Zoochat Big Year 2025

DaLilFishie said:
Up in the Japanese Alps, today I walked a small segment of the Nakasendo, a historical path between Tokyo and Kyoto. Wasn't too cold today but still a lot of snow around, and being a tropical creature I had no idea how to walk on it without slipping and falling on my bum - so unfortunately most of the time I was looking down trying not to slip, rather than up at birds! Even so, I snagged two lifers - both a new family for me! I also spotted the tracks of an even-toed ungulate in the snow, but I did not see their maker.

BIRDS
94 - Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker Yungipicus kizuki
95 - Long-tailed Tit Aegithelos caudatua

Actually saw this yesterday but didn't get around to properly identifying it until today
96 - Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Click to expand...
BIRDS
97 - Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea
98 - Oriental Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis
99 - Common Merganser Mergus merganser
100 - Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna
101 - Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
102 - Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis
 
DaLilFishie said:
BIRDS
97 - Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea
98 - Oriental Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis
99 - Common Merganser Mergus merganser
100 - Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna
101 - Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
102 - Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis
Click to expand...
A stroll along Takayama's Miyagawa River and the nearby Shiroyama Park produced a nice collection of new species for me - which constituted two lifer families, Muscicapidae and Paridae

BIRDS
103 - Asian House Martin Delichon dasypus
104 - Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus
105 - Blue Rock-thrush Monticola solitarius
106 - Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius
107 - Asian Tit Parus cinereus
108 - Varied Tit Sittiparus varius

FISHES
131 - Amur Carp Cyprinus rubrofuscus
 
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One to start off the final missing list from a wander at Avenue Washlands this morning.

Fishes:
1. Three-spined Stickleback - Gasterosteus aculeatus

:)
 
DaLilFishie said:
A stroll along Takayama's Miyagawa River and the nearby Shiroyama Park produced a nice collection of new species for me - which constituted two lifer families, Muscicapidae and Paridae

BIRDS
103 - Asian House Martin Delichon dasypus
104 - Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus
105 - Blue Rock-thrush Monticola solitarius
106 - Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius
107 - Asian Tit Parus cinereus
108 - Varied Tit Sittiparus varius

FISHES
131 - Amur Carp Cyprinus rubrofuscus
Click to expand...
Another three new families - Cinclidae, Emberizidae and Leuciscidae

BIRDS
110 - Japanese Woodpecker Picus awokera
111 - Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
112 - Brown Dipper Cinclus pallasii
113 - Meadow Bunting Emberiza cioides

FISHES
132 - Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss
133 - Pacific Redfin Pseudaspius brandtii
 
oflory said:
A few birds from a walk at Leigh-on-Sea - nothing as spectacular as a Hume's wheatear or a lapped-faced vulture last week, but still lovely to see.

Birds
142. Brent Goose (Branta bernicla)
143. Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
144. Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)
145. Sanderling (Calidris alba)
146. Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)
Click to expand...


A brief zoo trip to SW Germany over the weekend and some lovely birding in Tierpark Oberwald gets me a few more for the list - including the first herp of the year. I was incredibly lucky with black woodpeckers too - three different birds calling and swooping around the forest, plus lifer of grey-headed woodpecker.

Mammals
10. European Hare (Lepus europaeus)

(no bats seen despite a late night saunter back into quite a creepy Tierpark Oberwald at about 9pm with a bat detector. Two calls recorded but no sightings, a bit too early still)

Birds
147. Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)
148. White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
149. Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus)
150. Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius)
151. Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris)
152. Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)
153. Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
154. Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)
155. Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla)
156. Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

I also saw a pair of feral Yellow-headed Amazon (Amazona oratrix) in Stuttgart, they are supposedly a self-sustaining population but have been removed from the officially 'tickable' German list. I'm not counting them, but included here for interest...

Herps
1. Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis)
 
DaLilFishie said:
Another three new families - Cinclidae, Emberizidae and Leuciscidae

BIRDS
110 - Japanese Woodpecker Picus awokera
111 - Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
112 - Brown Dipper Cinclus pallasii
113 - Meadow Bunting Emberiza cioides

FISHES
132 - Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss
133 - Pacific Redfin Pseudaspius brandtii
Click to expand...
Finally, my first (living) Japanese mammal! Saw a Japanese Marten a few days ago but it had been killed on the road, so not countable for big year.

