2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (1 Viewer)

[Paul Chapman]

The Facebook album certainly merits a browse. 10 Red-footed Booby on Boa Vista as well and Black-headed Heron on Santiago. Intriguing Peregrine and African Collared Dove with dark tail on Mindelo.

Maffong - accepted Siberian Thrush and Stejneger's Stonechat in 2016 in the UK.

All the best

 

[Maffong]

The Facebook album certainly merits a browse. 10 Red-footed Booby on Boa Vista as well and Black-headed Heron on Santiago. Intriguing Peregrine and African Collared Dove with dark tail on Mindelo.

Maffong - accepted Siberian Thrush and Stejneger's Stonechat in 2016 in the UK.

All the best

Thanks for the info, I must've overlooked those two.
Also I wonder if this link might work so you could have another look at more pics from the Red-footed Boobies

 

[Maffong]

Superb.

Magnolia on Corvo.

All the best

Also a Cabot's Tern yesterday on Terceira. Maybe the Big Year guys got it as they were on the island.
Also I saw a picture of the Greater Yellowlegs from yesterday on Pico and another Ovenbird and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo were reported from Corvo

 

[Maffong]

Assuming you are excluding Iran from the WP, then this remaining Siberian Crane almost certainly did not pass through the borders of the WP as defined for this Big Year - its wintering ground is south of the eastern edge of the Caspian Sea and normal route for this individual is east of the Caspian.




Naturally if Iran were included, then both of these were in the WP in both years. Even excluding Iran, Caspian Tits are sedentary, so the Azerbaijan birds had to be in both years too.

Thanks for the info on the Crane. I thought it was reported to have left westwards, but I had always been searching for more intel which route it was taken.
In that case I guess it should rather merit code 5 than code 3.

Concerning the WP boundaries I didn't define any of it, I'm just working with others' definitions here, especially the one that the Big Year WP guys chose. And for my spreadsheet I only included reported species, not species that should be there. Maybe the Caspian Tits had a major range expansion this year?! I don't believe so, but who knows for sure?! And how would I treat species such as Verreaux's Eagle, where I haven't seen reports from after 2014, but personally believe that some might persist in the region? Also it's fun to follow the arrival of migrants early in the year

 

[Jos Stratford]

Thanks for the info on the Crane. I thought it was reported to have left westwards, but I had always been searching for more intel which route it was taken.
In that case I guess it should rather merit code 5 than code 3.

When the population was larger, some birds did use the western route round the Caspian, at least occasionally. Don't remember details of this, but this sole individual has been seen departing some years ...very much in the direction of the eastern route.

 

[DanielDoer]

Next stop Sao Miguel for Azores Bullfinch then? There was also a Wilson's Snipe recently on Terceira. I guess they've tried for that too.

Yes they mentioned Common Snipe (among other waders including yanks) on the list on Terceira yesterday (so they tried for Wilson's but weren't successful). No Cabot's Tern as well yesterday...
By the way: what the hell is that species like??

 

[Paul Chapman]

Yes they mentioned Common Snipe (among other waders including yanks) on the list on Terceira yesterday (so they tried for Wilson's but weren't successful). No Cabot's Tern as well yesterday...
By the way: what the hell is that species like??

Spot the difference if you can......

http://birdingfrontiers.com/2017/01/19/variation-in-adult-cabots-and-sandwich-terns/

Black-throated Green on Corvo as well. I fear that they are elsewhere.

All the best

 

[Andy Adcock]

Concerning the WP boundaries I didn't define any of it, I'm just working with others' definitions here)

So which / whose authority's definition of the WP is accepted as THE one?

Obviously the listers will always prefer the one that provides for the highest number of species regardless of justification?

A

 

[Maffong]

So which / whose authority's definition of the WP is accepted as THE one?

Obviously the listers will always prefer the one that provides for the highest number of species regardless of justification?

A

The WP was defined by "Birds of the Western Palearctic" from 1977 I believe and was adopted by most birding websites such as netfugl, tarsiger, ebird, IGoTerra, Club300.de and others.
However a new refernce work "Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds" is in the pipeline and the WP shall be redefined to include Arabia and Iran I believe (though I also believe that some of you know much more about this than I do).
However this book still hasn't been published, so the only major reference work I know of that uses the wider definition is "Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. An Annotated Checklist" and that come out only very recently.

I'm also not sure if they are even aware about the forthcoming redefinition of the WP. It's not a wide known fact here in germany at least...

