ZooChat Big Year 2014

Yesterday I decided to head into the mountains for a fourth try for the Black-backed Woodpeckers. This time I was met with success. An additional bonus came in the form of booming Ruffed Grouse. Very cool sound to experience. I would say to hear, but you don't hear it as much as you feel it.

154 Black-backed Woodpecker
155 Ruffed Grouse

 

Yesterday I ventured to find a rare warbler that had showed up a few miles from where I work. A Swainson's Warbler in North Texas is a pretty nice rarity. That is one secretive bird. I was within five feet of it while it was singing away and could not see it. Luckily, it's call is distinctive enough to nail the ID. I followed the bird for an hour and a half.

242 Swainson's Warbler - Limnothlypis swainsonii
243 Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis
244 Broad-winged Hawk - Buteo platypterus
245 Swainson's Hawk - Buteo swainsoni
246 Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria
247 Wilson's Phalarope - Phalaropus tricolor

 

Had a couple more new arrivals today.

156 Brown-headed Cowbird
157 Cliff Swallow

 

Three more on the day.

248 Western Kingbird - Tyrannus verticalis
249 Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus
250 Great Crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus

 

I try to avoid zoos over bank holiday weekends so the late Easter break gave me a nice opportunity to catch up with some migrants close to home. Without setting foot outside Shropshire I managed to add 12 species to my year list:

126. Dotterel (Charadrius morinellus)
127. Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)
128. Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus)
129. Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis)
130. Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)
131. Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca)
132. Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
133. Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
134. Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)
135. Whitethroat (Sylvia communis)
136. Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)
137. Garganey (Anas querquedula)

The Dotterel were the highlight of my birding year so far as they are one of my favourite species. I've only seen singles previously but this time a "trip" of 12, with five females in all their breeding-plumaged glory, justified a 6.00am start on Good Friday.

 

After a very successful trip to Scotland and a disastrous day out in Cambridge my year list is now 165 details to follow when I get chance to use my laptop.

 

And one last mammal from Madagascar:

33. Simmons mouse lemur (Microcebus simmonsi)

Maybe some more will follow after sound analysis of some bat recordings

 

On Sunday I joined the local Audubon Society on a shorebird walk at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area. This walk, and the one from the day before, was scheduled now because from the end of April to the beginning of May is supposed to be the best time for shorebirds in Southern California. I had already seen a lot of the birds we saw today, but I did manage to get six new birds, although I'm still waiting for ID on the sixth bird.

176. Semipalmated Plover
177. Semipalmated Sandpiper
178. Wilson's Phalarope
179. Western Kingbird
180. Yellow-headed Blackbird

 

I went up to the Royal nation al park today to follow up some reports of swift parrots being seen on the wise's trail. No parrots unfortunately but plenty of honeyeaters about. I stopped at Wattamolla on the way home and found a pair of rock warblers.
262. white-naped honeyeater
263. fuscous honeyeater
264. beautiful firetail
265. tawny-crowned honeyeater
266. brown-headed honeyeater
267. rock warbler

 

Home from Costa Rica now - as you may have guessed, had a couple of days without good web access and got too far behind to catch up from the field!

Spending a bit of time sorting out some of the IDs and then will repost Costa Rica from the start.

In the mean time, please enjoy these two utterly rubbish photos of an utterly wonderful bird - between the two you can hopefully work out what it is.

 

A week off work and a trip to Scotland along with the long awaited arrival of migrants has actually boosted my year list to 166 one being a life tick.

136. Swallow
137. Sand Martin
138. Willow Warbler
139. Blackcap
140. Marsh Tit
141. Gannet
142. Kittiwake
143. Grey Plover
144. Velvet Scoter
145. American Coot
146. Golden Eagle
147. Osprey
148. Red Grouse
149. Wheatear
150. Capercaillie
151. Crested Tit
152. Hooded Crow
153. Twite
154. Black-throated Diver
155. Black Grouse
156. Scottish Crossbill
157. Ptarmigan
158. Gargany
159. Avocet
160. House Martin
161. Reed Warbler
162. Hoopoe
163. Ring Ouzel
164. Little Ringed Plover
165. Common Sandpiper
166. Whimbrel

 

That looks like a Resplendant Quetzal to me.

