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ABA Big Year 2016 (2 Viewers)

Yeah...ABA big years are competitive, but typically they are some what friendly affairs. Olaf's blog post is sour grapes and petty. And there is absolutely zero reason to hold back sightings at this point, unless you yourself are planning to string if you need to bump things up. Other than Alaska (which is basically is not conducive to chasing anyway), it's not like these folks are going to find there own rarities. They are mostly running after stuff other people have found.

John secretive birding isn't really helping him though. There is really no reason to not share your sightings, if only on ebird or rarity list serves. Give back for god sakes if you are going to take advantage of everyone else's reporting. In the age of the internet there is really no reason not to keep an updated blog if you are performing this undertaking. Even the Global big year folks can pull it off, and some of them are hitting up places like Papua New Guinea! Seems like both people are not really engaging in terribly sportsman like behavior.

Man I totally rooted for Neil Hayward and John Vanderpoel, but at this point I really don't want either to win. Maybe Noah Stryker or someone else can swoop in next year and beat there records?

I could not agree more.
Still hope that Olaf doesnt hold back some of his records and then Iam okay with him beating the record, becuase he put in the effort and certainly keeps everyone up to date. ( even though in his blog he sounds very grumpy and stressed).
But starting with a pure list after 5 months makes such a list questioned and for good reasons IMHO.
So I really hope he has good documentations, that there wont be a questioned record at the end of the year.
 
I must say I can't be bothered with the 'way' one or the other is keeping his keyboard-warrior-interwebs-peers (like me) informed. I don't know John Weigel but I am quite confident from the few bits of info that he is honest and to be trusted.

So either John or Olaf have every reason to do what they deem best to get the record, if that doesn't involve stringing.

But I agree with Mysticete that the way John is doing it, would not be my preferred way; The way Olaf does it, is really great to follow and it would be best if he does not let change his behaviour and tactics for the sole reason of being paranoiac about his big year. Just count on your own strength and go your own way, Olaf!

If that isn't enough to get the record, so be it. Olaf's last blog was a bit childish and he still seems to be in the phase of denial and talking bad about his opponents. A shame after enjoying reading his blog posts for so long.
 
Sensible comments.

I do think that running a full-blown blog to document the exploits as they occur is going to be potentially detrimental to the overall efforts though. Valuable down-time spent waiting at airports etc could be better employed in sleeping, researching, making contacts etc. There may potentially be some bad decisions/birds missed due to tiredness/lack of proper research, or a drip down effect overall. If they are lucky it won't cost, plus the benefits from extra information gleaned as a result (eg from comments) may outweigh any disadvantages in the end though.

Maintaining a constant updated presence/list online now should still be done though; 15 years ago it wouldn't have.
The flip side is that the information and immediacy of it (ebird etc) must be greater than in the past. It had been said that the record couldn't be broken with dissolution of easy flights after 9/11. Presume tat isn't a problem though.


If it was me I'd also want a decent ground team - research and to maintain the web presence. Presume none of these 3 really have that?

Paul was talking about books earlier akin to the Big Year - interesting to note all 3 are seemingly going to be writing a book of their year themselves?
 
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eh...I am skeptical keeping a blog is really that much of a time sink. I mean it doesn't need to be updated daily or even need to be that well written or long. There is a decent amount of down time that doesn't involve sleeping/driving/birding over the course of the week. And tablets and such are small enough they can pretty easily be packed and pulled out during random lulls. At the very least ebird and such could be done; hell there are phone apps that let you easily generate lists in the field.
 
eh...I am skeptical keeping a blog is really that much of a time sink. I mean it doesn't need to be updated daily or even need to be that well written or long. There is a decent amount of down time that doesn't involve sleeping/driving/birding over the course of the week. And tablets and such are small enough they can pretty easily be packed and pulled out during random lulls. At the very least ebird and such could be done; hell there are phone apps that let you easily generate lists in the field.

You are absolutely right that a basic blog and updates can be and should be done these days.

I guess I was basing my comments above on a combination of my own experience of trying to be organized on this kind of thing - ie I'm not (plus I'm a bit of a techno-phobe), along with seeing Olaf perhaps struggling in some of his over-lengthy blog posts (if I were to want to enter the consciousness stream of another individual on a regular basis, it wouldn't necessarily be his ... ;) ) , and muddling up a little with the thread on the World Year List record attempt, where there really is a need to be birding almost 24/7. An ABA one will get busy at times, but there are quieter spells, agreed.

Christian Hagenlocher (birdingproject) seems to have struggled a bit imo with blog content and sensible updates (and as Paul says accurately listing perhaps) - it ain't necessarily easy.

wrt John Weigel - I'm sure there may be a cultural thing going on too - Australians perhaps respecting privacy and not assuming everyone has to be so open (I'm basing this on comments from the Night Parrot thread and linked forums wrt the other John -true?)
 
Apologies for wittering on again ...