MAMMALS
6 - Japanese Macaque Macaca fuscata

BIRDS
114 - Oriental Greenfinch Chloris sinica
115 - Bull-headed Shrike Lanius bucephalus
 
MOG2012 said:
Today was my last day in Chicago and I saw a well-fed Fox squirrel near a suburban house.

March 16, 2025

MAMMALS:
4) Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)

MAMMALS: 4 species
BIRDS: 36 species
REPTILES: 1 species
FISH: 7 species
INVERTEBRATES: 7 species
TOTAL: 55 species
Click to expand...
I forgot to post this a couple of days ago but I saw some waxwings in a tree, they were loud.

March 24, 2025

BIRDS:
37) Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

MAMMALS: 4 species
BIRDS: 37 species
REPTILES: 1 species
FISH: 7 species
INVERTEBRATES: 7 species
TOTAL: 56 species
 
Dr. Wolverine said:
Mammals:

3. Tanuki
4. Japanese Squirrel

Birds:

110. Brown Cheeked Rail
111. Japanese Accentor
112. Copper Pheasant
113. Naumann’s Thrush

Mammals: 4
Birds: 113
Click to expand...

Updates from my Singapore Trip last week, as well as one day at Kasai!

Mammals:

5. Brown Rat
6. Lesser Mousedeer
7. Crab Eating Macaque
8. Sunda Colugo
9. Common Treeshrew
10. Slender Squirrel
11. Plantain Squirrel
12. Horsefield’s Flying Squirrel
13. Wild Boar
14. Smooth Coated Otter

Birds:

114. Javan Myna
115. Great Egret
116. House Crow
117. Black Nest Swiftlet
118. White Nest Swiftlet
119. Red Junglefowl
120. Asian Koel
121. Spotted Dove
122. Grey Headed Fish Eagle
123. Banded Woodpecker
124. Long Tailed Parakeet
125. Asian Glossy Starling
126. Chestnut Munia
127. Oriental Magpie Robin
128. Ornate Sunbird
129. Olive Winged Bulbul
130. Zebra Dove
131. Brahminy Kite
132. Pin Tailed Snipe
133. Pacific Reef heron
134. White Breasted Waterhen
135. Yellow Bittern
136. Zitting Cisticola
137. Paddyfield Pipit
138. Red Wattled lapwing
139. Blue tailed bee eater
140. Oriental Honey Buzzard
141. Asian Openbill
142. Eastern Cattle Egret
143. Purple Heron
144. Medium Egret
145. Large Tailed Nightjar
146. Whimbrel
147. Common Redshank
148. Lesser Adjutant
149. Painted Stork
150. Milky Stork
151. Von Schrenck’s Bittern
152. Great Billed Heron
153. White Bellied Sea Eagle
154. Buffy Fish Owl
155. Blue Throated Bee Eater
156. Collared Kingfisher
157. White Throated Kingfisher
158. Lineated Barbet
159. Red Breasted Parakeet
160. Straw Headed Bulbul
161. Common Myna
162. White Rumped Shama
163. Scarlet Backed Flowerpecker
164. Brown throated sunbird
165. Striated Heron
166. Chinese Pond Heron
167. Common Iora
168. Oriental Pied Hornbill
169. Laced Woodpecker
170. Pied triller
171. Asian Brown Flycatcher
172. Common Kingfisher
173. Collared Scops Owl
174. Stork Billed Kingfisher
175. Common Flameback
178. Monk Parakeet
179. Blue Winged Pitta
180. Yellow Vented Bulbul
181. Brown Boobook
182. Cinammon Bittern
183. Black Swan
184. Mute Swan
185. Crested Serpent Eagle
186. Taimyr gull
 
Another sunny March day yesterday brought out the early spring pollinators including one of my very favourite fly species:

23) Dark-edged Beefly Bombylius major

And I had completely forgotten these taxa from the amphibian walk from last Friday:

24) White-legged Snake Millipede

5) Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus
6) Western Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus
 
BerdNerd said:

3/18/25

73. Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
Click to expand...


3/27/25

Starting last week, a few early spring migrant species started appearing in my general area so I went out this morning to go look for them, successfully finding some of them.


74. White-Eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus)
75. Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
76. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)


Total:
Mammals: 4
Birds: 76
Reptiles: 2
Invertebrates: 1
 
amur leopard said:
Been a while since I've updated, had some really nice sightings since. One really does stick out for me though.

