2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (2 Viewers)

[Paul Chapman]

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

Andy - I'll have you know that I devise my spreadsheets on my laptop in the living room. :king:

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 thought Tufted Duck as well (but that probably means it is a Lesser Scaup....).

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

Yes they do need Pine Bunting - an obvious post Canaries trip.

All the best

 

[Andy Adcock]

Andy - I'll have you know that I devise my spreadsheets on my laptop in the living room. :king:

You're exempt fron criticism Paul as rumour has it, that you actually go birding and occasionally meet people!

You've also never bemoaned the occasional aside AFAIK:t:


A

 

[Maffong]

Yes they do need Pine Bunting - an obvious post Canaries trip.

All the best

There's also a Pine Bunting in Italy, so this seems like an obvious next twitch.
I guess they'll have the Bustard and the Stonechat by this evening and thus cleaned up almost all of their target species.
What is there plan with Grey-headed Chickadee and Yellow-billed Loon. And when they've managed to get these will they try for anything else? They could go to Kuwait, megas seem to be turning up on an almost daily basis. I believe Algeria is not possible with too little time to arrange visa and commodities left. But one bird they've never really considered trying for is Scottish Crossbill. I know some of you think it doesn't deserve species status, but it's currently on every list I know of and surely if it merits species status it must be possible to ID it?
I'm currently reading up on this matter, but would like to hear other people's thoughts... Should they go for it? (The question is not, whether it's a real species!)

Maffong

 

[GWB77]

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?

Seeing it in flight actually makes it easier to ID than seeing it sat. The wing pattern certainly suggests they got this one wrong. But how regular is Tufted Duck on Cape Verde? (need to check literature when I get home, but I'm guessing it's not that common so far south). Furthermore, what was the drake they saw with this bird? A Lesser Scaup? A Tufted Duck?

 

[Andy Adcock]

Seeing it in flight actually makes it easier to ID than seeing it sat. The wing pattern certainly suggests they got this one wrong. But how regular is Tufted Duck on Cape Verde? (need to check literature when I get home, but I'm guessing it's not that common so far south). Furthermore, what was the drake they saw with this bird? A Lesser Scaup? A Tufted Duck?

I've been looking at images on Google and assuming that they are in fact correctly ID'd, it looks ok to me?



A

 

[Andy Adcock]

But one bird they've never really considered trying for is Scottish Crossbill. I know some of you think it doesn't deserve species status, but it's currently on every list I know of and surely if it merits species status it must be possible to ID it?
I'm currently reading up on this matter, but would like to hear other people's thoughts... Should they go for it? (The question is not, whether it's a real species!)

Maffong

It's a minefield, birds with the same bill measurements etc have been found well away from Scotland and without huge experience, I'm not sure that even the call is diagnostic?

Identifying one would be an enormous challenge to put it mildly!

A

 

[flownek]

It's a minefield, birds with the same bill measurements etc have been found well away from Scotland and without huge experience, I'm not sure that even the call is diagnostic?
A

I am not an expert either, but I heard that the calls of Common Crossbill do not vary only geographically but also temporally. Meaning for instance that sound recordings from the nineties may be misleading or even useless for the identification of a 'recent' crossbill.

A minefield, indeed. I'd go for the Pine Bunting instead...

 

[Surreybirder]

I am not an expert either, but I heard that the calls of Common Crossbill do not vary only geographically but also temporally. Meaning for instance that sound recordings from the nineties may be misleading or even useless for the identification of a 'recent' crossbill.

A minefield, indeed. I'd go for the Pine Bunting instead...

I saw this article on eBird and decided that crossbill ID is for someone else...
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news...america-species-and-red-crossbill-call-types/ :-O

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

SBut how regular is Tufted Duck on Cape Verde?

There was one on Sal last winter which I think the Facebook group indicated was the sixth record.

 

[Paul Chapman]

You're exempt fron criticism Paul as rumour has it, that you actually go birding and occasionally meet people!

A

More a rumour than a fact this year sadly!

Yesterday they saw Common Shelduck as an island first on Tenerife.

Six records for Canaries split one Fuerteventura, two Tenerife & three Gran Canaria comprising ten birds in Birds of the Atlantic Islands.

But how regular is Tufted Duck on Cape Verde?

Three records for Cape Verde split two Santiago & one Sal comprising five birds in Birds of the Atlantic Islands.

All the best

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

More a rumour than a fact this year sadly!



Six records for Canaries split one Fuerteventura, two Tenerife & three Gran Canaria comprising ten birds in Birds of the Atlantic Islands.



Three records for Cape Verde split two Santiago & one Sal comprising five birds in Birds of the Atlantic Islands.