 

'Tis indeed! We had to 'stake out' a nest tree known to our guide for some time but were ultimately rewarded with the male flying in to swap places with the female, and then the female heading back out to feed, leaving the slightly comical sight of the male's tail coverts sticking out of the nest hole. Unbelievably spectacular bird!

 

More signs of spring

158 Baird's Sandpiper
159 Least Sandpiper
160 Nashville Warbler

 

It has been pretty slow going here with the cold weather but as it has warmed up these past two weeks I have started to pick up a few more bird species.

Birds

1. american crow Corvus brachyrhynchos
2. american robin Turdus migratorius
   [*]brown creeper Certhia americana
   
3. Black Capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
4. Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata
5. northern cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
6. mallard Anas platyrhynchos
7. cooper's hawk Accipiter cooperii
8. Dark-eyed junco Junco hyemalis
9. Boreal Chickadee Poecile hudsonicus
10. Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris
11. Common Raven Corvus corax
12. Wood Duck Aix sponsa
13. Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus
14. Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
15. Tricolored Heron Egretta tricolor
16. Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias
17. Great Egret Ardea alba
18. Snowy Egret Egretta thula
19. Anhinga Anhinga anhinga
    [*]Wood Stork Mycteria americana
20. Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea
21. Mourning Dove Zenaida morcura
22. American White Ibis Eudocimus albus
23. Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
24. Ring Billed Gull Larus delawarensis
25. Pigeon Columba livia
26. Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
27. Double Crested Comorant Phalacrocorax auritus
28. Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos
29. House Sparrow Passer domesticus
    [*]Horned Grebe Podiceps auritus
    [*]Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus
    [*]White-faced Ibis Plegadis chihi
30. Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
31. Red Shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus
    [*]Broad-Winged Hawk Buteo platypterus
    
32. American Coot Fulica Americana
    [*]Boat-tailed Grackle Quiscalus major
33. Summer Tanager Piranga rubra
    [*]Great Comorant Phalacrocorax carbo
34. Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula
35. Cackling Goose Branta huchinsii
36. Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum
37. Canada Goose Branta canadensis
38. Killdeer Charadrius vociferus (The first sign of spring!)
39. Wild Turkey Baeolophus bicolor
40. Tufted Titmouse Meleagris gallopavo

Mammals

1. eastern cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus
2. eastern fox squirrel Sciurus niger
3. virginia opossum Didelphis virgiana
   [*]north american river otter Lontra canadensis
4. eastern gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
5. white tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus (Surprised it took me all the way until March to see my first one of the year!)

Reptiles

1. American Alligator Alligator mississippienis
2. Brown Anole Anolis sagrei
3. Six-lined Race Runner Cnemidophorus sexlineatus

[/QUOTE]

 

Birds
23) Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor

~Thylo

 

So the bird that I was waiting for confirmation of ID turned out to be just an Ash-throated Flycatcher when I hoping for a Brown-crested Flycatcher, which are much rarer in Southern California.

181. Ash-throated Flycatcher

Yesterday I went birding again and I was not sure if I would get some new birds, but I did! The jay was a complete surprise because they are mainly found in the mountains and not the foothills where I was birding.

182. Steller's Jay
183. Lazuli Bunting

 

A few more spring migrants.

251 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - Nyctanassa violacea
252 Indigo Bunting - Passerina cyanea
253 Painted Bunting - Passerina ciris
254 Dickcissel - Spiza americana
255 Swainson's Thrush - Catharus ustulatus

 

Another productive weekend ...

133. Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)
134. Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)
135. Ruff (Calidris pugnax)
136. Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus)
137. Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)
138. Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)
139. Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)
140. Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)

And finally, a lifer to top it off:

141. Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)