ZooChat Big Year 2014

I'm leaving for Arizona one more time on Saturday, so I'll finally be able to add some more birds. I've completely topped out on getable birds within a day of where I live.

 

345 Dunlin

 

152 Brown Treecreeper [Eynesbury Box Forest]
153 Diamond Firetail [Eynesbury Box Forest]
154 Little Grassbird [Eynesbury Box Forest]
155 Weebill [You Yangs Western Plantation
156 White-winge Chough [You Yangs]

We visited Eynesbury Golf Course (which backs on to the forest) specifically to see Diamond Firetail. After an hour of wandering the fairways, dodging balls and carts, there wasn't a Firetail in sight. So, we packed up shop, and headed back to the car park. While sitting in the car having a sandwich, guess what lands in front the car? A Diamond Firetail!!

 

526. Grey Goshawk



Hix

 

Went to Old Hall Marshes for the second time this year - this time with a lot more new birds! As well as hundreds of brent geese, wigeon, dunlin, golden plover, two kingfishers, curlews, kestrels, marsh harriers, grey herons, little egrets and a host of other birds, I also added:

121. Northern pintail
122. Common snipe
123. Grey plover
124. Common ringed plover
125. Red knot
126. Short-eared owl
127. Red-breasted merganser

Also saw several mystery grebes, just missed a peregrine falcon and heard another Cetti's warbler - pretty sure they've been made up so someone can have a laugh at my expense.

 

26. Coyote

 

265. Sharp-shinned Hawk

 

First - a species that has been split from Common Bulbul - meaning in Ethiopia we saw (in different places) Somali, Common and...

544. Dark-capped Bulbul - Pycnonotus tricolor



Secondly - after a busy and stressful few weeks since returning from Ethiopia, I'm finally back on the proper wildlifing. Spent today at Leighton Moss, and managed some very Leighton Moss-y additions - including my best ever sighting of a UK mustelid, with plenty of time to watch for once!

545. Bearded Reedling - Panurus biarmicus
546. Great Bittern - Botaurus stellaris
547. Marsh Tit - Poecile palustris

71. Eurasian Otter - Lutra lutra

 

Out bat-box-checking today, which yielded around 45 Soprano Pipistrelles, 17 Common Noctules and one lovely lifer...

72. Leisler's Bat - Nyctalus leisleri


We also heard what I'm reliably informed was the call of a Lesser Redpoll, but it didn't show itself!

 

A very pleasant day in North Wales yielded a couple of additions:

209. Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) at RSPB Conwy - not the most satisfying of views, but OK for a year tick
210. Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) near Capel Gwyn on Anglesey - a lifer for me and a very obliging one too

 

527. Green-backed Woodpecker



Hix

 

Arizona again

I'm laying in bed at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon Arizona. Birder's Heaven. Today was a low species count day. We were trying for some way out species that required a lot of driving. We had a total of 52 species. That tally includes 3 lifers and 2 year birds.

394 Ferruginous Hawk - Buteo regalis
395 Brewer's Sparrow - Spizella breweri
396 Lark Bunting - Calamospiza melanocorys
397 Green Kingfisher - Chloroceryle americana
398 Cassin's Sparrow - Peucaea cassinii

So close to 400...

 

Mammal count

34 Gray Fox

 

You still have a little over a month to go.



Hix

 

I tried multiple times and drove many miles looking for this bird, and finally found one!

266. Varied Thrush

 

So here's something weird that I had missed for 6 months. Evidently, one of the birds I saw back in Idaho in March got left off of all my lists. I retroactive add in:

399 (really 175) Ring-necked Pheasant - Phasianus colchicus

Now for today. Not as great as I would have hoped, but still 3 lifers any day isn't a bad day. All these birds were at Madera Canyon Arizona. We went other places, but stuck out everywhere we went.

400 Red-naped Sapsucker - Sphyrapicus nuchalis
401 Greater Pewee - Contopus pertinax
402 Brown Creeper - Certhia americana
403 Townsend's Warbler - Setophaga townsendi

Tomorrow awaits.

 

Final Arizona count. Much driving today. It's getting harder and harder to find new species. I realize now how hard a true big year really is.

404 Bendire's Thrasher - Toxostoma bendirei
405 Le Conte's Thrasher - Toxostoma lecontei
406 Green-tailed Towhee - Pipilo chlorurus
407 Black-chinned Sparrow - Spizella atrogularis
408 Red Crossbill - Loxia curvirostra

 

528. Yellow-crested Woodpecker
529. Weyn's Weaver
530. Yellow-whiskered Greenbul

All from Mpanga Forest, Uganda.



Hix

 

Added three new bird species today at Abberton Reservoir, including a very nice 'personal UK-first' tick for bird no. 130:

128. Common goldeneye
129. Peregrine falcon
130. Great white egret

Also saw a mass of arriving fieldfares, enormous numbers of shoveler, a probably red-crested pochard female and a swan goose - not sure whether that is countable or not?

Also unfortunately missed the merlin, white-fronted goose and goosander that have been hanging around in the area.

 

Are great white egrets that rare in the UK? In the Netherlands they are extremely common nowadays.