For a good long while I've wanted to see a wild badger. They're probably my favourite mustelids and I've been out looking for them a number of times. Over these attempts I've come pretty close - I've seen abandoned setts, seen badger scat and so on, but to no avail when it came to actually seeing one. There is only a single recorded badger sighting where I am now, and it's camera trap footage, so I wasn't really holding out any hope of seeing one while over here. So it came as a bit of a surprise when one appeared last night as I was walking back to my accommodation :p.

Mammals:
2. Red fox, Vulpes vulpes
3. House mouse, Mus musculus
4. European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus
5. European badger, Meles meles (!)

Otherwise, short-eared owls seem to only show up for me when I'm in a train. Weird.

Birds:
39. Short eared owl, Asio flammeus
40. Red kite, Milvus milvus
41. Pied wagtail, Motacilla alba
42. Long-tailed tit, Aegithalos caudatus
Click to expand...

Not quite finished with a trip to Portugal but had a spare minute to write up a few additions:

Birds:
43. Eurasian collared dove, Streptopelia turtur
44. Common swift, Apus apus
45. Black winged stilt, Himantopus himantopus
46. Common sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos
47. Yellow legged gull, Larus michahellis
48. Lesser black backed gull, Larus fuscus
49. Sandwich tern, Thalasseus sandvicensis
50. White stork, Ciconia ciconia
51. European shag, Gulosus aristotelis
52. Bonelli's eagle, Aquila fasciata
53. Common buzzard, Buteo buteo
54. Coal tit, Periparus ater
55. Crested lark, Galerida cristata
56. Eurasian crag martin, Ptyonoprogne rupestris
57. Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica
58. Common house martin, Delichon urbicum
59. Iberian chiffchaff, Phylloscopus ibericus
60. Eurasian blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla
61. Sardinian warbler, Curruca melanocephala
62. Common firecrest, Regulus ignicapilla
63. Short-toed treecreeper, Certhia brachydactyla
64. Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes
65. Spotless starling, Sturnus unicolor
66. Black redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros
67. European stonechat, Saxicola rubetra
68. Common waxbill, Estrilda astrid
69. Gray wagtail, Motacilla cinerea
70. European greenfinch, Chloris chloris
71. European serin, Serinus serinus
72. Corn bunting, Miliaria calandra
73. Yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella

Pretty happy with that for just a week of plant-focused field trip!
 
KiwiBirb said:
Now that I’m sick it’s probably a good time to provide an update of my adventures in the past month.
Starting in February right after posting this I took a trip to River Barge Park to knock off several easy species. Double-Crested Cormorants and Lesser Scaup (a long overdue species on my county list) were abundant. While it initially seemed as I would miss the Northern Harrier yet again in the Meadowlands, I was able to spot one right when pulling out of the parking space. After a week of bitter cold temperatures restricting my birding, I was able to make it to Packanack Lake in Passaic County to spot a long continuing group of Redheads. Despite the cold temperatures restricting me for another week I was able to spot a Great Horned Owl perched atop a bare tree in my neighborhood. Finally with warmer weather towards the end of the month I began going out more again. First was to Parsons Pond Park to see a Horned Lark. Despite it being nice to see over 50 Ring-Necked Ducks, the Lark was nowhere to be seen. The next day while I initially prepared to go up to the Ramapo Mountains for the first time this year, I got sidetracked due to a Ross’s Goose being spotted in industrial Secaucus. The goose was easily feasting on the grass next to a busy road with some Canadas. A couple days later I toook an evening trip to Ramapo to attempt to see some Timberdoodles. While I had zero luck with them, I got a couple of long overdue Wood Ducks on my year list so it wasn’t a total failure. The next day I trekked to Van Saun Park. While nobody had seen it there yet this year, I knew it was a reliable place for Killdeer, seeing one February 11th last year. While it seemed dry at first for the plovers (although there were 6 species of waterfowl plus a hybrid American Black Duck/Mallard, which is quite high for the small pond there,) one landed in the mudflats with its iconic calls right as I was about to leave. The next day I was greeted with a Sharp-Shinned Hawk as soon as I got home. That night I traveled to Piermont Marsh in Rockland County New York in search of a Short-Eared Owl the night before (of course respecting the owl’s space which was quite easy from atop a mountain.) While my luck with owls this year had been superb, my luck did not continue that night as I saw no owls (although I won’t complain about the hundreds, maybe over a thousand blackbirds in the marsh.)
The next morning it was March and I woke up at 4:30 to go to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in search of Night Partridges. While I didn’t plan on arriving till 6, new species for the year began right as I left my home as a neighbor’s motion-activated light revealed a pair of Raccoons. When I arrived in the Great Swamp I heard what was easily a dozen Bog Suckers. Unfortunately the light was still too early to see any Labrador Twisters besides a shadow that could’ve easily been an early robin. As the final Peents were going through the crisp morning air I thought I wouldn’t be able to see one that morning but as I looked in the road behind me, I had found an American Woodcock had decided to display on the side of the road. While I couldn’t get my camera out in time it was still such a cool moment. I then went to the Wildlife Observation Center where I had luck last time birding, while the only new bird there was an Eastern Bluebird singing in the parking lot, I was able to find quite a few Eastern Chipmunks along the trail too. After accidentally going down the wrong road, I arrived at the Visitor Center where I immediately spotted a pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks. It didn’t take much longer for me to wander to find a pair of White-Crowned Sparrows enjoying the feeders with 5 other common sparrow species. I then went around the White Oak Trail looking for a Red-Headed Woodpecker. While I had no luck getting an early start on a species that I’ll definitely add to my life list later this year, I did enjoy a view of a Brown Creeper that lasted more then half a second.
Finally on the way back I stopped at Lake Parsippany. While it took me 20 minutes to find a decent view of the lake that wasn’t private property of some kind of club for wealthy people, I finally found a view that was also perfect to see my target species there, a Red-Necked Grebe. While Horned Grebe and Common Loon had also been spotted there, the winds were very strong, making it almost impossible to see the Red-Necked Grebe that was just feet from the shore. That basically wraps up my updates as I was busy at the beginning of this week and towards the end before I got sick, rain and heavy winds kept myself (and I’m sure many bird) away. Additionally, I saw an Eastern Cottontail in my yard as I right this!

