ZooChat Big Year 2017

And there it is - that's a hard one to top!

 

It won't be easy in terms of rarity, no , better views would have been welcome though. For sure this year nothing will top it, but who knows what next year holds.... For sure a pangolin would top it

 

A few additions from a crespuscular/nocturnal trip to Avenue Washlands and Baslow tonight, plus an invertebrate catch-up:

Mammals:
19. Common Pipistrelle - Pipistrellus pipistrellus
20. Daubenton's Bat - Myotis daubentonii

Amphibians:
4. Great Crested Newt - Triturus cristatus

Invertebrates:
21. Common Carder-bee - Bombus pascuorum
22. Garden Snail - Comu aspersum

 

I don't recall if I already posted in the thread yet, but here's how my meager list for this year is looking so far.
BIRDS:
1. American Crow
2. Herring Gull
3. European Starling
4. Rock Dove
5. Mourning Dove
6. Mallard
7. American Robin
8. Dark-Eyed Junco
9. Tufted Titmouse
10. Black-Capped Chickadee
11. Canada Goose
12. White-Breasted Nuthatch
13. Downy Woodpecker
14. Hairy Woodpecker
15. House Sparrow
16. Blue Jay
17. Turkey Vulture
18. Wild Turkey
19. Common Grackle
20. House Finch
21. White-Throated Sparrow
22. Red-Tailed Hawk
23. Mute Swan
24. Brant Goose
25. Great Egret
26. Gray Catbird
27. Red-Winged Blackbird
28. Pine Warbler (#100 on lifer list)
29. Fish Crow
30. Double-Crested Cormorant
31. Black-Crowned Night Heron
32. Osprey
33. Northern Flicker
34. Warbling Vireo
35. Yellow-Rumped Warbler
36. Barn Swallow
37. Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
38. Tree Swallow
39. Song Sparrow
40. Northern Mockingbird

MAMMALS:
1. Eastern Gray Squirrel
2. American Red Squirrel
3. Muskrat
4. White-Tailed Deer
5. Eastern Cottontail
6. Groundhog

 

Birds
152. Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrike
153. Banded Woodpecker
154. Finch's Bulbul
155. Olive-winged Bulbul
156. Red-eyed Bulbul
157. Puffback Bulbul
158. Cream-vented Bulbul
159. Van Hasselt's Sunbird
160. Buff-vented Bulbul

Mammals
14. Prevost's Squirrel

Reptiles
10. Striped Tree Skink (Dasia vittata)



Hix

 

Lovely long summery day birding over the border in north Nottinghamshire - the additions below are all from various parts of the extensive Idle Valley Nature Reserve, except for the pipit, which was on Budby Common in Sherwood Forest.

Birds:
147. Tree Pipit - Anthus trivialis
148. Common Whitethroat - Sylvia communis
149. Hobby - Falco subbuteo
150. Sanderling - Calidris alba
151. Common Ringed Plover - Charadrius hiaticula
152. Eurasian Reed Warbler - Acrocephalus scirpaceus
153. Common Cuckoo - Cuculus canorus

Invertebrates:
23. Common Blue Damselfly - Enallagma cyathigerum
24. Banded Demoiselle - Calopteryx splendens

 

Birds
161. Brown-throated Sunbird



Hix

 

Had a day-off-in-lieu to use (for working a bank holiday) so had my own personal bank holiday today and went up to Bempton Cliffs, with calls at Flamborough Head and North Cave Wetlands on the return. Another glorious day with some great additions - including the most (wild..!) puffins I think I've ever seen in a day, at both the first two stops. Razorbills, gannets and kittiwakes by the hundreds (or thousands) of course, plus guillemots and fulmars.

Birds are from Bempton and North Cave, the mammal is Flamborough and invertebrates (three butterflies, a dragonfly and and a ladybird) are from Flamborough and North Cave.

Birds:
154. Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus
155. Black-legged Kittiwake - Rissa tridactyla
156. Razorbill - Alca torda
157. Atlantic Puffin - Fratercula arctica
158. Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia curruca
159. Arctic Tern - Sterna paradisaea
160. Mediterranean Gull - Ichtyaetus melanocephalus

Mammals:
21. Grey Seal - Halichoerus grypus

Invertebrates:
25. Common Wall - Lasiommata megera
26. Painted Lady - Vanessa cardui
27. Common Blue - Polyommatus icarus
28. Four-spotted Chaser - Libellula quadrimaculata
29. Seven-spot Ladybird - Coccinella septempunctatum

 

Birds
162. Changeable Hawk-eagle

Reptiles
11. Smith's Giant Gecko
12. Horsfield's Gliding Gecko
13. Oriental Garden Lizard



Hix

 

Catching up after a busy couple of weeks ...

