Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (13 Viewers)

[Frank van Drogen]

A short walk along the local ‘Plan d’eaux’ near our French place this morning. Started off with much more sun than predicted, but soon the clouds started coming in and I was kind of contemplating turning around. I decided to continue a little bit, and to my good fortune!! I flushed two birds from the reeds that could only be Black Crowned Night Herons; one took a right U-turn and disappeared out of view rapidly. The other one did a left U-turn, and I managed some photos. Definitely nothing award winning (and for now BOC on top of that), but good enough for ID.

 

[Bewick]

Finally managed to see Black terns, another tick from my local reservoir. Decided to wake up early as I had a feeling that Black terns might decide to visit the reservoir, as a couple of the other London/Hertfordshire reservoirs were reporting Black terns. Report came in as I was getting ready to leave and luckily they were still around by the time I arrived. Showed very distantly and did not linger for long before flying North, however glad to have finally seen another nemesis species of mine.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Oh dear...

A few years back we went to Namibia, and saw Ovambo Sparrowhawk. The guide found a pair and he confirmed the ID with playback.

My wife is still going through the photographs for the trip, and is now submitting them to an online Chinese photographic library. The other day she submitted a photograph of the sparrowhawk, which was promptly rejected by the site's AI system, saying that the bird was a Gabar Goshawk. I double checked the photos and the the system is correct! - the features are not correct for Ovambo Sparrowhawk and the bird does look good for Gabar Goshawk.

It is not that bad, as we thought we had only seen Gabar Goshawk poorly in flight on a different date, but still one to be deleted from the life lists.

The moral of the story... guides are not infallible, and don't jump to quick assumptions, particularly on a single piece of apparent evidence - thinking about it, it seems quite likely that any raptor would respond to another raptor species in it's breeding territory, so the playback may always have been a bit dubious.... and the other lesson... some of these AI ID systems are getting rather good! (so far the Chinese system we have tried seems better than Merlin!).

 

[Paul Chapman]

Oh dear...

A few years back we went to Namibia, and saw Ovambo Sparrowhawk. The guide found a pair and he confirmed the ID with playback.

My wife is still going through the photographs for the trip, and is now submitting them to an online Chinese photographic library. The other day she submitted a photograph of the sparrowhawk, which was promptly rejected by the site's AI system, saying that the bird was a Gabar Goshawk. I double checked the photos and the the system is correct! - the features are not correct for Ovambo Sparrowhawk and the bird does look good for Gabar Goshawk.

It is not that bad, as we thought we had only seen Gabar Goshawk poorly in flight on a different date, but still one to be deleted from the life lists.

The moral of the story... guides are not infallible, and don't jump to quick assumptions, particularly on a single piece of apparent evidence - thinking about it, it seems quite likely that any raptor would respond to another raptor species in it's breeding territory, so the playback may always have been a bit dubious.... and the other lesson... some of these AI ID systems are getting rather good! (so far the Chinese system we have tried seems better than Merlin!).

A redacted WhatsApp exchange from slightly over a month ago on that species.

It is hard work but I do like the discipline of photography & review in many areas of environmental recording & I revisit identifications rarely I suppose but certainly on occasion. Many species will respond to other species calls or song.

On both of my last two trips, an identification was corrected when I presented the photographic evidence to the contrary either later that day or on following days. All part of the learning experience. One was a raptor where it was a similar but slightly rarer species at the location & the other was a Spinetail where I was presenting the evidence because I thought that it was a species I had seen before not the new species that had been called. On both occasions, the other birders making the slip were far better birders than I will ever be but I do find it rather satisfying dispelling a few assumptions about me every now & then. 😅

Feel free to get stuck into my provisional storm-petrels here particularly separating out Fuegian & Andean Storm-petrels:-

https://ebird.org/tripreport/342786?view=photos

https://ebird.org/tripreport/343303?view=photos

I am rather hoping that my hard drive crashes before I get round to it.

😀

All the best

Paul

 

[Lisa W]

Greater-white fronted Goose, Pigeon Guillemot, Sanderling, Dublin, Black Turnstone, AND the big one for me Oystercatcher. All seen on a guided walk in Bandon, Oregon.

