2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

Though same applies to Zino's Petrel - one tiny breeding colony, very nearly destroyed a few years ago by a wildfire, and at constant threat from feral rats & cats.

Both in real danger

A

 

[Maffong]

I would add the following to your list Paul
Yellow-billed Loon
Swinhoe's Storm Petrel
Green Heron
Goliath Heron
Magnificient Frigatebird
Rüppell's Griffon
Northern Harrier
Shikra
Amur Falcon
Houbara Bustard
Allen's Gallinule
Killdeer
Oriental Plover
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Great Knot
Red-necked Stint
Pin-tailed Snipe
Upland Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
Oriental Pratincole (they were close enough for the finnish one
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
American Herring Gull
Bolle's Pigeon
Laurel Pigeon
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Belted Kingfisher
White-throated Bee-eater
Long-tailed Shrike
American Cliff Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Fuerteventura Chat
Pied Bush Chat
Eyebrowed Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Grey-cheeked Thrush
American Robin
Stejneger's Stonechat
Radde's Warbler
Grey-headed Chickadee
Caspian Tit
Algerian Nuthatch
Red-billed Firefinch
Tenerife Blue Chaffinch
Scottish Crossbill
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
American Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Bunting
Pallas's Reed Bunting
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole

plus several others, where I don't believe anybody did a thorough search after the discovery
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron
Ascension Frigatebird
Masked Booby
Tawny Eagle
Abyssinian Roller
Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Actually the only ones that I believe were completely impossible to get are these
Black-bellied Storm Petrel (however this pelagic tour was well announced and one could've tried to be on the ship)
Black-capped Petrel
Black-headed Heron (was seen the day after discovery, but not later and would've been difficult to get there in time)
White-backed Vulture (one was stationary in Morocco, but the gen came out much too late)
Pallas's Fish Eagle
Short-billed Dowitcher (or was it twitchable in Spain?)
Western Sandpiper (if it was indeed one)
Ross's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
South Polar Skua
Mourning Dove (gen came out too late from the Faroes, bird in Azores not twitchable)
Black-billed Cuckoo
White-throated Needletail
Chimney Swift
Pacific Swift
Siberian Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Siberian Blue Robin
Mugimaki Flycatcher
Purple Sunbird (only if you managed to be there very early the next morning)
Pechora Pipit
Northern Parula

 

[Paul Chapman]

Maffong

Many thanks.

Of course, the challenge then becomes what could not have been seen if they went for say the Red-winged Blackbird or the Long-tailed Shrike etc or could they really have got to the Oriental Plover or an Allen's Gallinule....

All the best

 

[Nutcracker]

...
Algerian Nuthatch
...

Can't remember if this has been covered, but how accessible is this if you don't have a medium-dark complexion and are not fluent in Arabic? I'd think safe enough for someone who could pass as a local, but an obvious [North] European would be an extremely tempting kidnap target for any isis-sympathetic group.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Covered extensively on thread and in the attached link:-

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37880023

All the best

 

[dantheman]

Covered extensively on thread and in the attached link:-

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37880023

All the best

Think your link didn't get past the Home Office security checks ...

 

[Maffong]

You could always ask all those europeans who've managed to see it, e.g. Vincent Legrand, PAC, David Monticelli and others.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272490764_Algerian_Nuthatch_a_photographic_trip
http://www.magornitho.org/2017/11/algerian-nuthatch-guerrouch-forest/

 

[Xenospiza]

Link works fine for me.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Think your link didn't get past the Home Office security checks ...

Compare and contrast:-

Algeria - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/algeria

Turkey - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/turkey

Western Sahara - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/western-sahara

Mauritania - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mauritania

All the best

 

[Nutcracker]

Covered extensively on thread and in the attached link:-

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37880023

All the best

Thanks! Had forgot that link, but remembered it when I saw it again :t:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Actually the only ones that I believe were completely impossible to get are these
White-throated Needletail
Siberian Blue Robin

Dipped both of those myself........ :-C

 

[Acrocephalus]

White-backed Vulture (one was stationary in Morocco, but the gen came out much too late)

That was very unfortunate indeed. When I asked the observer why he didn't release the news the same day, he told me "there were some discussions with some people". I told him, they are probably 'jealous'. In the case of the first bird in 2014, we published the news in the same day and I remember a top WP birder wanted to come to see it, but when we checked at lunchtime next day it was gone.

Can't remember if this has been covered, but how accessible is this if you don't have a medium-dark complexion and are not fluent in Arabic? I'd think safe enough for someone who could pass as a local, but an obvious [North] European would be an extremely tempting kidnap target for any isis-sympathetic group.