Firstly, a few migrants picked up locally:
184. Swift (Apus apus)
185. Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)
186. Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

A work trip to Yorkshire offered the opportunity for a couple of interesting detours to Belvide Reservoir and Blacktoft Sands:
187. Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
188. Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)
189. Montagu's Harrier (Circus pygargus)
190. Bearded Tit (Panurus biarmicus)

This weekend was my annual spring trip to East Anglia:
191. Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)*
192. Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)
193. Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus)
194. Little Owl (Athene noctua)
195. Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix)
196. Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)
197. Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)
198. Dotterel (Charadrius morinellus)
199. Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)
200. Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra)
201. Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii)
202. Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)
203. Barn Owl (Tyto alba)
204. Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)
205. Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)
206. Bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
207. Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata)
208. Woodlark (Lullula arborea)
209. Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)
210. Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans)
211. Stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus)
212. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
213. Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris)

* I may have just been lucky, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Turtle Doves in Lincolnshire (Frampton Marsh), Norfolk (Titchwell Marsh) and Suffolk (Westleton Heath) in the course of four days.

 

125. Marsh warbler (Acrocephalus palustris)
126. Icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina)
127. Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
128. Eurasian golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
129. Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio)
130. Tree pipit (Anthus trivialis)
131. Black tern (Chlidonias niger)
132. Whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida)
133. Western honey-buzard (Pernis apivorus)
134. Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

 

15. Northern Raccoon

 

Since my last update I have added to my year list two birds, a mammal, a fish, two butterflies (plus one honorary butterfly) and five dragon and damselflies:

139. European turtle dove Streptopelia turtur (Vu)
140. Green sandpiper Tringa ochropus

18. Common noctule bat Nyctalus noctula

4. Common dace Leuciscus leuciscus

12. Large white butterfly Pieris brassicae
13. Holly blue butterfly Celastrina argiolus
14. Hummingbird hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum

3. Common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum
4. Red-eyed damselfly Erythromma najas
5. Blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans
6. Banded demoiselle damselfly Calopteryx splendens
7. Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly Libellula depressa

 

Birds:
1) Mallard
2) American Wigeon
3) Greater Scaup
4) Northern Shoveler
5) Northern Pintail
6) Snow Goose, to include -
*Blue Goose Phase
*Snow Goose/White-fronted Goose hybrid
7) Greater White-fronted Goose
8) Canada Goose
9) Cackling Goose
10) Brant
11) Trumpeter Sean
12) Tundra Swan
13) Sandhill Crane
14) Rough-legged Hawk
15) Bald Eagle
16) Peregrine Falcon
17) Black-billed Magpie
18) Common Raven
19) Gray Jay
20) Stellar Jay
21) Glaucous-winged Gull
22) Glacous Gull
23) Mew Gull
24) Sabine's Gull
25) Arctic Tern
26) Common Redpoll
27) Black-capped Chickadee
28) Boreal Chickadee
28) Dark-eyed Junco
29) European Starling
30) Rock Dive (feral pigeon)
31) American Robin
32) Red-breasted Nuthatch
33) Snow Bunting
34) Lapland Longspur
35) Bohemian Waxwing
36) Downy Woodpecker
37) Hairy Woodpecker
38) Pectoral Sandpiper
39) Long-billed Dowitcher
40) Semi-palmated Sandpiper
41) Red-necked Phalarope


Mammals:
1) American Red Squirrel
2) Moose
3) Caribou
4) Musk Ox
5) Ringed Seal
6) Arctic Fox
7) Red Fox
8) Northern River Otter
9) Polar Bear
10) Brown Bear


That's 2 of 3 North American Bears so far this year!

 

Birds:
42) Willow Ptarmigan
43) Parasitic Jaeger
44) Short-eared Owl

Mammals:
11) North American Brown Lemming

 

32) Marsh Frog

 

27/5/2017
177. Australasian pipit
178. little grassbird
179. red kneed dotterel
180. Australasian shoveler
181. CRIMSON CHAT*
182. banded lapwing

 

45) Longtailed Jaeger