2024 Targets (1 Viewer)

[dandsblair]

My targets for 2024 are ill defined with only one trip (Chile in January planned) target birds are many but main one for me is Diademed Sandpiper Plover, Sarah wants Magallenic Woodpecker which she missed a few years ago.
If thing work out we should do a few additional trips later in the year in which case we should get to 6000 seen birds.

So as we approach year end, how did we do.
We managed to see the Diademed Sandpiper Plover and Magallenic Woodpecker in Chile in Jan/Feb, added a few life birds in Madeira but had to wait until this month and a trip to Thailand to get above the 6000 birds seen mark.
A few lifers we saw recently including #6000 White-rumped Falcon

 

[David_]

Just booked a trip to Sierra de Andújar for February. So main target for the year is not a bird but Iberian Lynx. For birds my main targets for the year are:

1. Lesser Spotted Eagle - currently planning a trip to eastern Germany with my father. LSE will be the main target but also looking for Common Rosefinch, Barred Warbler and Thrush Nightingale
2. Trumpeter Finch - after searching for the Lynx I will have a few days to look for some bird targets in Andalucia. Besides the finches the main targets for the trip are Black Vulture, eagles (Spanish Imperial and Bonelli‘s) and larks
3. Little Owl - I see Little Owls quite often but still haven‘t see one in Düsseldorf. There are ca. 20 breeding pairs around so this shouldn’t be too hard.
4. Add at least two waders to my city list. Jack Snipe, Woodcock, Greenshank and Whimbrel are still missing and are definitely possible
5. Raptor migration - don’t know yet where I will go but definitely want to spent a week at a migration hotspot in autumn

Overall the year was amazing from a birding perspective with unexpected lifers like Siberian Rubythroat, Taiga Flycatcher, Sandhill Crane, Rosy Starling, Blyth’s Pipit and Germany ticks like European Roller and Calandra Lark.

For the targets I set for the year it was a mixed bag.
1. The trip with my father to eastern Germany didn’t produce a Lesser Spotted Eagle sighting (but in the end we also decided for a location where chances weren’t the best). I still had a few lifers and Germany ticks but mostly the trip was about birding with my dad. I hope we manage to do trips like this a few more times during the next years.
2. The trip to the Sierra de Andujar and Eastern Andalucia delivered two amazing sightings of Lynx from close range but I missed out on my main birding target with the trumpeter finches. I saw all other target species I had for the trip and found a Cream Colored Courser
3. Saw Little Owl a few times in Düsseldorf this year. As expected not too hard once I went out in the evening to specifically look for them instead of hoping to see one by chance during the day.
4. Added two new waders to my city list. Greenshank was a species I expected to find during migration, the second species was surprisingly Little Stint.
5. Didn’t manage to travel for raptor migration because of work but at least managed a week at Heligoland in mid October and another weekend at Heligoland beginning of November. So no raptor migration but got to see some rarities.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

You could always try for the Indian Spotted Creeper to tick that family.

Indeed, don’t mind which one fills in the gap.

 

[Steve Babbs]

My hope was 4 new cats - with a very small chance of 5. I got two. Ho hum. Hopefully next year I'll have a better strike rate. Hoping for two new cats.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

What 3 did you miss?

 

[Owene]

As far as birds go

1. Capercaillie. Failed to see one in Scotland the only time I went for it but a real category A one would be lovely.

2 shoebill. Have always wanted to see one. Seen so many amazing photos Hopefully the trip will bring some mammal species I’ve wanted to see all my life too

3 roseate tern. No idea if I’ll manage it but I love terns and have only ever seen the one. Which i didn’t photograph

Plus just some fun twitches, a few photo ticks and cool insects and plants closer to home.

Managed all three but the flyby roseate’s remained unphotographed.

 

[Steve Babbs]

What 3 did you miss?

Geoffrey's cat was a serious long shot so puma and jagurundi. Hopefully I'll be trying again for puma. this time in Argentina.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

I got Geoffrey’s in Argentina, near one of the reedbed sites north of Buenos Aires

 

[Mysticete]

Indeed, don’t mind which one fills in the gap.

Although, fyi, there is a fair chance that Macrosphenidae could get broken up into multiple families. There are also a few other songbird oddballs. You might tick the creeper only to see some additional new families pop up!

