ZooChat Big Year 2019

One earlier bird species is removed due to suspected misidentification, bringing my total to 169 species.

Mammals
14. Hoary Bat Aeorestes cinereus
15. Snowshoe Hare Lepus americanus
16. Little Brown Bat Myotis lucifugus

Herpitiles
13. Green Frog Lithobates clamitans

 

Fishes
9. Rock Bass Ambloplites rupestris

 

Reptiles
26. Clay-soil Ctenotus (Ctenotus helenae)

 

Recently I took a stroll in the woods when I heard something skulking in the undergrowth. It sounded like a mammal, and different than the typical rodents I often hear. After waiting about 15 minutes, a tiny chestnut-brown creature appeared, looking at me, with only half its head visible. For a split second I thought it was a bank vole, but then it leaped away, revealing its long, slender body. I was stunned, and took several minutes for me to realise I had just seen a weasel!

Mammals
19. Common Pipistrelle, Pipistrellus pipistrellus
20. Least Weasel, Mustela nivalis

 

Fishes
10. Fathead Minnow Pimephales promelas

 

Visits to Ol Pejeta conservancy and Samburu National Reserve were successful when it comes to the larger animals, but slightly disappointing for smaller mammals. Nevertheless I still managed to see a good range of species, including some dryland specialities. Notable misses include Black rhino (Ol Pejeta) and African wild dog & Lesser kudu (Samburu). The highlight was to see 4 cheetah trying to bring down 1 Dikdik, a contest the Dikdik won spectacularly.

Ol Pejeta

73. Grant's gazelle
74. Reticulated giraffe
75. Lion
76. Cheetah
77. White-tailed mongoose
78. Southern white rhino
79. Jackson's hartebeest (lelwel x cokii or lelwel)
80. Black-backed jackal
81. Steenbok

Samburu

82. Southern gerenuk ssp. walleri
83. Desert warthog
xx. Beisa oryx ssp. gallarum
84. Grevy zebra
85. Leopard
86. Dwarf mongoose
87. Kirk's dikdik
88. Greater kudu
89. Bright's gazelle
xx. Ellipsen waterbuck

Road to Nairobi

90. Common hippo

I naturally also saw the 2 remaining Northern white rhino, but as they are basically captive, I do not count them. Pictures and the bird list will follow soon.

 

You actually saw gerenuk in the wild? You're one lucky bastard! I'm wondering how easy it is to spot one in the wild (elusive/easy-to-see).

 

I have seen both Northern and Southern Gerenuk in the wild now . The Northern are reasonably common in the Ethiopian dryland where I used to do field work, but somewhat shy. In Samburu they are very easy to see, we saw 4 within a minute of entering the Reserve and we would typically see a few every hour. I had also tried to find them in Mkomazi in Tanzania 3 years back, but there they eluded me, although they were supposed to be common.

 

And now the birds

Baringo

445. Common ostrich
446. African darter
447. Purple heron
448. Squacco heron
449. White-faced whistling duck
450. African fish eagle
451. Verreaux’s eagle
452. Crested francolin
453. Black crake
454. African jacana
455. Black-headed lapwing
456. Gull-billed tern
457. Meyer’s brown parrot
458. Diederik cuckoo
459. Jacobin cuckoo
460. Common hoopoe
461. Pied kingfisher
462. African pygmy kingfisher
463. Malachite kingfisher
464. Striped kingfisher
465. Red-fronted barbet
466. Grey woodpecker
467. Cardinal woodpecker
468. Wire-tailed swallow
469. Lesser striped swallow
470. White-browed scrub-robin
471. Northern crombec
472. Grey-backed camaroptera
473. Southern black flycatcher
474. Grey-backed shrike
475. Wattled starling
476. Bristle-crowned starling
477. Eastern violet-backed sunbird
478. Yellow-spotted petronia
479. Cut-throat finch
480. Northern masked weaver
481. Pin-tailed whyda


Aberdare

482. African spoonbill
483. African black duck
484. Yellow-billed duck
485. Black sparrowhawk
486. Mountain buzzard
487. Long-crested eagle
488. Scaly francolin
489. African snipe
490. Eastern bronze-naped pigeon
491. Red-fronted parrot
492. White-rumped swift
493. African black swift
494. European bee-eater
495. White-cheeked hornbill
496. Crowned hornbill
497. Black saw-wing
498. Red-rumped swallow
499. Mountain wagtail
500. White-bellied tit
501. Little rock thrush
502. Moorland chat
503. Northern anteater chat
504. Aberdare cisticola
505. Chestnut-throated apalis
506. Slender-billed starling
507. Golden-winged sunbird
508. Kenya rufous sparrow
509. Spectacled weaver
510. Brown-capped weaver
511. African firefinch
512. Purple grenadier
513. Reichenow’s seedeater