Mammals
5) Raccoon (Procyon lotor)
6) Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
7) Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)

Birds
89) Double-Crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum)
90) Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)
91) Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)
92) Redhead (Aythya americana)
93) Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)
94) Ross’s Goose (Anser rossii)
95) Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)
96) Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
97) Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)
98) American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)
99) Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
100) Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
101) White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
102) Red-Necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena)

Progress:
Mammals- 7
Birds- 102
Herptiles- 0
Total- 109
Click to expand...
After this post I was able to recover from my illness (likely the flu) rather quickly, just in time for my birthday. Despite going birding at multiple location both in the morning and to dusk when I heard some woodcocks, I did not get any new birds for the year (although I think my mother saw a Tree Swallow while I was distracted taking pictures of Robins.) Despite this I saw a new mammal in the Little Brown Bat at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy while Woodcock Watching for the 2nd straight year. That weekend I traveled to the Bronx Zoo for the first time this year where I got 3 new species last year. With all 3 species already down though, I picked up no new species there although I didn’t care with a pair of Peregrine Falcons showing up. That week I took a short trip to Van Bushirk Island Park where Black-Crowned Night-Herons had been known to roost, even so early in the spring. The reports were correct and I was able to see 2 individuals resting in the still bare branches. I then took a trip to the Celery Farm in search of Tree Swallows and Pileated Woodpeckers. My luck was sadly not there, although I got my first passerine migrant in the Yellow-Rumped Warbler, although I had already seen several wintering in Sandy Hook on the 1st of the year. Finally last weekend I went to DeKorte park in the meadowlands where dozens of Tree Swallows were reported. I had great luck towards the start, catching an Osprey flyover and seeing 6 Great Egrets (eBird flags anything higher then 1 as a high count.) Additionally, I got my first Herptiles of the year in the Common Garter Snake. Despite this, no luck with the Tree Swallows. I hope this weekend I can travel to Staten Island to see a mega-rare Gray-Breasted Martin, crossing my fingers that it’s still there on Saturday as I can’t take off until then.

Mammals
8) Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)

Birds
103) Black-Crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
104) Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
105) Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Herptiles
1) Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)

Progress:
Mammals- 8
Birds- 105
Herptiles- 1
Total- 114
 
More spring sunshine brought out a small haul of lepidoptera, a single hemiptera, a colourful coleoptera and an arachnid was what today had to offer for year ticks.

25) Comma Polygonia c-album
26) Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta
27) Large White Pieris brassicae
28) Green Shield Bug Palomena prasina
29) Rosemary Beetle Chrysolina americana
30) European Nursery Web Spider Pisaura mirabilis
 
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