2016 - World Yearlist Record Attempt (1 Viewer)

[Vincent van der Spek]

The last entry yesterday of the Bonaparte's Full from northern Florida was at 2 pm, probably he flew to Minnesota directly afterwards and even was able to add some of the many possible owls there in the night?

Yes, he travelled to Minneapolis in the afternoon. Apparently you miss a thing or two during a year like this: he had no idea Prince died!

He realises 7000 is probably M.I. He'll be happy with 6900, though he'll try to add as much as possible during the final two weeks.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I'd suspect a lot will depend on where you are. I doubt much will change in Europe or North America, but a lot in SE Asia (such as e.g. Island Thrush split into separate species for each island it's found on :eek! and a fair amount in other tropical regions.

Island Thrush is an obvious one Nutty and so is Collared Kingfisher.



A

 

[Andy Adcock]

had no idea Prince died!

He realises 7000 is probably M.I. He'll be happy with 6900, though he'll try to add as much as possible during the final two weeks.

Nooooo......I will not acknowledge this record if he doesn't get 7K now!!!!

Seriously, would be a pity to get so close but not get it so that any future challenge that beats his total will almost certainly have both accolades, biggest year list and first past 7K


A

 

[Paul Chapman]

OK - my predictions:-
Currently - 6,615
Florida - 35
Minnesota - 25
New Mexico - 30
California - 40
Japan - 60
Taiwan - 40
Vietnam - 60
Total - 6,905

So he ended up with 35 from Florida....?

All the best

 

[Maffong]

If I'm right, he added 36 plus the 5 earlier on, so 41 species in Florida

 

[Paul Chapman]

If I'm right, he added 36 plus the 5 earlier on, so 41 species in Florida

I think that its fairly safe to assume that as I added the 35 to 6,615 (which included the Florida stopover birds) that I was talking about additional species from that point................

I'll bank 36 against the prediction of 35 though. With only a day in Minnesota that will be interesting.

All the best

 

[DanielDoer]

Arjan is now at 6.666 (that is a real "Schnapszahl" as we call it in German!!):
http://world.observation.org/arjan.php

And what else could it be than a Glaucous Gull on his northernmost part of the leg? But it was seen at 1 PM something (and no owl species yet in Minnesota!) so probably it was not the end of his one day trip in the northern USA? Good luck...

 

[Geert Custers]

From his 41 additions in Florida, 22 were not on the E-bird possibility list for Florida which was based only on December observations I suppose.

Mottled Duck - Anas fulvigula
Redhead - Aythya americana
American Bittern - Botaurus lentiginosus
Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red-shouldered Hawk - Buteo lineatus
Sandhill Crane - Grus canadensis
Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus
Barred Owl - Strix varia
Eastern Screech Owl - Megascops asio
Whip-poor-will - Antrostomus vociferus
Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus
Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens
Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus
American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow - Corvus ossifragus
Brown-headed Nuthatch - Sitta pusilla
Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum
Eastern Towhee - Pipilo erythrophthalmus
Pine Warbler - Setophaga pinus
Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula
Boat-tailed Grackle - Quiscalus major
Buff-bellied Pipit - Anthus rubescens

So hopefully in the other states / areas there will also be additional possibilities, allowing him to come closer to the 7000 mark.
All his Minnesota observations so far (15) were on the possibility list.

Best regards,
Geert

 

[Paul Chapman]

Geert

All were on eBird as December possibles and are only not in the list at post 1949 (13th December) because they had already been seen by Arjan by then (12th December) and therefore deleted by me. The dataset for the States as you would expect is very good and the percentages in the main proved a very good predictor of the species seen with a handful of less likely species seen. Details at home but I'll post something later/tomorrow.

All the best

 

[Geert Custers]

Geert

because they had already been seen by Arjan by then (12th December) and therefore deleted by me.
All the best

Thanks Paul,
I had missed this detail and was already surprised by so many additional species seen in Florida beyond what i expected to be a very complete E-bird list.
Indeed all species seen in Florida were on the possibility list!
Best regards,
Geert

 

[DMW]

I think it's going to be more or less impossible for Arjan to hit 7,000 based on his planned itinerary. Can anybody think of any obvious gaps in his coverage that would allow him to hit the mark were he to change tack at this late stage? A day in south India? Another on Halmahera (which I don't recall him having visited?). An amazing achievement already, but seeing 7,000 seems an almost achievable landmark.