This is what the alleged Cabot's Tern looks like from Praia da Vitoria

 

[Maffong]

Only addition today was Azores Bullfinch, so they missed out on all those other goodies mentioned before, so they've got to hope that those birds stick around

 

[Andy Adcock]

The WP was defined by "Birds of the Western Palearctic" from 1977 I believe and was adopted by most birding websites such as netfugl, tarsiger, ebird, IGoTerra, Club300.de and others.
However a new refernce work "Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds" is in the pipeline and the WP shall be redefined to include Arabia and Iran I believe (though I also believe that some of you know much more about this than I do).
However this book still hasn't been published, so the only major reference work I know of that uses the wider definition is "Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. An Annotated Checklist" and that come out only very recently.

I'm also not sure if they are even aware about the forthcoming redefinition of the WP. It's not a wide known fact here in germany at least...

This is what the alleged Cabot's Tern looks like from Praia da Vitoria

I'm not a big believer that there can be a clear, definitive boundary in such a zone and have often suggested some kind of transitional area such as Wallacea between Asia and Australasia must exist.

Surely an overlap zone exists where regular WP birds gradually rather than abruptly, give way to Eastern species?



A

 

[Nutcracker]

I'm not a big believer that there can be a clear, definitive boundary in such a zone and have often suggested some kind of transitional area such as Wallacea between Asia and Australasia must exist.

Surely an overlap zone exists where regular WP birds gradually rather than abruptly, give way to Eastern species?

A

Yep, but people like hard, defined boundaries that they can work to :t:

 

[jurek]

Europe would have yielded them ...

A rarity somewhere in Europe is realistically twitchable only next afternoon. How many of these rarities were two day records? On Corvo they can get anywhere within an hour (although many birds are missed nevetheless). So Corvo still wins.

 

[DanielDoer]

Spot the difference if you can......

http://birdingfrontiers.com/2017/01/19/variation-in-adult-cabots-and-sandwich-terns/

...

All the best

Oh, they added a Sandwich Tern on a Praia (da Paul probably?) while being in Terceira! So probably the Cabot's Tern is still not available on IGoTerra? Or they made the Wilson's Snipe style once again...

Nevertheless many thanks to Paul for the link!

 

[DanielDoer]

I'm not a big believer that there can be a clear, definitive boundary in such a zone and have often suggested some kind of transitional area such as Wallacea between Asia and Australasia must exist.

Surely an overlap zone exists where regular WP birds gradually rather than abruptly, give way to Eastern species?

As I wrote in this forum some time ago the eastern boundary of the WP is rather political and not quite good based on the range of species. For example in Russia are the Urals no such biogeographical border and the WP boundary should be far more east at the river Jennisey in central Siberia from that point of view.

And of course the change is rather gradually...

 

[Paul Chapman]

A rarity somewhere in Europe is realistically twitchable only next afternoon. How many of these rarities were two day records? On Corvo they can get anywhere within an hour (although many birds are missed nevetheless). So Corvo still wins.

All of the ones quoted were realistically twitchable. I deliberately excluded those that were not.

 

[Maffong]

I'm not a big believer that there can be a clear, definitive boundary in such a zone and have often suggested some kind of transitional area such as Wallacea between Asia and Australasia must exist.

Surely an overlap zone exists where regular WP birds gradually rather than abruptly, give way to Eastern species?
A

Surely it would be difficult to even define such an overlap zone and it would make comparable Big Years almost impossible if everyone could just choose their own definition.
The ABA area is also imperfect, but people have arranged themselves with it.
If you don't like such imperfect borders than the only possibility is to just keep a world list. I'm pretty sure there are no species to be expected outside our world. But even if you used political boundaries, such as countries there would be grounds for controversies...

 

[Mark Lew1s]

I'm not a big believer that there can be a clear, definitive boundary in such a zone and have often suggested some kind of transitional area such as Wallacea between Asia and Australasia must exist.

Surely an overlap zone exists where regular WP birds gradually rather than abruptly, give way to Eastern species?



A

Where would you draw the boundaries of the transitional area?

 

[Muppit17]

Friends recently visited Cape Verde and got Cape Verde Storm Petrel, Fea's Petrel, Cape Verde Shearwater and Boyd's Shearwater aswell as 30 Red-footed Boobies so chances seem decent that they could also bag all of the Cape Verde endemics and seabirds! And the chances are always there to find a proper MEGA

Maffong, I assume this was late September/early October. I don't understand the timings but from what I have read this is consistent that these species should still be there then - but not in late November. We will have to wait to see who is right.

As a question - did your friends see any Frigatebirds? I read somewhere they are getting very difficult and the sub text to this years Ascension F/B sighting was that this was the only one seen (and would probably been overlooked otherwise)

 

[Maffong]

It was in the middle of October. We'll see what sticks. I have the impression that much research still needs to be done on these species

There were some reports earlier in the year of several Magnificient Frigatebirds I believe, however I don't think they have been seen recently anymore.
Last report I found though was from 18.2.17