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  1. E

    Do Sepilok results depend on season?

    I went once, for 4 days straight, in May of 2024. It was quite nice - for example, the trees were flowering, so you could go up the tower and just watch the sunbirds and spiderhunters roll in - and of course I did the nightwalks, which yielded a tarsier among other things - But the trails...
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    Hong Kong December 2024

    Lesser Shortwing used to be easy to hear, incredibly hard to see. It took me a few years here to see my first one. Indeed, one of them in Tai Po Kau seems to be a bit more showy now. The Giant Buddha place is also called Ngong Ping. Some autumns, it can be a fantastic migration spot. Do you...
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    La Mesa Ecopark - three days, January

    Long weekend, Manila booked on a whim because of proximity to Hong Kong. La Mesa Ecopark is located in Quezon City, about an hour-and-a-half's taxi ride from Manila airport. I stayed at a hotel that is a 20-minute walk from the park entrance, through some very crowded streets, a mall and a...
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    The best vagrant ever?

    Wasn't there an auk from the southern hemisphere that turned up in a garden in Britain in the 18th or 19th century? I don't remember the details.
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    Hiring a bird guide on holiday

    Would the reasons also include help with identifying? I asked the same question to a friend who told me that that was the main benefit of guides in e.g. Latin America. It's not possible to memorise all the calls in advance (of a holiday).
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    Rock Dove - easiest access to tick original ones, and whether you've done so

    I had to look up the scientific name of Rock Dove for a report, and I was surprised by the top photo on the Wiki page. The caption reads, "Rock Dove, flock at Baltasound, Shetland, UK. Rock Doves are the wild ancestors of the Feral Pigeons of towns and cities. The wild, native population in...
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    Everyones most desired or dream bird species?

    I live in Hong Kong. Some winters are spectacular for them, others have hardly any - this winter is of the second category. I once spent 4 days in Sepilok (Rainforest Discovery Centre) and the Bristlehead was absent!!
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    Moving from a lister to a finder

    Back in my 3 years at Oxford there would have been slim pickings but the finders outnumbered the twitchers... I remember walking across Port Meadow with a friend one year my senior and he said "Look at every robin, one of them might turn into a rubythroat". I remember he harboured hopes of...
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    January 1st joint Birdforum list (2025 edition)

    Evocative name. One learns something every day. Hong Kong: Red-whiskered Bulbul Light-vented Bulbul Tree Sparrow Red-billed Blue Magpie Spotted Dove Yellow-browed Warbler Black Kite Great Cormorant Eastern Buzzard Blue Whistling Thrush Feral Dove
  10. E

    India: best spots for car-less solo birding

    Can you elaborate on Jaisalmer? Is that a desert? I thought that a desert would be way too big and lacking in shade to be without a car. Velavadar too, from what I read? When I read about Ramnagar it said that while they were walking along the river they suddenly heard a tiger's growl. I would...
  11. E

    India: best spots for car-less solo birding

    I am such a fan of India (despite having only done two long weekends there) that I am learning intermediate Hindi. The first long weekend was in Bharatpur, the second long weekend I didn't do proper birding. Please suggest some other places where I can easily go birding alone, without a car...
  12. E

    A lifer and other action at Umass Amherst campus pond today

    Cool! I'm a fan of certain economists who work there - I'm not supposed to get into politics here, so I'll leave it at that, lol.
  13. E

    Cambodia Siem Reap - without car or tour, how much can I see?

    How about Tonlé Sap lake, or Florican grassland, or some further-away place I might not have in mind? Did you go there, and if so did you pay a tour operator for it?
  14. E

    Cambodia Siem Reap - without car or tour, how much can I see?

    I know about the Sam Veasna tour company, But in order to save money I want to know how much I can see myself, and then maybe add on top of it a couple of day or half-day tours. The hotspots in this map, can I basically arrange safe affordable transport both ways? (NB: I don't have a driving...
  15. E

    Everyones most desired or dream bird species?

    My list of targets might not stay constant, and not just due to ticking some of them (if I do). These targets come out of the fact that I flipped through a book or website, and suddenly went "Wow". But what wows me hasn't always been the same. Also, I distinguish realistic targets from dream...
  16. E

    Everyones most desired or dream bird species?

    I must say, I don't know too much about N American birds, but Picoides arcticus looks really cool! I may have an opportunity to visit Toronto and may well ask somebody where to find one.
  17. E

    Experience with rapid-response photography?

    I have been deeply impressed with flight shots of cuckoos that come across my radar, here in Hong Kong. E.g. Common Cuckoo and Oriental Cuckoo are best told apart by the underwing pattern, so, the fact that somebody would be able to see it fly out of a tree unexpectedly, point your whacking...
  18. E

    Advice on a black naped oriole which won't leave my balcony

    Prevention of birds crashing into glass has been well-studied. https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/gear/preventing-bird-window-collisions/strings-nettings-screens-prevent-bird-window-collisions/ More info on Google if you wish. As for its survival: Black-naped Orioles sometimes occur in the...
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    A one generation hobby…and a concern for the future

    LOL that is precisely a description of me
  20. E

    A one generation hobby…and a concern for the future

    Is there any data on this? The level of wealth owned by each successive generation in the west is shrinking. This may impact the youth's ability to spend a fortune on twitches. I don't know for sure, just speculation. My experience is that lots of young people will continue to exist in "plain...
  21. E

    How do you verify which bird sightings to trust?

    There are certain pairs of species (e.g. Amur Paradise Flycatcher and Japanese Paradise Flycatcher) that I suspect most people here just casually identify and list on eBird without checking properly, because they're not rare enough to excite people. If I were a scientist trying to use...
  22. E

    Are you unable to go spotlighting for the sake of sleep pattern, for your health?

    News has just arrived of a rare owl, which I am not at liberty to share. But it reminds me that I am unable to twitch it, and indeed I have not gone owling or mothing or any other nocturnal creature-ing for a couple of years now, even on overseas trips, because it would otherwise mess up my...
  23. E

    Most contested vagrant-escape cases?

    Earlier I posted about a Black-chinned Fruit-dove in Hong Kong that was widely twitched last month - the timing, location and feather condition altogether left something to be desired. Here is a broader question. Can you name some of the most controversial instances of vagrants of dubious...
  24. E

    Birds you are looking forward to this Autumn & Winter Season?

    That to which I look forward is filling in the gaps in my list - that there are a handful of annually occurring autumn and winter birds that I still haven't ticked. Autumn: Siberian Thrush, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Japanese Sparrowhawk Winter: Eurasian Bittern (I had a glimpse of one once flying...
  25. E

    Name a Bird You've Photographed

    A bird that has a black throat: Lesser Green Leafbird, Malaysia I wish I had the guts to visit Rio, but I wouldn't feel safe.
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