds - edit: I just noted that the pied butcherbird on the Gold Coast should have been 466 and so this list should have started at 467. To save time I am moving the first three birds to the end and renumbering them.
467. Brown cuckoo-dove Macropygia phasianella
468. Australian owlet-nightjar Aegotheles cristatus (new Order and Family)
469. Pheasant coucal Centropus phasianinus
470. Green catbird Ailuroedus crassirostris
471. Satin bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
472. Regent bowerbird Sericulus chrysocephalus
473. White-throated treecreeper Cormobates leucophaea
474. Lewin's honeyeater Meliphaga lewinii
475. Yellow-throated scrubwren Sericornis citreogularis
476. Large-billed scrubwren Sericornis magnirostra
477. Australian logrunner Orthonyx temminckii
478. Eastern whipbird Psophodes olivaceus
479. Rufous fantail Rhipidura rufifrons
480. Torresan crow Corvus orru
481. Black-faced monarch Monarcha melanopsis
482. Eastern yellow robin Eopsaltria australis
483. Rose robin Petroica rosea
484. Red-browed finch Neochmia temporalis
Edit: somehow, I missed the star of the show.
485. Paradise riflebird Ptiloris paradiseus
486. White-headed pigeon Columba leucomela
487. Wonga pigeon Leucosarcia melanoleuca
488. Topknot pigeon Lopholaimus antarcticus

Reptiles
22. Southern leaf-tailed gecko Saltuarius swaini (new Family)
23. Southern angle-headed dragon Lophosaurus spinipes
24. Eastern small-eyed snake Lophosaurus spinipes
25. Rough-scaled snake Tropidechis carinatus

Amphibians
3. Southern orange-eyed tree frog Ranoidea chloris
4. Fleay's barred frog Mixophyes fleayi (EN)

Invertebrates
63. Red triangle slug Triboniophorus graeffei
 
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Fun day at Spurn today including Common Eider, Great Northern Diver, Grey Plover, Barn Owl, Harbour Porpoise and more - and just the one new year bird.

Birds:
200. Snow Bunting - Plectrophenax nivalis

(UK: 197)

:)
 
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