All the best

Have checked and the Sal record this winter was the sixth. There was one with the first Gadwall for Cape Verde later in the winter so I am assuming there are now seven records.

Canary Islands - I would suggest your information is well out of date. Not included as qualifying for 'Rare Birds Of The Canary Islands' due to frequency.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Canary Islands - I would suggest your information is well out of date. Not included as qualifying for 'Rare Birds Of The Canary Islands' due to frequency.

Records in main text up to 2004.

All the best

 

[Paul Chapman]

Intriguingly, the Rare Birds of the Canary Islands facebook page for the Big Year birders' record reads:-

***MEGA*** 1st for Tenerife. 15th for Canary Islands.
Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna tarro blanco 7 ind., 26/11/2017, Tabona reservoir (Tenerife)(Erik Rask, Marten Wikström, Claes Wikström, Eduardo Garcia-del-Rey © Sociedad Ornitlogica Canaria/SOC)

Of course, the rarity records for the Canaries are subject to a number of omissions from the official record due to historic differences so this may explain this discrepancy?

The author of Birds of the Atlantic Islands was a Tenerife resident for many years - though now a resident of Scarborough.

All the best

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Of course, the rarity records for the Canaries are subject to a number of omissions from the official record due to historic differences so this may explain this discrepancy?

Just one of those quirks of birding I think. In Rare Birds Of The Canary Islands it states 'It is surprising that this species has not been recorded from Tenerife.

 

[DanielDoer]

There's also a Pine Bunting in Italy, so this seems like an obvious next twitch.
I guess they'll have the Bustard and the Stonechat by this evening and thus cleaned up almost all of their target species. ...

Maffong

You are right: Canary Islands Stonechat and Houbara Bustard in the bag:
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/

So now for Pine Bunting as no 756...

 

[Paul Chapman]

Just one of those quirks of birding I think. In Rare Birds Of The Canary Islands it states 'It is surprising that this species has not been recorded from Tenerife.

The two records in Birds of the Atlantic Islands are one, Guargacho, 25.12.83-12.01.84 & two, off Punta de la Rasca, 21.08.88.

Seeing it in flight actually makes it easier to ID than seeing it sat. The wing pattern certainly suggests they got this one wrong. But how regular is Tufted Duck on Cape Verde? (need to check literature when I get home, but I'm guessing it's not that common so far south). Furthermore, what was the drake they saw with this bird? A Lesser Scaup? A Tufted Duck?

More photos now on Facebook:-

https://www.facebook.com/bigyearwp/photos/pcb.398065180627279/398062803960850/?type=3&theater

All the best

 

[Maffong]

Intriguingly, the Rare Birds of the Canary Islands facebook page for the Big Year birders' record reads:-

***MEGA*** 1st for Tenerife. 15th for Canary Islands.
Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna tarro blanco 7 ind., 26/11/2017, Tabona reservoir (Tenerife)(Erik Rask, Marten Wikström, Claes Wikström, Eduardo Garcia-del-Rey © Sociedad Ornitlogica Canaria/SOC)

All the best

I wouldn't trust that number too much. Eventhough I very much admire the effort that Eduardo Garcia del Rey is putting into compiling the records of rare birds for the Atlantic islands, his numbers are quite often flawed. As is apparently the case with the Shelducks again

Maffong

PS. This is of course only partly his fault. As there are no rarities committees for most island groups many sightings are never even submitted and thus scattered far and wide through the internet, if even...

 

[lewis20126]

More photos now on Facebook:-

https://www.facebook.com/bigyearwp/photos/pcb.398065180627279/398062803960850/?type=3&theater

All the best

Looks like a Tufted Duck and Lesser Scaup together IMO, but I find the females very difficult.

cheers, alan

 

[Maffong]

The differences in bill and head structure, eye-colour and white around the bill are quite obvious I think. Thus I agree with Tufted Duck and Lesser Scaup.

In other news they might want to return to Egypt. Not only could they try to catch up on Goliath Heron, but recently a Verreaux's Eagle has been found 80km north of Shalatin! However I'm not sure how keen they are on returning to Egypt
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Birdinginegypt/permalink/1567055166675042/

 

[Paul Chapman]

The differences in bill and head structure, eye-colour and white around the bill are quite obvious I think. Thus I agree with Tufted Duck and Lesser Scaup.

In other news they might want to return to Egypt. Not only could they try to catch up on Goliath Heron, but recently a Verreaux's Eagle has been found 80km north of Shalatin! However I'm not sure how keen they are on returning to Egypt
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Birdinginegypt/permalink/1567055166675042/

I chatted to a WP lister once who told a story from Egypt (from that area I believe). He was convinced that he had a Verraux's Eagle but alas he was unable to do anything about it because he was in an escorted convoy at the time...........

All the best