First, the main language spoken in the region is Tamazight or Berber. Second, in these regions blonde people are not rare too!! (as you most likely seen them in Morocco). But most importantly, the security in Algeria now is not like 'the dark decade' as they call it at home, but is normal as any other country.

You could always ask all those europeans who've managed to see it, e.g. Vincent Legrand, PAC, David Monticelli and others.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272490764_Algerian_Nuthatch_a_photographic_trip
http://www.magornitho.org/2017/11/algerian-nuthatch-guerrouch-forest/

There are at least 15-20 good Algerian birders who live or work in neighboring towns and in the last two years they organised several trips to photograph the bird (it was kind of forgotten, and suddenly everyone want to see, photograph and celebrate it). The only problem here for the big year team is obtaining visa quickly as they needed the passports for traveling to other countries.

 

[Nutcracker]

That was very unfortunate indeed. When I asked the observer why he didn't release the news the same day, he told me "there were some discussions with some people". I told him, they are probably 'jealous'. In the case of the first bird in 2014, we published the news in the same day and I remember a top WP birder wanted to come to see it, but when we checked at lunchtime next day it was gone.


First, the main language spoken in the region is Tamazight or Berber. Second, in these regions blonde people are not rare too!! (as you most likely seen them in Morocco). But most importantly, the security in Algeria now is not like 'the dark decade' as they call it at home, but is normal as any other country.



There are at least 15-20 good Algerian birders who live or work in neighboring towns and in the last two years they organised several trips to photograph the bird (it was kind of forgotten, and suddenly everyone want to see, photograph and celebrate it). The only problem here for the big year team is obtaining visa quickly as they needed the passports for traveling to other countries.

Excellent to know, thanks!

Though I fear I don't recollect seeing any blond people in Morocco (other than tourists!)

 

[Andy Adcock]

Excellent to know, thanks!

Though I fear I don't recollect seeing any blond people in Morocco (other than tourists!)

We saw blonde people in Morroco, not uncommon amongst the Berber's.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Berber_people

Extract

'In north Africa there are large areas with a predominantly Mediterranean population : the whole of the northern edge from Egypt to Morocco, and beyond Morocco a tract along the coast southwards and reaching over to the north-west African islands. The Spaniards have always been astonished at the likeness of their Berber foes in Morocco with themselves. In all these regions of north-west Africa, however, there are found also Oriental, Negro, and (especially, it would seem, in Algeria and Morocco) Hither Asiatic strains. Among the Berbers, particularly the Kabyles in the Riff and in the Aures range, a Nordic strain shows itself clearly, and in the Canary Islands there seems to be a strain of the Cro-magnon race.

The Berbers, among whom even today one finds light skins and blue eyes, do not go back to the Vandal invasions of the fifth century A.D., but to the prehistoric Atlantic Nordic human wave. The Kabyle huntsmen, for example, are to no small degree still wholly Nordic (thus the blond Berbers in the region of Constantine form 10 % of the population; at Djebel Sheshor they are even more numerous'


It's a wonderful look when you see them.


A

 

[DanielDoer]

Although it is interesting about the Berber people, I would prefer to speak about birds here!

But the WP Big Year team just doesn't update their list. Yesterday they saw Common Shelduck as an island first on Tenerife. Surely interesting but the year ticks are probably a little more important during a Big Year...

 

[andyb39]

Now updated with both pigeons and Tenerife Blue Chaffinch added.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Although it is interesting about the Berber people, I would prefer to speak about birds here!

But the WP Big Year team just doesn't update their list. Yesterday they saw Common Shelduck as an island first on Tenerife. Surely interesting but the year ticks are probably a little more important during a Big Year...

Some people just need to get a rounded personality, travelling and meeting different peoples is part of what makes birdng what it is, unless of course you're locked in your bedroom devising the next spreadsheet.

 

[flownek]

Pine buntings seem to be wintering again in Ticino, Switzerland. I reckon they still need these?

 

[GWB77]

I've commented about their Lesser Scaup on their blog post below. No response yet, but am I missing something.... surely this is a Tufted Duck? Would be nice to see photos of the drake.

http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/2017/11/23/sao-vicente-sewage-ponds/

 

[Andy Adcock]

I've commented about their Lesser Scaup on their blog post below. No response yet, but am I missing something.... surely this is a Tufted Duck? Would be nice to see photos of the drake.

http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/2017/11/23/sao-vicente-sewage-ponds/

I assume they saw it on the water? ID'ing a female LS in flight and dismissing Tufted Duck would test the very best, is it even possible?


A