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

How is your 2012 List Going? (1 Viewer)

I am not surging forward at a very fast pace, but I was able to add one more species to my 2012 Missouri List this morning:

115. Tree Swallow, Horseshoe Lake, Saint Joseph, Missouri
 
One question: what are others' opinions on counting unseen birds? I have heard my first chiffchaff this week, but did not see it, so wonder if I can add this to my year list... and then have just heard a GS woodpecker calling and drumming from my home-office window, but again not seen, but wonder if I can add to my garden list....?

Personal opinions may differ, but generally yes to counting heard birds in both cases - they were there, and yes you correctly identified them using one of your 5 senses (usually only sight or sound are used in bird id, admittedly ... ;) )

Counting birds as a first for a 'lifelist' when heard only is usually a no however ...
 
It's been almost two weeks since I've seen any new birds, but two new migrants today bring me up to 134 for the year.

133. Brown Thrasher
134. Louisiana Waterthrush

Dave
 
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Sunday, March 25

Another beautiful, sunny, late-May sort of day in Sothern Ontario! But the birds know very well that it's still March....

25). Red-breasted Nuthatch
 
Personal opinions may differ, but generally yes to counting heard birds in both cases - they were there, and yes you correctly identified them using one of your 5 senses (usually only sight or sound are used in bird id, admittedly ... ;) )

Counting birds as a first for a 'lifelist' when heard only is usually a no however ...

Thanks... although it intrigues me if there are any birds identifiable by smell.... ;)
 
One question: what are others' opinions on counting unseen birds? I have heard my first chiffchaff this week, but did not see it, so wonder if I can add this to my year list... and then have just heard a GS woodpecker calling and drumming from my home-office window, but again not seen, but wonder if I can add to my garden list....?

I think it depends partly on how good your hearing ID skills are and partly on where you are. For example, here we have Northern Mockingbirds that can do pretty good imitations of many other birds, while our Blue Jays are experts at imitating several hawks' calls.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
 
Thanks... although it intrigues me if there are any birds identifiable by smell.... ;)

* Not really keeping on the topic of the thread, but:

I think if you were blind folded, fitted with ear plugs and then taken into a pigeon loft that you might be able to identify which species of bird was nearby! ;)

I believe that there is a particular odor given off, if not by the birds, then by the nests which they construct.

I need to get out and get some more "year birds"!
 
Unusually for me, I took part in an organized birdwalk this morning. Added:
178. Brown-headed Nuthatch
179. Great Crested Flycatcher
180. Black-and-white Warbler
181. Black-throated Green Warbler
182. Great Horned Owl (adult and two owlets)

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com
 
Thanks... although it intrigues me if there are any birds identifiable by smell.... ;)

In May 1991 I was staying on the Calf of Man for a couple of days and found 2 dead Manx shearwaters on a remote part of the coast. I took one of them to the warden, Norman McCanch, and he agreed that it was a Manx shearwater, adding that the species has a distinctive smell. The rest is (part of) history!

Allen
 
Been back home in Shropshire for over a week now and I've had a few year ticks with the first of the spring migrants passing through and a day trip to North Wales:

158. Dipper
159. Black Grouse
160. Merlin
161. Red-throated Diver
162. Guillemot
163. Black Guillemot
164. Little Ringed Plover
165. Sand Martin

Not a year tick, but I also had 4! Surf Scoter in a flock of thousands of Common Scoter in North Wales, a pretty good record for the UK!
 
My 2012 Missouri List is pretty much at a stand still; no new birds for the year in the last several days. I thought I would change my strategy and go out mushrooming this morning and perhaps find some tasty morels for the dinner table (and maybe a "new bird"). "No Joy" for either the morels or the birds. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day (or the next, or the next)!
 
Despite a cool, overcast, and damp day, birding was pretty good, with four more new birds for the year.

138. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
139. Yellow-throated Warbler
140. Western Great Egret
141. Blue-winged Teal

In addition to those birds, I added seven birds to my West Virginia year list (now up to 86) and five birds to my West Virginia life list (now up to 135).

Dave
 
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