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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (3 Viewers)

I had a good close to the year, with 4 lifers seen on December 30.

1)Merlin- hunting a dove unsuccessfully

2)Vesper sparrow- seen in the same area as the Merlin and 2 birds I had been chasing for a while

3) Rufous hummingbird

4) Common loon- a group of 8 seen a couple hundred yards from shore just outside of Houston

When I started birding 18 months ago, I thought I'd never be able to identify a sparrow, and now I have seen 14 new world sparrow species! The lifers are fewer and farther between now, but that just makes them all the more exciting.

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Wow! That sounds great! I've done a bunch of CBC's up here in the GWN, but always wanted to do one in the tropics.

Who organizes the Carara one, anyway? I have lots of great memories of birding there, would love to go back...

Peter C.

Hey Peter,
Johan Fernandez, a birding guide, is the organizer for the Bird Count at Carara. If you contact him and ask he may be able to arrange for you to join one of the teams. There are about 15 teams and they usually consist of 3 to 5 people per team. Each team is assigned a route.
We were given accommodations at Serra Lodge for two nights gratis for the count. The local birding lodges are aware of the importance of the CBC's
The La Selva CBC was a success this year as well. They are a big deal down here.
Cheers,
Bryan
 
Purple-backed Thornbill, Ecuador

Male and female. Lovely little hummers with tiny little bills. Clinging to flowers, chickadee-like, while feeding.
 
Hey Peter,
Johan Fernandez, a birding guide, is the organizer for the Bird Count at Carara. If you contact him and ask he may be able to arrange for you to join one of the teams. There are about 15 teams and they usually consist of 3 to 5 people per team. Each team is assigned a route.
Thanks for the info., Bryan. I have to hope that some day I'll be able to be there at the correct time of year, which I have never managed yet (free nights a Cerro are quite a draw!)
 
Pale Martin and Streak-throated Swallow, Ajman WTP, UAE.

Verraux's Eagle and Arabian Spotted Eagle Owl, nr Salalah, Oman. Both real monkeys off my back.
 
Black throated gray warbler in Galveston for #300. Failed on bullocks oriole 3 straight days, so I will take it.

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An unremarkable Blackish Cuckooshrike after some 145 other lifers in the Philippines. No monkey-eater, but plenty of consolation, e.g. 12 out of 12 possible owls, Slaty-backed Jungle-Flycatcher, Japanese Night Heron and Mindanao Wattled Broadbill. Finally seeing Greater Painted-snipe was nice as well!
 
Harlequin Duck is my latest (and long-awaited) lifer. I had great looks at almost a dozen of them at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park a couple days ago. It was my first trip there, and I was not disappointed in the least!
 
Seems I picked the wrong week to be in Dorset. Did have 2 lifers last week though.

Cirl Bunting
American Wigeon

Story of my life rich. Replace week with day, hour etc and any place you care to mention on far too many occasions.

At least your trip came up trumps with the Cirls. Anything else was always going to be a bonus but it is always so frustrating when something turns up days after you have left. (or leaves just before you arrive). On my first recent trip back to Scotland the Aberdeen Harlequin duck decided to do a runner (or should that be Flyer) about a week before we got there, and there was an Icterine Warbler that did the same the day before we arrived. And for the sake of my sanity, I try not to think about the Citril Finch that rocked up around the time we had just got back to Leicester having left the car park at Wells about three hours earlier.:gn:

Its all part and parcel of being a birder I suppose.
 

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