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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

How is your 2013 List Going? (1 Viewer)

August saw trips to Cumbria/lakes and start of the football season delivering some good birding. Highlights were Whinchat on Duddon Mosses and various mammals (and delicious cockles) on Canvey Island but nothing for the year lists.

Trip to Norfolk yesterday (via some great birding at Nene Washes) delivered:

171 Spoonbill (701)
172 Curlew Sandpiper (702)
173 Little Stint (703)
174 Green Sandpiper (704)

alan
 
Now should be the optimum time for shorebirds to show up. However, we've had so much rain this summer that water levels are very high and there are few exposed mudflats where shorebirds can congregate.

But at a place along the Monongahela River there is a small area with some exposed mud where I saw two species of shorebirds today, including a Lesser Yellowlegs. This was a West Virginia year tick (number 179), but not a year tick for my ABA Area list, as I've seen the species in other states this year.

Dave
 
I'm almost there. Two more birds today. Spotted Crake at the Netherfields lagoon, Nottingham and a Juvenile Dotterel on the Great Orme, Llandudno.

298. Spotted Crake
299. Dotterel.

Any takers on what will be my 300th bird?

John
 

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Done it

300. Stilt Sandpiper.

What a good bird to get for your 300th. Only the second time I have seen one, the first being eight years ago in Norfolk.

The bird I thought might have been my three hundredth (until this bird turned up) was a Short-toed-Lark, which is at Gibraltar Point. We are going for this bird tomorrow.

Now I need to set myself another target. Shall we say 320.

John
 
Well the bird I thought would be my 300th turned out to be my 301st. We certainly had to work for it at Gibralter Point with a round trip of about 3 & a half to 4 mile walk, most of it in sand then a long search amongst the dunes before getting a couple of flight views of it. Thankfully it called which helped locate it.

301. Short-toed Lark.

John
 
Last night in the vicinity of ~500 Chimney Swifts which were going to roost in the church chimney just down the street from where we live in Saint Joseph, Missouri was:

206. COMMON NIGHTHAWK


 
This morning I drove to some grasslands in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia to try for birds that are difficult to find around here. I saw both of my targets, only one of which was a year tick. (One, Northern Harrier, I had seen in Arizona in May, but it was new for the year in West Virginia).

322. Blue Grosbeak

Dave
 
I went to Keyhaven Lagoon, Hampshire yesterday and managed to get excellent views of a Lifer for me which was a Semipalmated Sandpiper.

We also went to Portland Bill and found the Ortolan Bunting in the Top Fields.

Now comes the contentious bit. We went to Radipole, Weymouth to look at the Hooded Merganser. Although I'm sure this is a genuine bird the BOU haven't accepted it and yet virtually everyone that has seen it has ticked it, even on BUBO which is supposed to be a tick list of only BOU birds.

I am challenging the leader of this list (Lee Evans), as I currently lie 2nd to him. He has ticked it and so have all the top birders that have seen it that are listing on BUBO.

I am going to list it, but under protest and have put my thoughts against this bird on BUBO. I have entered it with a comment that I'm not happy to have to do this due to needing to be on the same level playing field as the others.

303. Semipalmated Sandpiper
304. Ortolan Bunting
305. Hooded Merganser

Here are a few photos from the day of the Semipalmated Sandpiper.

John
 

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This morning I got into a nice mixed-species flock that included five species of migrating warblers, two species of vireos, and assorted resident species, such as chickadees. Two of the warbler species were new for the year, so my Year List is now up to 324.

323. Cape May Warbler
324. Tennessee Warbler

I should have seen the Tennessee Warbler in the spring, but I just never got onto one, and I've always had better luck with Cape Mays in the fall.

Dave
 
Now comes the contentious bit. We went to Radipole, Weymouth to look at the Hooded Merganser. Although I'm sure this is a genuine bird the BOU haven't accepted it and yet virtually everyone that has seen it has ticked it, even on BUBO which is supposed to be a tick list of only BOU birds.

I am challenging the leader of this list (Lee Evans), as I currently lie 2nd to him. He has ticked it and so have all the top birders that have seen it that are listing on BUBO.

You don't have to tick it just because everyone else does - then you can claim the moral high ground and it doesn't matter how many more species down you are at the end of the year ... ;)

Congrats on the 300 btw.
 
I agree with you totally, and I have no chance of challenging Lee anyway as I work in the week. Also he told me yesterday that he is on about 325 already, but I have ticked it on BUBO solely that I can have the chance to put my thoughts in writing, which is what I have done under comments alongside the bird. I complained earlier in the year but it fell on deaf ears. I even told Lee to his face (at the Dusky Thrush twitch) what I thought about him ticking it.

John

You don't have to tick it just because everyone else does - then you can claim the moral high ground and it doesn't matter how many more species down you are at the end of the year ... ;)

Congrats on the 300 btw.
 
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