ZooChat Big Year 2020

Birds
61. Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

 

4/4/2020
118. Peregrine Falcon

 

Today I spotted a species I didn't yet have on my Big Year list. I however also realized I accidentally double-counted/mentioned the mallard. Thus my tally remains at 22, and my updated and correct bird species list is as follows:

BIRDS

1 - Great egret (Ardea alba)
2 - Mute swan (Cygnus olor)
3 - Tufted duck (Aythya fuligula)
4 - Common pochard (Aythya ferina)
5 - Gadwall (Mareca strepera)
6 - Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
7 - Eurasian coot (Fulica atra)
8 - Greylag goose (Anser anser)
9 - Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
10 - Common buzzard (Buteo buteo)
11 - European robin (Erithacus rubecula)
12 - Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
13 - House sparrow (Passer domesticus)
14 - Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus)
15 - Eurasian magpie (Pica pica pica)
16 - Carrion crow (Corvus corone)
17 - White wagtail (Motacilla alba)
18 - Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
19 - Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
20 - Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula)
21 - Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)
22 - Eurasian jackdaw (Corvus monedula) (04-04-2020, Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp province, Flanders, Belgium)

 

Mammals
9. Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel Ictidomys tridecemlineatus

Birds
98. Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps
99. Blue-winged Teal Spatula discors
100. Eurasian Wigeon Mareca penelope
101. Rusty Blackbird Euphagus carolinus
102. Bonaparte's Gull Chroicocephalus philadelphia
103. Great Egret Ardea alba

Fish
2. Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides

It's almost poetic that year bird #100 this year is a rare vagrant that I found, rather than chasing it after I heard about it from others.

 

My first loon

Birds
62. Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata)
63. Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)
64. White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
65. Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna)
66. Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea)

 

After 10 days of not coming outside at all other than my backyard, I decided to take the bike to the local wetland and go looking for some spring migrants. Gained a bunch of quality additions, the best probably being a ring ouzel, some very prominent singing bluethroats and my first self-found scarcity of the year, a wryneck!

BIRDS:
152) Sedge warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
153) Bearded reedling, Panurus biarmicus
154) Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla
155) Ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus
156) Bluethroat, Luscinia svecica
157) Eurasian wryneck, Jynx torquilla
158) Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica

MAMMALS:
8) Brown rat, Rattus norvegicus

INVERTS:
6) Seven-spotted ladybug, Coccinella septempunctata
7) Common brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni
8) Orange-tip, Anthocharis cardamines
9) Peacock butterfly, Aglais io

 

Two more invertebrates seen as I was reading The Annotated Malay Archipelago on the backyard terrace today.

05-04-2020 - Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp province, Flanders, Belgium

INVERTEBRATES
11 - Small copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas)
12 - Red admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)

 

Another great vagrant today (only the 11th record in my state):

Mammals
10. Woodchuck Marmota monax

Birds
104. Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis
105. Osprey Pandion haliaetus
106. Golden-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla

 

Birds
67. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
68. Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus)
69. Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)
70. Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)
71. Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)

 

At Moonlit Sanctuary

285. Whistling kite Haliastur sphenurus

 

On Saturday I saved my government-sanctioned daily exercise for a dusk stroll in the hope of tracking down bats on a mild night and giving the detector its first serious runout this year.

It was more than rewarded. There is clearly at least one breeding pair (and possibly more) of Tawny Owl whose territory includes my street - I have been hearing them on warm nights ever since I moved in best part of a decade ago. But however many times I was out after sunset I could never manage to actually see one. Whether by luck or because the streets were so much quieter, I finally managed it, on the fringes of a wood just a few hundred yards from home.

I've got some inverts to add as well but will pick those up later.

Birds:
142. Tawny Owl - Strix aluco

Mammals:
15. Common Pipistrelle - Pipistrellus pipistrellus

 

My second loon

Birds
72. Great Northern Diver (Gavia immer)
73. Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)
74. Gadwall (Mareca strepera)
75. Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
76. Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)
77. European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola)
78. Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

 

191 smew
192 Horned grebe
193 eurasian oystercatcher
194 common snipe
195 green sandpiper

 

Birds
107. Golden-crowned Kinglet Regulus satrapa
108. Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus
109. Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis

Herps
1. Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta
2. Wood Frog Lithobates sylvaticus

Fish
3. Common Carp Cyprinus carpio

 

112. Bluethroat
113. Yellow Wagtail

Mammals

8. Common Pipistrelle

Invertebrates

7. Bombylius major
8. Holly Blue
9. Small Tortoiseshell
10. Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

 

Struggled to get to sleep last night because my downstairs neighbour's completely unnecessary motion-activated security light kept going off. Forgave him a little bit when I looked outside and saw what was setting it off.

Mammals:
16. Red Fox - Vulpes vulpes

 

I've seen one of these in the UK some years ago. I know they inhabit reedbed fringes(?) do they use reeds as songperches or what? Are they skulking birds or easy to see?

I hope you find a Black Woodpecker soon- it will be my only chance- virtually- of seeing one this year now I'm quite sure...

 

They are generally found in areas with older reed and some woody vegetation. In early spring the males are quite easy to see as they perch in the open to sing. I've seen four Bluethroats sing this year and all were perching in willow bushes. Later in the year they tend to become a bit more skulky in my experience, but far from impossible to see.

Good luck. They're fanastic birds to see!

 

I haven't had much luck with finding Bluethroats this year, haven't found any singing in the open (where everybody else seems to see them), the one I saw was foraging at the water edge next to a reef bed, so something like skulking in the open