 

[FayJ]

Dipper. Seriously. I went to Devon last month to see and photograph some as they don’t occur where I live.

 

[TicoTyler]

Oh dear...

A few years back we went to Namibia, and saw Ovambo Sparrowhawk. The guide found a pair and he confirmed the ID with playback.

My wife is still going through the photographs for the trip, and is now submitting them to an online Chinese photographic library. The other day she submitted a photograph of the sparrowhawk, which was promptly rejected by the site's AI system, saying that the bird was a Gabar Goshawk. I double checked the photos and the the system is correct! - the features are not correct for Ovambo Sparrowhawk and the bird does look good for Gabar Goshawk.

It is not that bad, as we thought we had only seen Gabar Goshawk poorly in flight on a different date, but still one to be deleted from the life lists.

The moral of the story... guides are not infallible, and don't jump to quick assumptions, particularly on a single piece of apparent evidence - thinking about it, it seems quite likely that any raptor would respond to another raptor species in it's breeding territory, so the playback may always have been a bit dubious.... and the other lesson... some of these AI ID systems are getting rather good! (so far the Chinese system we have tried seems better than Merlin!).

What's the ID app?

 

[Patudo]

Great northern diver aka common loon in North America. A fine adult in summer plumage on the surface and occasionally diving near the northern end of Staines Reservoir on Saturday.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

What's the ID app?

The app is developed by DongNiao - see here for information on the product [introduction website].

My wife has been using the mini programme, which is a bit cumbersome as you have to run it through Wechat (a bit like a Chinese WhatsApp).

They now have a standalone app, which my wife has just downloaded and tried out with an ID - a head on phone of a Coppery-tailed Coucal, which was previously rejected by the same system - it states with a 57% confidence limit it is Coppery tailed and with a 17% confidence limit that it could be Senegal. Given the angle of the bird, I think a 57% confidence limit is pretty good! It now seems that f you want a full set of features there is a (modest) subscription fee - but you can do what my wide did and process photos for ID for free.

As I say, I have been impressed by various ID's from the system, and it is nice that it provides a confidence limit as a percentage - when I have tried photo ID with Merlin, it just seems to give me a selection of species (presumably with the most likely at the top), but with no feel of how confident the ID is - or perhaps I am just not very good at using Merlin/understanding the results.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

As I say, I have been impressed by various ID's from the system, and it is nice that it provides a confidence limit as a percentage - when I have tried photo ID with Merlin, it just seems to give me a selection of species (presumably with the most likely at the top), but with no feel of how confident the ID is - or perhaps I am just not very good at using Merlin/understanding the results.

Just stumped it with an odd Black-headed Gull, but the photo is also not great.

I was impressed by the text, but this seems to have been lifted from Wikipedia (which they cite).

It would be good to get offline ID, but I think for this you need to pay for the subscription.

 

[TicoTyler]

Northern Parula and Mottled Duck on an overnight layover at Orlando, FL, airport. (Plus good views of Boat-tailed Grackle which I previously only saw through an airplane window while taxiing.) Now off to the old world to get a bunch of Palearctic lifers in the UK!

 

[Lisa W]

Tufted Puffin; yesterday in Canon Beach, Oregon.

 

[TicoTyler]

Species 1,247 - Red Kite that flew overhead right before Jeremy Clarkson waved to me. I was driving the backroads near his farm in Chipping Norton and pulled over near a scenic spot. Right as I saw the kite, I noticed a convertible Jaguar heading up the road, and he was at the wheel.

 

[Birdy1]

3 Lifers for me today:
Decided to try and get the Great Reed Warbler at RSPB Ouse Fen, Cambridgeshire, I had something to do at around 10, so left early and arrived at sunrise, after a short walk, to my delight I saw a white shape on the opposite side of the river to me, and quickly realised it was one of my most wanted, my first wild Barn Owl!
Shortly after, I found the Great Reed Warbler, which was showing well for me, and I had to myself for nearly 1 hr!
Finally, went to Thursley Common, in Surrey, and got some great directions to find my first Dartford Warblers, which showed well, although I didnt get the most amazing photos.