A global Big Year while working full-time (?) (1 Viewer)

Collage of poor images of this bird:

https://legallyblindbirding.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/mysterytit.jpg?w=2560

Lerxst said:

Collage of poor images of this bird:

https://legallyblindbirding.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/mysterytit.jpg?w=2560

Click to expand...

I see that we now have two streams running on the same topic, here and in the ID section.

With the further photos I would stick to my earlier note re Songar (now Willow) tit

Update time from Bangkok...

Week 48 Nov 20 – Nov 26, Tmatboey, Cambodia

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 16

Total species to date: 1638

65.5% of goal, 92.3% of year used

Sites visited: Tmatboey Ecolodge, Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary

We seemed to have settled in to a pattern of getting between 10 and 20 new species a week while in Asia. Sometimes the quality makes up for the quantity, such as this weekend, when we got to see four Giant Ibis, the national bird of Cambodia. That would be about 1% of all Giant Ibis left in the world.

Tmatboey is beautiful and utterly unlike anywhere else we have birded this year, with scattered small- and medium-sized trees and long grass. Being quite dry, the heat is much less oppressive and nights are comfortable. There is an ecolodge that can support 16 visitors - human visitors; the rooms will have plenty of insect (and perhaps rat) visitors at night too, so it might not be a happy lodging option for some. Saturday morning, after eating half of our field breakfast of fried noodles and vegetables, we realized that it was also peppered with something like flying ants that seem to have gotten in when the food was being cooked the day before. Ah, so that is what the crunchy bits were.

The forest holds lots of minivets (Small, Swinhoe's, Scarlet) as well as Indochinese Bushlark, Common Woodshrike, and White-Browed Fantails. Lanceolated Warblers were calling frequently from the grass, but just like the Chinese Francolins in there, they were not to be seen. White-shouldered Ibis were somewhat easier to find than the Giant. On the drive back we found White-rumped Falcon and Collared Falconet easily on the roadsides.

A few photos are at https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-6/

This weekend we head back to Manila, and will go to Los Baños.

Week 49 Nov 27 - Dec 3, Luzon, Philippines

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 16

Total species to date: 1655

66.2% of goal, 94.2% of year used

Had a great birding guide (Irene Dy) this weekend, but crappy weather. Most of our time was spent in the mountains east of Manila, where the wind and rain was a nuisance. Luckily some guides can make up for this. When we got Flaming Sunbird, the bizarre-looking Scale-feathered Malkoha, and Flame-breasted Fruit-Dove Saturday morning, we didn't care what the weather was doing.

Highlight of the trip was a massive Philippine Eagle-Owl found watching the nearby nest - and the groggy-looking, three-day-old nestling inside it.

Thai holiday this coming week so we will have a longer excursion, including Bangalore and Dubai.

Greetings from the Colombo airport. Here is my latest update. Only a few more weeks left!

Week 50 Dec 4 - Dec 10, Bangalore and UAE

Working Days: 2

New species identified: 63

Total species to date: 1718

68.7% of goal, 96.1% of year used

Sites visited: Bangalore: Nandi Hills, Hoskote Lake, Bannerghatta National Park / UAE: Lulu Island, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Masafi wadis, Dibba al Fujairah, Al Quadra lake, Umm al Quwain

This was one of the best trips of the year for us. Due to a Thai holiday, we were able to string together four days of birding: two around Bangalore in the south of India, and two more at various locations acorss the UAE. With great guides that were tuned into gettig our targets, we made very efficient use of time and picked up 42 lifers, including a long-time Nemesis (Alexandrine Parakeet) and some dream birds (Hypocolius and Crab-Plover)

Since we did not have enough time to go out to the Western Ghats, our guide Bopanna came to Bangalore and took us north and south of the city to hunt down as many of the area specialties as possible. We did fairly well. On the first day, we headed north to the Nandi Hills and picked up the difficult Yellow-throated Bulbul. Also had a nice surprise with a pair of Nilgiri Wood-Pigeons. South of the city, on our second day, we birded around Bannerghatta and found Skyes's Warbler, Bay-backed Shrike, Grey-bellied Cuckoo, and Tawny-bellied Babbler, among others. Each of these places were only 60-90 minutes outside the center of the city. While Bangalore was more congested and chaotic than we'd like, our experience here was far preferable to what we had in Mumbai and Delhi.

We then took a four hour flight up to Dubai for our fourth birding trip in UAE in three years. This is one of our favorite places. I've spoken to numerous birders and guides that are unaware of just how productive and beautiful this country is - at least if you avoid the summer months. All sorts of European-African migrants are possible, with sundry shrikes, wheatears, and larks relatively easy to find in the sparsely-vegetated wadis.
Waterbirds are plentiful and varied. Safe, modern, easy-to-access cities... really an overlooked gem. We only do as well as have there because of our fantastic guide Mark, who has (sadly) just done his last guding job there, with us. He is moving back to the UK soon, and I'm not sure who might be available to lead trips there going forward.

Notable in UAE, in addition to the Hypocolius and Crab-Plover, were Sociable Lapwing, Pallid Scops-Owl, Pallid Harrier, Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Variable Wheatear, Menetries Warbler, and Cream-colored Courser.