One thing I was going to link the other day was the birdingproject >blog< (don't know if others have been reading it regularly?)- eg

http://www.thebirdingproject.com/blog/2016/4/25/birding-big-bend

Interesting posts a bit of a rarity (think he's saving them up for his book), but this one struck as a bit more hardcore outdoors natural birding and well written. From an earlier posting it would seem that he is still working at times (not full time though) - the parallels to 'The Big Year' continuing wrt Greg Miller the nuclear power plant worker, although I believe him to be a fair bit younger and probably in somewhat better shape ... kudos if he can hit a big year total whilst still having to support himself along the way.
 
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Finally (for now) ... ;)

Haven't come across an ABA listing online of the birds recorded in the area this year ... is there a summary somewhere? What I did find was that you can see some (just about all?) of the coded birds recorded by looking at the current ABA ebird listing total 'last seen'

http://ebird.org/ebird/region/aba?yr=cur

but scrolling up from the bottom of the page - ie the last 30 or so of the 796 (currently) indicate rares such as Black-tailed Gull last seen Jan 16th, Nazca Booby 1st Feb etc ... and then scrolling up to some interesting Sibe species on a vessel in the Aleutians on the 11th May (!)

Presumably almost all birds are entered to ebird, but there are a number of 'dodgy/suspect/escape' eg Budgerigar, Black-necked Swan? etc which means the total genuinely gettable birds is a little lower than the 796 posted (and of which eg Olaf has seen 667 (83.79%))?

Should be poss to get a good overview of the coded birds seen this year though ...


I missed it if it has been discussed, but the Bahama Mockingbird has gone home again?

Niels

Bahama Mockingbird last recorded 10th May as per above - test of accuracy? ;)
 
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Yes ... lots of parrots and the like, hadn't totted them up myself. Question would then be, what % of total possible/available coded (3, 4 and 5) birds have the 3 contenders seen ... ? ;)
(Which could, with further analysis, perhaps provide more clues as to some strategy success?).

And putting your head above the parapet on the Olaf blog comments section - :t: . Most comments for any of his blog posts with the latest controversy of course - interesting stuff.
 
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Dan

OK - updated the spreadsheet.

47 non-countable species so 749 including the pending Cuban Vireo:-
African Collared-Dove
Black Swan
Black-necked Swan
Black-throated Magpie-Jay
Blue-and-yellow Macaw
Blue-crowned Parakeet
Budgerigar
Chestnut-fronted Macaw
Cockatiel
Common Hill Myna
Common Shelduck
Coscoroba Swan
Crimson-fronted Parakeet
European Goldfinch
Great Tit
Great White Pelican
Greater Flamingo
Helmeted Guineafowl
Indian Peafowl
Japanese White-eye
Lilac-crowned Parrot
Mandarin Duck
Mitred Parakeet
Nazca Booby
Northern Red Bishop
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Orange-winged Parrot
Pin-tailed Whydah
Red-lored Parrot
Red-masked Parakeet
Red-vented Bulbul
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Scaly-headed Parrot
Scarlet-fronted Parakeet
Sun Parakeet
Turquoise-fronted Parrot
White-eyed Parakeet
White-faced Whistling-Duck
White-fronted Parrot
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Yellow-collared Lovebird
Yellow-fronted Canary
Yellow-headed Parrot
Bronze Mannikin
Bar-headed Goose
Red Junglefowl
White-cheeked Starling

All the best
 
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Coded species:-

Whooper Swan 3
Common Pochard 3
Tufted Duck 3
Steller's Eider 3
Spectacled Eider 3
Smew 3
American Flamingo 3
Murphy's Petrel 3
Hawaiian Petrel 3
Cook's Petrel 3
Flesh-footed Shearwater 3
White-tailed Tropicbird 3
Red-billed Tropicbird 3
Masked Booby 3
Brown Booby 3
Hook-billed Kite 3
Ruff 3
Curlew Sandpiper 3
Common Snipe 3
Great Skua 3
Ivory Gull 3
Black-headed Gull 3
Little Gull 3
Slaty-backed Gull 3
Black Noddy 3
Ruddy Ground-Dove 3
Smooth-billed Ani 3
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl 3
Aplomado Falcon 3
Black-capped Gnatcatcher 3
Brambling 3
Buff-collared Nightjar 3
Clay-colored Thrush 3
Five-striped Sparrow 3
Flame-colored Tanager 3
Fork-tailed Flycatcher 3
Red-throated Pipit 3
Rose-throated Becard 3
Rufous-backed Robin 3
Rufous-capped Warbler 3
Rustic Bunting 3
Shiny Cowbird 3
Sky Lark 3
Tropical Parula 3
Western Spindalis 3
White Wagtail 3
White-collared Seedeater 3
Yellow-green Vireo 3
Bahama Mockingbird 4
Barnacle Goose 4
Black-faced Grassquit 4
Black-tailed Gull 4
Blue Bunting 4
Blue-footed Booby 4
Common Crane 4
Crimson-collared Grosbeak 4
European Golden-Plover 4
Fieldfare 4
Garganey 4
Golden-crowned Warbler 4
Hawfinch 4
Kelp Gull 4
Key West Quail-Dove 4
Little Egret 4
Little Stint 4
Northern Jacana 4
Oriental Turtle-Dove 4
Pink-footed Goose 4
Redwing 4
Siberian Accentor 4
Slate-throated Redstart 4
Streak-backed Oriole 4
Thick-billed Vireo 4
White-throated Thrush 4
White-winged Tern 4
Yellow-legged Gull 4
Cuban Pewee 5
Gray Heron 5
Graylag Goose 5
Marsh Sandpiper 5
Nutting's Flycatcher 5
Sinaloa Wren 5
Tufted Flycatcher 5
Zenaida Dove 5
California Condor 6
Cuban Vireo - pending

