dantheman
Bah humbug
:eek!:
-
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2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter JeroenVanheuverswyn
- Start date
:eek!:
Jon Turner
Well-known member
Cripes is that all? I added two to my year list too, sadly nothing as exotic as Mourning Wheatear....
McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Paul,
you have Hume's Warbler as category 6 in your master list so 3 Cat 5 and 1 Cat 6?
I get the numbers to 7th Jan as attached.
Cheers, McM
Attachments
Paul Chapman
Well-known member
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
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
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McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Ahh...grabbed the first version of the file and missed the second one! Will update my file accordingly
Even though I don't actively WestPal list I find this "closer to home" effort more intriguing than the world threads for some reason...curious to see how they get on over the coming months
Cheers, McM
Even though I don't actively WestPal list I find this "closer to home" effort more intriguing than the world threads for some reason...curious to see how they get on over the coming months
Cheers, McM
dantheman
Bah humbug
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.
??
)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.
??
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
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.
??
Could easily spend a month in most important areas?
A
Paul Chapman
Well-known member
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
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
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.
Jon Turner
Well-known member
Something to do with formerly being a Portuguese territory?
dantheman
Bah humbug
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?
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Paul Chapman
Well-known member
From the Introduction to Volume 1 of BWP, it appears to be based on a desire to include all of the eastern Atlantic islands:-
"We have been somewhat more restrictive than Vaurie in delimiting the western and southern boundaries of the Palearctic. In the west, we have excluded Greenland (east Greenland was included by Vaurie in 1959 and the whole in 1965) but have followed him in covering all the eastern Atlantic islands south to the Cape Verde Islands, to which we have added the Banc d'Arguin group (but not the adjoining mainland) where the extensive recent researches by de Naurois (1969a) have clearly demonstrated the Palearctic nature of the avifauna."
All the best
"We have been somewhat more restrictive than Vaurie in delimiting the western and southern boundaries of the Palearctic. In the west, we have excluded Greenland (east Greenland was included by Vaurie in 1959 and the whole in 1965) but have followed him in covering all the eastern Atlantic islands south to the Cape Verde Islands, to which we have added the Banc d'Arguin group (but not the adjoining mainland) where the extensive recent researches by de Naurois (1969a) have clearly demonstrated the Palearctic nature of the avifauna."
All the best
Been covered before, butmost of Arabian Peninsula and Iran should be WP on this basis
Seemed strange to me to have this little southern extension to include a group of islands that's all. I guess lumping all the eastern Atlantic islands is fairly logical though.
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)?
Mysticete
Well-known member
Presumably there year will provide the baseline for other years to improve upon. I imagine a more twitch based focus is possibly more successful for the ABA area than WP however, given I think there is a much more integrated and national system for dispensing rarity info. I would have to imagine that giant chunks of the WP, especially many areas that presumably would regularly get extralimital strays and vagrants, would have much poorer coverage or reporting of rarities?
Paul Chapman
Well-known member
Two additions - Bar-tailed Lark & Desert Lark - 133 species:-
Category 1 - 93 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
Category 1 - 93 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
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Russia will be logistically impossible in most places, Baikal is the obvious destination.
A
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Except it is way out of the WP.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I just looked at a site that included it, obviously interpreted wrong.
In that case I wouldn't include Russia at all?
A
In that case I wouldn't include Russia at all?
A
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