Ol Pejeta

514. Intermediate egret
515. Pink-backed pelican
516. Black-shouldered kite
517. Egyptian vulture
518. Yellow-necked spurfowl
519. Kori bustard
520. Black-bellied bustard
521. White-bellied bustard
522. Spotted thick-knee
523. Temminck’s courser
524. Kittlitz’s plover
525. African three-banded plover
526. Blacksmith plover
527. Black-winged lapwing
528. Common greenshank
529. Cape turtle dove
530. Emeral spotted-wood dove
531. Secretary bird
532. Bearded woodpecker
533. Red-winged lark
534. Fischer’s sparrow lark
535. African pipit
536. Black-lored babbler
537. African grey flycatcher
538. Violet-backed starling
539. Yellow-billed oxpecker
540. Red-billed buffalo weaver
541. Grey-capped social weaver
542. Speke’s weaver

Samburu

543. Somali ostrich
544. Lappet-faced vulture
545. Brown snake eagle
546. Bateleur
547. Gabar goshawk
548. Shikra
549. Steppe eagle
550. Martial eagle
551. Vulturine guineafowl
552. Buff-crested bustard
553. Black-faced sandgrouse
554. African palm swift
555. White-headed mousebird
556. Abyssinian scimitarbill
557. Eastern yellow-billed hornbill
558. Decken’s hornbill
559. Black-throated barbet
560. Red-and-yellow barbet
561. Northern brownbul
562. Bare-eyed thrush
563. Banded parisoma
564. Brubru
565. Slate-coloured boubou
566. Hunter’s sunbird
567. Donaldson-Smith’s sparrow weaver
568. Black-capped social weaver
569. Lesser masked weaver
570. Black-necked weaver
571. Black-cheeked waxbill
572. White-bellied canary
573. Somali golden-breasted bunting

 

BIRDS:
645) European pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca
646) Common scoter, Melanitta nigra

MAMMALS:
40) House mouse, Mus musculus
41) Harbour seal, Phoca vitulina

 

A bit of sea-watching today during a trip in Capri!


Birds

62. Yelkouan shearwater - Puffinus yelkouan

63. Scopoli's shearwater - Calonectris diomedea

 

Birds
170. Sedge Wren Cistothorus stellaris
171. Wilson's Snipe Gallinago delicata
172. Sora Porzana carolina
173. Black-throated Green Warbler Setophaga virens
174. Green-winged Teal Anas crecca

I missed a vagrant Red-necked Phalarope today, but two lifers and 56 species is still nothing to scoff at!

 

BIRDS:
647) Western osprey, Pandion haliaetus
648) Ruddy shelduck, Tadorna ferruginea

 

First off, a misidentification from Panama adds another species to my list:

BIRDS:
649) Yellow warbler, Setophaga petechia

And some very nice rarities were found at the coast today as well, which was very nice!

BIRDS:
650) Red-breasted flycatcher, Ficedula parva
651) Greenish warbler, Phylloscopus trochiloides
652) Grey partridge, Perdix perdix

 

Invertebrates

46. Silverfish - Lepisma saccharina

47. Drain fly - Clogmia albipunctata

 

Amphibians

For now I eliminate Common frog from the list because I have to identify the animal I've seen correctly.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

I tried and failed to find a vagrant White-winged Dove today, but I managed to see my second Wilson's Warbler in just about the spot I least expected - a random neighborhood in rural Wisconsin.

 

Invertebrates

49. Tiger mosquito - Aedes albopictatus

(I've done a mistake in numbering the invertebrates)

Fishes

60. Striped red mullet - Mullus surmuletus

 

Birds:
133. Eastern Whip Bird (Psophodes olivaceus)
134. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
135. Jabiru (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus)

Saw the glossy ibis for real this time. The jabirus were very, very unexpected lifers. I saw a pair, who, along with the glossy ibis, were feeding in a small dam along the Yandina Coolum Road. A pair is known to frequent the Yandina wetlands so this was probably them. Easily one of the rarest birds on the Sunshine Coast.

Also decided that the oriental Pratincoles (number 119) were almost certainly Australian Pratincoles so Oriental Pratincole is removed from my list and Australian Pratincole is added.

 

So,this is the situation of my checklists:

5 Mammals

63 Birds

7 Reptiles

2 Amphibians

49 Invertebrates

59 Fishes ( Comber cancelled for a misidentification)


Now, I have to do a question:
In July, I saw two times boars.
Recently I've discovered that boars in Italy (except Sardinian ones) are almost all hybrids between Italian original boars and East/Central-European boars,that hunters introduced here in the 50's.
Can I sign them or not?