dantheman
Bah humbug
Brian was having a joke Ronald!
:eek!:
Brian was having a joke Ronald!
Two additions - Oystercatcher & Mourning Wheatear - 131 species:-
Category 1 - 91 species
Category 2 - 28 species
Category 3 - 8 species (White-tailed Lapwing, Hypocolius, Black-throated Thrush, Bank Myna, Common Babbler, Lesser Sand-plover, Crab-plover & Red-vented Bulbul)
Category 5 - 4 species (Crested Honey Buzzard, Indian Roller, Lesser Flamingo & Hume's Warbler)
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/
All the best
McM
Many thanks
I amended a few of the Categories in post 117 as a result of Maffong's comments in post 116 and Hume's Warbler and Pacific Golden-plover went from Category 6 to Category 5 as part of that. The revised spreadsheet is at post 180.
It will be an interesting test of the Categories how quickly the various Categories are completed once a few more countries have been visited. Still relatively pleased with it as a decent stab to work out relative difficulty.
All the best
It's all very interesting but guessing that making it all very public may be a bit of a double-edged sword (unless they relish the implied criticisms of method )
It would seem that the approach is quite different to that which most would undertake on an undertaking such as this, and that taken in the two recent global big years.
For a start it's a joint effort, with a team. Maybe more of a tortoise than hare approach? And maybe giving themselves more of a chance to immerse themselves in the birding in each country more fully than a whistle-stop tour would - as a more complete experience this may be preferable to some in the long run, and as something to look back on. And to spread the birding throughout the year more fully.
??
I look at their Cape Verde trip and think they'll need the logistics to go very smoothly
Not a comment on their choice of borders, but the WP in general .... given the exclusion of the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, anybody know how the Cape Verde islands got included into the Western Palearctic?
They are considerably further south than the southern WP border on the adjacent African coast.
Something to do with formerly being a Portuguese territory?
The avifauna isn't especially Afrotropical (?) either - sure it contains some species not found elsewhere in the WP, but pure endemics aside, with which avifauna is it most closely aligned?
But doesn't their approach have more similarities to Arjan's World Big Year (fairly planned-out itinery working area by area), rather than Olaf's, or particularly John's, (rather successful) more twitching-based approach to their ABA Big Years (which might well be easier in the ABA than in the WP, as has been discussed)?It would seem that the approach is quite different to that which most would undertake on an undertaking such as this, and that taken in the two recent global big years.
Dan
They have a stated aim to hit 700 and I'd bet on them to achieve that. Their second half year is expressed to be fluid. I anticipate that they have no experience of some of the locations. I don't have experience of Russia or Egypt though have salivated over a couple of trip reports. Both appear very challenging locations to be comprehensive.
There remain a couple of 'must sees' on their itinerary in Kuwait (eg Shikra and Ruppell's Weaver) though a few others would be useful (eg Buff-bellied Pipit and Oriental Skylark). I still think that they'll get a really good rarity out of the trip.
I look at their Cape Verde trip and think they'll need the logistics to go very smoothly and wonder about some other trips being short to be comprehensive but none of that is implied or actual criticism. It would be a pretty boring thread if it did not contain any discussion of approach or speculation as to outcome.
A friend did me a plan once as to how to bring my WP list up to 800. A hell of a lot of my thought processes are built on that. But it is interesting to see how much things have developed recently in some locations.
All the best
Russia will be logistically impossible in most places, Baikal is the obvious destination.
A