Captain_of_Crunch
YVdpep_re64
Xantus
Olaf mentions this incident in his latest blog post as well.
Xantus
Olaf mentions this incident in his latest blog post as well.
Noted. I don't tend to see a statement expressing uncertainty of calls as inexperience or a lack of ability, more a reflection of the difficulty of sound identification. I've known several exceptional birders on calls who would all speak up on possible calls but not claim them with certainty.
Also noted on experience. I am surprised by your suggestion that lack of experience on the continent was not a disadvantage. I was surprised by the fact that some of the commoner species were seen later in the year by John rather than incidentally earlier as part of his daily birding.
I have no idea about their relative abilities and I note your comments about John's modesty but I would ordinarily assume that someone who has been birding for less than a decade would be at a disadvantage on a fresh continent in identifying over 750 species of which the majority would be new species for him:
Agree, Paul. There is also a group of less-experienced birders that often think they hear birds when in reality they are just guessing, or unaware of other contending species. I'm certainly not saying Olaf is in this group though.
John is clearly the less experienced of the two when it comes to birding in North America. However, it's seems clear now that John's lifetime of finding reptiles, frogs and spiders, targeting habitats etc have given him skills that are directly transferrable to birding. I also made this transition from reptiles to birds. Birds sing and fly, reptiles don't - so he must certainly be finding birds a much simpler group of animals to search for in many ways.
As you are clearly aware, twitching and building big lists is not difficult if you have the time, money and gen (which he has). Like others have stated - eBird has made it very easy for twitchers to chase birds. Finding birds on their own is obviously something very different, with much more developed skills needed, but John has probably had to do little of this so far this year. For a birder close to 750 in mid-July, he certainly doesn't seem to be disadvantaged.
Cheers,
Nigel
He's seen Northern Wheatear (it was his bird 684), although it already looks like he's omitted it from his list!
(See post#746)
John hit California next, 3 more added -
But Ross's Goose? A genuine (eg injured, thus unable to migrate), or dodgy bird?
John hit California next, 3 more added -
http://www.birdingfordevils.com/p/this-is-listing-of-species-so-far.html
But Ross's Goose? A genuine (eg injured, thus unable to migrate), or dodgy bird?
( http://ebird.org/ebird/map/rosgoo?n...=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=7&emo=7&yr=cur, zoom in to enable locations/checklists to be seen.)
Also of note, John is now trailing John by a single bird!
Also of note, John is now trailing John by a single bird!