 

[lgonz1008]

Although, fyi, there is a fair chance that Macrosphenidae could get broken up into multiple families. There are also a few other songbird oddballs. You might tick the creeper only to see some additional new families pop up!

I agree with this! After seeing a few of these birds in the wild, all I could think was that they are not supposed to be that closely related to be within the same family. Moustached Grass Warbler and Crombecs feel like their own unique families.

 

[Patudo]

2024 doesn't feel like a great year, mainly because the pair of peregrines I most counted on for all the good stuff one sees around the nesting season did not take to the new box that the management of the building (that they'd been consistently succeeding on) had placed for them. Inconsiderate critters... they shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth - don't they know that real estate is at an absolute premium in Central London? The other pair I'd hoped to watch then seemed to have got in gear really late, which resulted in major dilemmas as to where to go in July, when the pair of hobbies nesting near me ought to have been nesting. I mainly went with the latter, only to find that yet another pair of peregrines nesting near the park (or rather their free-roaming juveniles) seemed to be making the hobbies quite secretive. I did manage to see some fine flying, but mostly not from the target species - I have a really hard time considering peregrines a nuisance bird, but at times I found myself wishing they would bugger off. The expected pickup in activity when the hobbies fledged turned out a bit of a damp squib ... I need to have a serious rethink how much time I put in after them next year. Then Oct through Dec was poor, the usual slowdown as the pairs are no longer driven by the breeding imperative being compounded by an increasing number of weather days. There were, as there always are, some good days and memorable highlights (seeing the adult male hobby capture a dozing swift was probably the neatest, but a juvenile goshawk flying low over WC2A was also pretty remarkable) but in general I'll remember 2024 as a bit of a tough year. Maybe I've gotten a bit spoilt by some of the years previous.

It seemed like more success was found abroad - the last two days of a Barcelona visit were fantastic, and although visits to New York City and the Canaries were mostly unexceptional, Singapore was/has been rewarding. The birds have gotten a little tricky the last few days, but it's quite an experience to see these ernesti peregrines doing all the things you expect from resident birds (hunting, mating, patrolling, stooping at white-bellied sea eagles...) against the backdrop of the huge modern skyscrapers and to know that here is just as much peregrine country as London or Barcelona or NYC. I should be able to get out a bit in what remains of 2024 - let's hope there are still some surprises!

 

[Steve Babbs]

I got Geoffrey’s in Argentina, near one of the reedbed sites north of Buenos Aires

I'll be chasing you for more gen about that,

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

It was a piece of pure luck. Mind you, our guide, Mark, knew of a local hacienda that had been reliable a year or two earlier!

 

[Steve Babbs]

It was a piece of pure luck. Mind you, our guide, Mark, knew of a local hacienda that had been reliable a year or two earlier!

​

It was a piece of pure luck. Mind you, our guide, Mark, knew of a local hacienda that had been reliable a year or two earlier!

El Palmar NP? That seems to be the best bet.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Quite possibly; I’ll try to get more info after Christmas.

 

[Birdy1]

My target is probably to get my life list above 200 - not difficult really but something worth aiming for!
Also hopefully get to 200 year birds in 2024 as will hopefully start driving so will be able to twitch birds which are further away!

I'm 2 away from life list of 200, hoping to potentially make it during the Christmas holidays!
Unfortunately my year list isn't even close to 200 (132 currently), I've had 20 lifers, including 3 particularly good ones for me, including Red-Footed Falcon, Red-Backed Shrike, and a long awaited Bittern!. (I obviously need to make it 22 though😁), Unfortunately although I had plenty of lifers, I think last year I had the advantage of going to NZ for a week, which although wasn't birdwatching based, did allow me to significantly increase the number of species for the year, and this year I probably saw most of what I have seen before, but needed quite a few more lifers and lucky spots to get the year list to 200, maybe something to aim for in the future though!