 

[George Kappus]

Arjan is now at 6.666 (that is a real "Schnapszahl" as we call it in German!!):
http://world.observation.org/arjan.php

And what else could it be than a Glaucous Gull on his northernmost part of the leg? But it was seen at 1 PM something (and no owl species yet in Minnesota!) so probably it was not the end of his one day trip in the northern USA? Good luck...

A look at Ebird suggests that Great Gray and Snowy were available in the areas he was in in the morning. Last report of Northern Hawk Owl was the last week of November. Hope he got in some owling before his next flight.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Thanks Paul,
I had missed this detail and was already surprised by so many additional species seen in Florida beyond what i expected to be a very complete E-bird list.
Indeed all species seen in Florida were on the possibility list!
Best regards,
Geert

Of the Florida additions, he saw the 19 most likely, 21st to 24th, 26th to 29th, 31st, 32nd, 34th and 35th. The outliers were Eastern Whip-poor-will (40th), Red-cockaded Woodpecker (42nd), Whooping Crane (43rd), Bachman's Sparrow (45th) and Henslow's Sparrow (52nd). The commonest species not seen were Cedar Waxwing (20th), Clapper Rail (25th), Black Scoter (30th) and Greater Scaup (33rd).

All the best

 

[Paul Chapman]

The commonest missing Minnesota species are Dark-eyed Junco (2nd), American Tree Sparrow (4th), Goosander (6th), Trumpeter Swan (7th), Cedar Waxwing (11th), Purple (12th), Snowy Owl (15th), Iceland Gull (16th) & Great Grey Owl (18th).

All the best

 

[Paul Chapman]

Now in New Mexico with 13 seen so Minnesota was 15 against my prediction of 25. Back to the drawing board........

All the best

 

[Th. Stegmann]

Hi,

so to me it seem very likely that Arjan will fall short of the magic 7.000 of only a couple of species at the end of the year.

But if he wants, he nonetheless still could do the 7K!
Sounds weird? No!

If he isn’t exhausted and broke on 1.1.17 (and of course has the agreement of his girlfriend/familiy and no other plans…) he „only“ hast to go on one or two weeks after the 31. Dezember.

If his Big Year ends up with – let’s say – 6.950, he might catch up some bird species left in the Netherlands/Central Europe (i.e. the Alps) and book some last-minute short-trips to i.e. Marocco, the Canary Islands, Turkey and/or Egypt, to maybe become "the first to see more the 7K bird species in less than (let’s say) 380 days".

After his Big Year-record that would be the possibility to gain another birding-record (fastest to see 7.000 species) for him.

Greetings!
Thorsten

 

[DanielDoer]

I think it's going to be more or less impossible for Arjan to hit 7,000 based on his planned itinerary. Can anybody think of any obvious gaps in his coverage that would allow him to hit the mark were he to change tack at this late stage? A day in south India? Another on Halmahera (which I don't recall him having visited?). An amazing achievement already, but seeing 7,000 seems an almost achievable landmark.

After his really successful start of the year in India I would suspect that are not enough western ghats endemics left so he won't be able to add more species there than e.g. in Vietnam. I was thinking if it would be good to go to central Asia for example kasachstan or the Caucasus (foothills), but I suppose there is just not enough time left.

He now has 6.679: http://world.observation.org/arjan.php
And has get less species in Minnesota than Paul predicted. I am beginning to doupt (and Arjan himself does so) whether he can reach 7.000 til the end of this year. So he should think about Thorsten's idea of birding a little bit longer in 2017 - he could go with the WP big year guys for example

 

[temmie]

He should have visited China instead of the US...
+ Gambia while he was close
+ South India when he was in India (probably the most obvious location he did not visit for no good reason).

But I want to stress that he did so many things very well that it will be very hard to break his record.

 

[Nutcracker]

He should have visited China instead of the US...

He tried to, but no visa available apparently

 

[T.O.]

He should have visited China instead of the US...
+ Gambia while he was close
+ South India when he was in India (probably the most obvious location he did not visit for no good reason).

But I want to stress that he did so many things very well that it will be very hard to break his record.

Why Gambia and not Cameroon/Gabon?