All the best
 
Bahama Mockingbird last recorded 10th May as per above - test of accuracy? ;)

I struggled with different dates on different sources, but my BirdsEye app reported it as seen on May 15. I therefore went out and was successful today, so latest report as of now from May 18 ;)

Niels
 
Birding project has mentioned that he himself is not shooting to beat the ABA record, but just get to at least 700. Although if he gets to 700 that will make him the youngest birder to have ever done so in a single year, which is to me far more impressive!
 
Looks like a return home did a lot for his spirits!

Mysticete

You must be rooting for him now surely? The straightforward slightly grumpy trier who loves his nan against the outsider who sticks gen up his jumper and lurks in the shadows.......

Go Olaf go! :t:

All the best
 
Finally (for now) ... ;)

Haven't come across an ABA listing online of the birds recorded in the area this year ... is there a summary somewhere? What I did find was that you can see some (just about all?) of the coded birds recorded by looking at the current ABA ebird listing total 'last seen'

http://ebird.org/ebird/region/aba?yr=cur

Dan

I meant to add you can also organise by 'first seen' to see what species are being added:-

http://ebird.org/ebird/region/aba?yr=cur&m=&rank=lrec

All the best
 
Now the question is where should Olaf strike next. The Gray Heron has been refound, one of the few birds that John has missed so far. John still needs Little Egret, of which intermittent sightings are still being made in Maine. Also Slate-colored Redstart in Arizona, although those birds are nesting and so probably going to be around for awhile.

I am not saying I am completely in Olaf's corner but posts like his last due help things.

Curious how Jon is doing. The Attu group nailed a Smew on Adak before they left, but otherwise I don't think they recorded anything that Olaf shouldn't pick up. So far all the rarity news is coming from other islands, most noticeable being unchasable Intermediate Egret and Eurasian Hobby.

Time on Attu isn't nearly as profitable as it was in the 90's when the airstrip was opened (allowing more time to be spent on the island and larger numbers of people to search), so Olaf may have made a correct call. The boat ride over though has almost guaranteed Short-tailed Albatross and Mottled Petrel however; Olaf might have trouble nailing those down elsewhere.
 
Mysticete

How realistic is it that John may have a tougher time cleaning up the 'commoner' species with less ABA experience?

Is it possible he could miss a Code 1 or 2:-

Code 1 - 47 species
Ross's Goose
Tundra Swan
Willow Ptarmigan
Cory's Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Mississippi Kite
Wilson's Plover
Hudsonian Godwit
Red Knot
Baird's Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Thick-billed Murre
Atlantic Puffin
Horned Puffin
Common Ground-Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Whip-poor-will
Vaux's Swift
Rufous Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Western Wood-Pewee
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Acadian Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Colima Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Canada Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Eastern Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Le Conte's Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sparrow
Harris's Sparrow
Dickcissel
Rusty Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole

Code 2 - 47 species
King Eider
Himalayan Snowcock
Gray Partridge
Spruce Grouse
Arctic Loon
Yellow-billed Loon
Mottled Petrel
Black-capped Petrel
Buller's Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel
Red-faced Cormorant
Yellow Rail
Common Ringed Plover
Wood Sandpiper
Bristle-thighed Curlew
South Polar Skua
Least Auklet
Whiskered Auklet
Crested Auklet
Red-legged Kittiwake
Yellow-footed Gull
Red-billed Pigeon
Groove-billed Ani
Great Gray Owl
Black Swift
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
Black-capped Vireo
Florida Scrub-Jay
Island Scrub-Jay
Arctic Warbler
Bluethroat
Northern Wheatear
Bicknell's Thrush
Eastern Yellow Wagtail
Smith's Longspur
McKay's Bunting
Golden-winged Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Kirtland's Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Golden-cheeked Warbler
Bachman's Sparrow
Baird's Sparrow
Henslow's Sparrow
Varied Bunting
Hoary Redpoll

(Olaf now 669 - http://ebird.org/ebird/top100?locInfo.regionCode=aba&yr=cur - with 16 Code 1 & 38 Code 2 species needed.)

All the best
 
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