2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (2 Viewers)

PedroNicolau · Jun 17, 2017

Desertas Petrel is very easy, unless there's no wind..
But they get them on the short pelagics almost every day, and they should get them on the long one.

Barolo's Shearwater might be tricky.. They don't come to chum, but occasionally are seen on their pelagics so it's a matter of luck. In the Azores they might find a spot to see them from land.

11 ticks today including the Rosefinch. Cracking start.

DanielDoer · Jun 17, 2017

PedroNicolau said:
...

11 ticks today including the Rosefinch. Cracking start.

But they haven't updated their list yet. And according to their facebook post they are heading out of the internet zone for a few days... So we have to wait patiently! One of our favorite exercises...

Paul Chapman · Jun 17, 2017

Impatience is a virtue - or something like that....

My best guesses in addition to Long-tailed Rosefinch:-
Grasshopper Warbler
Thrush Nightingale
Lanceolated Warbler
Oriental Turtle Dove
Greenish Warbler
Oriental Cuckoo
Rustic Bunting
Booted Warbler
Azure Tit
Little Bunting

All the best

DanielDoer · Jun 18, 2017

Paul Chapman said:
Impatience is a virtue - or something like that....

My best guesses in addition to Long-tailed Rosefinch:-
Grasshopper Warbler
Thrush Nightingale
Lanceolated Warbler
Oriental Turtle Dove
Greenish Warbler
Oriental Cuckoo
-
Booted Warbler
-
-

All the best

Now list updated:
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/

You were quite good 7 correct out of ten, Paul. But they didn't see the buntings nor the Azure Tit. Instead River Warbler and as quality species Great Snipe and Olive-backed pipit! Very well done so far, guys!

Paul Chapman · Jun 18, 2017

Daniel - many thanks

Well 14 days left on the itinerary for Russia - http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/itinerary/ - and I've got 14 remaining targets:-
Pin-tailed Snipe
Swinhoe's Snipe
Black-throated Accentor
Siberian Rubythroat
Red-flanked Bluetail
White's Thrush
Arctic Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Azure Tit
Grey-headed Chickadee
Rustic Bunting
Little Bunting
Yellow-breasted Bunting
Pallas's Reed Bunting

In addition, Maffong has highlighted:-
Western Capercallie
Rock Ptarmigan
Willow Ptarmigan
Eurasian Dotterel
Two-barred Crossbill

I wonder how they will fill that time. That said, some really tricky species. (Aquatic Warbler, those Atlantic seabirds and maybe something else could be tempting them?)

All the best

Maffong · Jun 18, 2017

That leaves three target species for the Yekaterinburg area: Azure Tit, Yellow-breasted Bunting and Rustic Bunting. Not sure if Little Bunting occurs there.
I wonder if they ha e any intel on the Y-b Bunting, but at least last year a friend of mine saw some birds in the region.
http://www.club300.de/gallery/index.php?gal=2&mode=1&id=987

Maffong · Jun 18, 2017

I'll try to summarize the possibilities for tubenoses
Wilson's Storm Petrel
Chances are very good

White-faced Storm Petrel
Targeted and chances okay

Monteiro's Storm Petrel
Should be around, but doubtful if pelagics go out at that time of year or visible from land. Chances slim

Cape Verde Storm Petrel
Timing not great, but not impossible. Chances slim

"Grant's Storm Petrel"
Chances probably slim to okay on Azores

Swinhoe's Storm Petrel
Chances very slim

Leach's Storm Petrel
Chances very good

Zino's Petrel
Chances good

Fea's Petrel
Chances okay to good

Desertas Petrel
Chances good to very good

Cory's Shearwater
Chances very good

Cape Verde Shearwater
Chances extremely slim

Sooty Shearwater
Chances good to very good

Manx Shearwater
Chances good to very good

Balearic Shearwater
Chances very good

Barolo Shearwater
Chances okay

Boyd's Shearwater
Chances slim to very slim

Bulwer's Petrel
Chances good to very good

Do other people agree with me?

Nutcracker · Jun 18, 2017

Maffong said:
I'll try to summarize the possibilities for tubenoses

....

Do other people agree with me?

You've forgotten Black-browed Albatross 8-P

Jon Turner · Jun 18, 2017

Nutcracker said:
You've forgotten Black-browed Albatross 8-P

Which is back at Sylt today.

PedroNicolau · Jun 18, 2017

Wilson's Storm Petrel
Chances are good.

Leach's Storm Petrel
Chances decent to good. Are they really that easy to see anywhere? Surely not in Portuguese waters.

Zino's Petrel
Chances very high. Easy to hear at night 30 minutes drive from Funchal.

Cory's Shearwater
Guaranteed.

Barolo Shearwater
Chances okay to slim

Bulwer's Petrel
Chances very good

flownek · Jun 20, 2017

PedroNicolau said:
Barolo Shearwater
Chances okay to slim

Chances for this species seem to be quite good if seawatching from Northern Tenerife. Could be one of the most reliable places in WP, never been there though...