So being at 1718 birds, I am hoping to get 32 more and get to 1750, which would mean reaching 70% of my (now obviously) unrealistic goal of 2500.

Next week: Doi Inthanon, Thailand

Photos at https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-6/

Andy pointed out that what we were calling Booted Warbler (from Bangalore) is quite possibly misidentified. The more I look and learn about Booted vs. Sykes's, the more I tend to agree that it is the latter. I started a thread in the ID forum where I have links to more photos. In a shocking variation from normal experience, I actually took a number of decent photos of this bird!

https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3795048#post3795048

I started another thread related to a harrier female photographed in UAE. Calling this Pallid, but thinking it might be a Hen.

https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3795051#post3795051

Penultimate Update:

Week 51 Dec 11- Dec 17, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Working Days: 5

New species identified: 18

Total species to date: 1736

69.4% of goal, 98.1% of year used

Sites visited: Doi Inthanon National Park

We took our local birding apprentice Khannittha up to Chiang Mai for the second time this year. Back in February or so we came up here to bird at Doi Ang Khang and Doi Lang; this time we came for Doi Inthanon - more crowds here, but still great birding. We consider it a Must Visit site whenever in Thailand.

There were birds everywhere, from the entrance up to the summit. Made me think about how many places we visited this year where we expected, based on other reviews, to be greeted by hordes of birds, but which were instead quiet and motionless. There were several excursions of such variety. Doi Inthanon has always been the opposite of that for us, so I'm glad it was our last Thailand stop for the year.

Particularly nice finds included Slaty-bellied Tesia, Hume's Treecreeper, and Ashy Wood-Pigeon.

Next weekend we head down to New Zealand, where this effort will wrap up. Not sure when I will do the last blog update. However after we have settled back down I plan to write up a summary on this entire effort to maximize non-working time for birding. I'm thinking I will end somewhere north of 70% of my far-too-lofty goal of 2500 species. 1750 looks doable.

Greetings from Wellington NZ.

Our New Zealand/Australia trip is ongoing, and it will be a few weeks before I update my site, but my big year is now over .... I started on Dec 26 in Ecuador. Our final bird was a Tui....bird number 33 for this trip to NZ, so my final number is 1769. Just over 70% of my pie in the sky tatget.

At some point I will write a more comprehensive review of this year.... will head back to Bangkok on Jan 6 and then back to Minnesota on the 11th.

Thanks for reading and commenting and merry xmas! That year went by quite rapidly.

Lerxst said:

Greetings from Wellington NZ.

Our New Zealand/Australia trip is ongoing, and it will be a few weeks before I update my site, but my big year is now over .... I started on Dec 26 in Ecuador. Our final bird was a Tui....bird number 33 for this trip to NZ, so my final number is 1769. Just over 70% of my pie in the sky tatget.

At some point I will write a more comprehensive review of this year.... will head back to Bangkok on Jan 6 and then back to Minnesota on the 11th.

Thanks for reading and commenting and merry xmas! That year went by quite rapidly.

Click to expand...

Merry Christmas to you and thank you for sharing your year with us.

One question when you have a minute: how many lifers did you get out of it?

Enjoy your well-deserved holiday! :t:

John

Well done indeed, aside from the physical effort, must not have been cheap, even using local, budget airlies.

Why not do a cost analysis and calculate your 'bang (bird) per Buck'......?

andyadcock said:

Well done indeed, aside from the physical effort, must not have been cheap, even using local, budget airlies.

Why not do a cost analysis and calculate your 'bang (bird) per Buck'......?

Click to expand...

Yeah I will try to do an estimate at some point. I am kind of afraid to know exactly how much I spent....

Added a few pics from our first few days in NZ:

https://legallyblindbirding.net/2018-gbwy-6/

My final tally for the 365 days starting on Dec 26 2017 is officially 1770 species.

Farnboro John said:

One question when you have a minute: how many lifers did you get out of it?

Click to expand...

1040. Would have been a much larger proportion of the 1770 if we had not been in Thailand for several months in the previous couple of years.

Here is another odd event that happened...

So I had been watching my Eastern Hemisphere species count for 2018 on eBird using the Top 100 tool, because it was the only time I've ever been near the top of such a list. I was around #3 or 4 for much of the year. I thought I had a path to #1, but in October or so, another guy, who is a professional guide, caught up and passed me - he ended up about 200 species ahead of me by the end of the year, and I got #2.

Anyway, in the top 100 list, it shows what everyone's most recent bird was. I noticed that he had been in Africa a lot towards the end of the year, as well as Madagascar. Then, shortly after my week 51 trip up to Doi Inthanon, I noticed that his most recent bird was a Hume's Treecreeper, which I'd just seen. I clicked on his list and sure enough, we was in Doi Inthanon on the same day. Then I saw that he had submitted a list from a lunch spot there at the same time I was there. I recalled that there was only one of small group of birders there. He had been sitting next to me!

If I'd have known I'd have said hello and given him some grief for beating me.

Good effort, I have enjoyed keeping up with this thread.