Richard Klim
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The Tibesti is the only WP location for African Scrub Robin Cercotrichas minor (a rather curious eBird/Clements split)!!!
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Big Year in the Western Palearctic? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jurek
- Start date
Yippee, my WP list just jumped a league ....assuming I knew the total anyhow
I always included this within the WP myself, so fully agree with the inclusion
Richard Klim
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From personal experience, the North African WP boundary (mostly 21°N) of Cramp et al (BWP) is certainly easy to find in the field – with GPS!
But the BWP definition seems to be treated unduly reverentially, as if it was delivered from the heavens on stone tablets...
The alternative (mostly 19°N) limit suggested by Roselaar 2006 (based upon analysis of the transition between predominantly Palearctic and predominantly Afrotropical passerine species) merits consideration as a perhaps more valid biogeographic boundary.
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dantheman
Bah humbug
Yep, since it's been mentioned I did try a WP year effort one year, I guess I should confirm
May have alluded to it, but pretty sure not really mentioned on any threads?Definitely more of a little-to middling year than a big year. Great fun though (I think the kind of 'proper' big year which involved say 160+ flights would be a lot less fun, with 'having' to clean up and rely on being shown some of the more tricky birds). The final tally (which I still haven't totted up) was in the mid-500's. I was trying to do it on a budget, but sometimes costs ran away more than I would have liked. With better organization on my part I really should have seen 600 for my money (again, haven't calculated properly, but it was £2 - £3000?). Another couple of £k (or Eurok) or so and some of the trips (ie countries) I couldn't afford at the time and 650 species would have been eminently do-able (possibly, with luck). On less of a budget (but still being careful) and I'd imagine 650 on £10 -15k would be very do-able for anyone making an attempt.
After that and it would become a lot more expensive (cost per bird) to mop up any specific dips, euro-twitching (including the UK) and WP-twitching, but agree 700 would be the benchmark starting big year figure for the WP area (as it was), in a good year, well ...
I'm sure that there are plenty of tour guide operators/dedicated WP listers who see 500+ in a year as a matter of course. But since there doesn't seem to be much of a history of WP (or even European?) year listing I was happy with my relatively low figure, probably on a par for effort with ABA area big years from the middle of the last century admittedly though!
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dantheman
Bah humbug
Southern Ukraine easy (and cheap) enough to get to for wintering birds. But specific sites/getting any gen on the year wouldn't necessarily be so easy ... ?
Nohatch
Mad scientist
Easy enough: there are regular flights from London to Astana (colleague of mine does it all the time). Alternatively you could take the ferry from Baku to Aktau and the night train up to Atyrau. Takes a bit of planning but would be cheap and interesting!
N
Steve Lister
Senior Birder, ex County Recorder, Garden Moths.
What the heck is European Kazakhstan? Yes, the western bit, the K on the BWP map, is in the Western Palearctic but what makes it European?
Steve
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
jurek
Well-known member
Yep, since it's been mentioned I did try a WP year effort one year, I guess I should confirm
Tell us which places you visited. B
Well, benchmark is the prize of the first person trying.
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
All the Russians living there? 8-P
Richard Klim
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The Ural River is generally considered to be the physical boundary separating Europe from Asia in Kazakhstan.
eg, Wikipedia: Boundaries between continents.
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Must be true, my area of Germany is full of russians too
,Helmut Kohl's departing gift to a collapsing Soviet Union, most came from Khaszakstan.
Paul Chapman
Well-known member
A frivolous way to spend a year when I’ve retired perhaps.
On the basis of the 'BWP' WP boundaries, and accepting that Mauritania, Algeria, Iraq and Chad contain target species which would not be gettable on a ‘tourist trip’ under current circumstances, I get around 650 realistic targets with known breeding, passage and wintering sites out of trips to:- France, Spain, Canaries, Morocco (including Western Sahara), Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Latvia, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Russian Urals, Cape Verde, Corsica, Mallorca, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Azores, Italy, Madeira, Kuwait, Egypt, Cyprus & Holland (in addition to Great Britain and Ireland).
Some will require repeat visits at more than one time of year.
This is on the basis of the taxonomy used on Netfugl and includes about 25 Category C species. The most realistic additional vagrants are Nearctic wildfowl and waders which could add about 25 regularly occurring species. You would need some good fortune to fit in much additional twitching but on the basis that you crammed in as many of the targets as early as possible, you could spend the last four months mopping up and twitching. An interesting issue would be how much time you spent on the Azores in autumn for American landbirds (and indeed that would help with the regularly occurring wildfowl and waders). In Britain and Ireland you would have more flexibility to pick up Sibes as well as yanks but I think that you would still aim for three weeks in the Azores for most of September.
I have assumed that you can avoid logistical difficulties in visiting Israel notwithstanding the fact that on this basis you would have a plethora of stamps in your passport which would ordinarily attract the odd question at Tel Aviv airport.
So on this basis, 700 would be an excellent aspirational target but only if you included Category C species and realistically, you should sit down for a very well-earned pint after dark on 31st December if you have got say 675.
All the best
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Colin
Axeman (Retired)
jurek
Well-known member
Lets consider, hypothetically, how a timing could look like?
Winter - British and Dutch wildfowl.
Cape Verdes, possibly.
Early spring: 2 weeks in Morocco.
2 weeks in Egypt, both for North African species and first returning African migrants. And keep flexible as the spring and migration can move because of the weather.
Spring: 3 weeks in Turkey,
2 weeks in Israel (how it looks like politically?), both to catch up with the bulk of returning African migrants together with the resident locals.
Late spring: S Ukraine/Kazakhstan for steppe birds.
Russian Urals for the marginal species.
Norway and Finland for boreal and Arctic species.
Georgia for Caucasus endemics and more steppe species.
Summer: Iceland for waterbirds.
Madeira and Canaries, split between endemics and a seabird cruises.
Fit any tropical migrants missed in spring.
Autumn: 3 weeks in October in Azores for American vagrants, likely missing any vagrants turning up on European continent at the same time.
Kuwait for the Hypocolius and resident birds.
Winter: cleaning up localized resident species in Corsica, Mallorca, Belarus (woodpeckers, Azure Tit), Italy or Switzerland (Citril Finch, Rock Partrdge), and strange category C species.
Sounds barely possible. But what an incredible diversity of places, experiences and cultures. Perhaps more than ABA and Australian big years.
Winter - British and Dutch wildfowl.
Cape Verdes, possibly.
Early spring: 2 weeks in Morocco.
2 weeks in Egypt, both for North African species and first returning African migrants. And keep flexible as the spring and migration can move because of the weather.
Spring: 3 weeks in Turkey,
2 weeks in Israel (how it looks like politically?), both to catch up with the bulk of returning African migrants together with the resident locals.
Late spring: S Ukraine/Kazakhstan for steppe birds.
Russian Urals for the marginal species.
Norway and Finland for boreal and Arctic species.
Georgia for Caucasus endemics and more steppe species.
Summer: Iceland for waterbirds.
Madeira and Canaries, split between endemics and a seabird cruises.
Fit any tropical migrants missed in spring.
Autumn: 3 weeks in October in Azores for American vagrants, likely missing any vagrants turning up on European continent at the same time.
Kuwait for the Hypocolius and resident birds.
Winter: cleaning up localized resident species in Corsica, Mallorca, Belarus (woodpeckers, Azure Tit), Italy or Switzerland (Citril Finch, Rock Partrdge), and strange category C species.
Sounds barely possible. But what an incredible diversity of places, experiences and cultures. Perhaps more than ABA and Australian big years.
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