Maffong · Jun 20, 2017

I'll be in Teneriffe in September, I hope to get Barolo Shearwater there, eventhough it's not going to primarily be a birding holiday. Leach's Storm Petrel is the only Storm Petrel you can somewhat reliably get in germany and they have targeted it during there time in Britain. So eventhough I might have overestimated how easy it will be, I'm sure they'll get it.

There has also been an update of their list with three new species in the last 3 days and some bonus subspecies. Also White-backed Woodpecker seen, which so far they had only seen from a reintroduction programme. Still no Azure Tit or Rustic Bunting, but with Siberian Rubythroat, Yellow-breasted Bunting and Capercaillie some quality birds and another 2 species down on my overall 2017 list.

They're still around Yekaterinburg though...

lewis20126 · Jun 20, 2017

Leach's Storm Petrel

I'm not sure how available these are during any given week during the British autumn. I don't think you could say that within a 1-2 week window there would be a suitable weather 'event' which would produce this species. If you live here and are prepared to chase strong onshore gales you should be OK during any given autumn but with much narrower time windows, I'm not so sure. I would imagine it is the same in Germany..

cheers, alan

Jon Turner · Jun 20, 2017

And now back with Wifi so a short video on Facething of Yellow-breasted Bunting, Siberian Rubythroat (singing no less!) and Olive-backed Pipit (also singing).

DanielDoer · Jun 20, 2017

Maffong said:
...

There has also been an update of their list with three new species in the last 3 days and some bonus subspecies. Also White-backed Woodpecker seen, which so far they had only seen from a reintroduction programme. Still no Azure Tit or Rustic Bunting, but with Siberian Rubythroat, Yellow-breasted Bunting and Capercaillie some quality birds and another 2 species down on my overall 2017 list.

They're still around Yekaterinburg though...

So an impressive 632 (!) species overall now:
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/

And some of the "southern" Ural target species seem to be tough to get. But nevertheless awesome...

Paul Chapman · Jun 20, 2017

flownek said:
Chances for this species seem to be quite good if seawatching from Northern Tenerife. Could be one of the most reliable places in WP, never been there though...

It appears that the Barolo Shearwater breeding season is between January and May:-

http://www.birdsandcompany.com/en/macaronesian-shearwater-puffinus-baroli/

This is consistent with trapping singing birds in December:-

http://www.stephenmenzie.com/blog/ephenmenzie.com/2015/01/barolo-shearwaters-on-canary-islands.html

Sightings in February and July here:-

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=291840

I saw the species at the end of March in 1999 but dipped (from less seawatching) at the end of February 2005. I saw a single Manx Shearwater on the latter trip.

On the itinerary, they are on the Canaries between 5 and 15 December. Hopefully birds will be back on territory?

All the best

Paul Chapman · Jun 20, 2017

In light of Maffong's commentary on the seabirds, I am intrigued by how they will do on Cape Verde.

They are there in the itinerary between 22 November and 4 December. The species are clearly breeding in September - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33579004 - but tricky at the end of February - http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=795

At the right time of year, for me I was there at the end of April/beginning of May, I considered Cape Verde Shearwater to be easiest - sit down and put in a seawatch from a number of islands; Boyd's Shearwater and Fea's Petrel to be reasonably easy - seen from seawatches on two islands and between Sao Nicolau and Razo; Bulwer's Petrel trickier but relatively straightforward from Sao Nicolau and between Sao Nicolau and Razo - they will likely have seen in Madeira; White-faced Storm-petrel to be easy at a breeding colony but not seen elsewhere- they will likely have seen in Madeira; and Cape Verde Storm-petrel tricky with my only sighting at a White-faced Storm-petrel colony off Boa Vista. I suspect that they will make arrangements for an overnight stay at a colony?

All the best

Paul

Paul Chapman · Jun 20, 2017

Of course, they will also need Brown Booby, Red-billed Tropicbird and Magnficent Frigatebird on Cape Verde and those Shearwaters can be tricky.

All the best

Paul

DanielDoer · Jun 20, 2017

Nice write-up about "Mother Russia" on their site now:
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/2017/06/20/mother-russia/

It ends with something as "and we are having Azure Tit panic"...

Probably they need all the days in the Urals as they planned, Paul?

Paul Chapman · Jun 20, 2017

DanielDoer said:
Nice write-up about "Mother Russia" on their site now:
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/2017/06/20/mother-russia/

It ends with something as "and we are having Azure Tit panic"...

Probably they need all the days in the Urals as they planned, Paul?

Daniel

They still have ten days, the weather has been tricky so far and they have said to Maffong on Facebook that they will not be going to the Polar Urals so they should have plenty of time.

I smiled at their comment - "At the end of the day, we had picked up 11 new WP ticks. We remember when we had the pelagic in April in Kuwait, we had 10 new ticks that day and Paul Chapman said, this was probably the last day you had 10 new ticks. Haha, he was wrong." 3

I certainly expected them to have got Thrush Nightingale earlier. There was one (first two photos) hiding amongst the more numerous Eastern Nightingales (third photo) in the bushes where they found me the Basra Reed Warbler. :t:

All the best

Paul

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