 

[Paul Chapman]

I have settled on the following:-

1. Get my 2023 world photo list completed. Lots of processing to do & photos to upload to eBird. 1,800+ species photographed in the end this year;

2. Get an up to date world list into eBird with at least one photo of each species that I have photographed to the end of 2023;

3. Get a British & Irish moth list input into BUBO - a moth life list is long overdue for me - too many random spreadsheets etc;

4. Add 50 moths to my British & Irish moth list - rather dependent on getting the life list sorted;

5. Record my world bird & Britain & Ireland moth lists throughout the entire year - eBird & BUBO;

6. Record over 1,500 bird species during the year;

7. Photograph over 500 new bird species worldwide in 2024 - this should be possible with the trips planned but some trips need to be firmed up; &

8. Spend more time in the field moth trapping - a poor year in 2023 for me with maybe a dozen nights - so a minimum of twenty nights targeted including recording on some of my previous local sites to update recording.

All the best

Paul

A quick canter through my 2024 targets & how I did......

1. Get my 2023 world photo list completed. Lots of processing to do & photos to upload to eBird. 1,800+ species photographed in the end this year;

Nearly completed. On current eBird taxonomy, my 2023 yearlist was 2,047 species. I have uploaded photos of 1,789 species into eBird for that year so far up to 9th December. Taxonomy check on completion. Finishing this will need to be my first target for 2025. Repeat after me... Try & get less than a year behind by the end of 2025:-

Paul's 2023 Photographic World List | BirdForum

Some rudimentary trip report links here for 2023 with photos including the incomplete New Zealand one:-

Costa Rica - 15 days - Costa Rica Birdquest Trip - eBird Trip Report - 514 species & 467 species photographed

Croatia - 4 days - Croatia Trip (Self-guided) - eBird Trip Report - 97 species & 45 species photographed

Spain - 7 days - Spain Trip (Self-guided) - eBird Trip Report - 174 species & 128 species photographed

Ontario & Michigan - 15 days - Ontario & Michigan Trip (Self-guided) - eBird Trip Report - 219 species & 200 species photographed

Morocco - 5 days - Morocco Trip (Guided by Hamid - Morocco Travel Plan) - eBird Trip Report - 130 species & 86 species photographed

Peru - 28 days - Peru Initial Trip (Guided by Miguel - Tanager Tours) - eBird Trip Report - 757 species & 594 species photographed

Australia - 18 days - Australia (2 days guided Rob Morris & 6 days guided Phil Maher) - eBird Trip Report - 354 species & 334 species photographed

South Island New Zealand & Subantarctic Islands - 22 days - South Island New Zealand & Birding Down Under Subantarctic Islands Cruise - eBird Trip Report - 142 species & 95 species photographed (so far)

2. Get an up to date world list into eBird with at least one photo of each species that I have photographed to the end of 2023;

My eBird world list is now up to date at 3,567 species but I have not completed the photo exercise. I have 2,637 species with photos in eBird and suspect that I have over 550 species to add. Getting my species photographs complete will be carried forward to 2025 as my second 2025 target.

3. Get a British & Irish moth list input into BUBO - a moth life list is long overdue for me - too many random spreadsheets etc;

I have started this process with a list of 1,324 species now in BUBO. This is incomplete and will require work. Again, this will be carried forward to 2025.

4. Add 50 moths to my British & Irish moth list - rather dependent on getting the life list sorted;

I know that I had a few new moths in 2024 with four macros - Scarce Arches, Cryptic Fern, Nodaria nodosalis & Willowherb Hawkmoth, at least one pyralid - Udea uliginosalis & at least one tortrix - Pandemis dumetana. But it was certainly less than 50 new moths. Until my moth life list is complete, targeting new species properly will not be possible. That is shelved to 2026.

5. Record my world bird & Britain & Ireland moth lists throughout the entire year - eBird & BUBO;

I did actually keep my yearlists up to date with an eBird yearlist of 1,504 species as at now and a BUBO moth yearlist of 525 species. The chance of a few more year ticks with birds and possibly a moth would be nice. Possibly...

(1) Paul's British & Irish 2024 Moth List | BirdForum

(1) Paul's 2024 World List | BirdForum

6. Record over 1,500 bird species during the year;

As set out above, I achieved this.

7. Photograph over 500 new bird species worldwide in 2024 - this should be possible with the trips planned but some trips need to be firmed up; &

Whilst my record keeping is not up to date, I believe that I photographed over 650 new bird species with Paddyfield & Lanceolated Warblers (United Kingdom), Black-capped Petrel (Cape Verde), 240+ (Thailand), 300+ (Uganda & Rwanda), 32 (Oman & Bahrain) & 97 (Sri Lanka).

8. Spend more time in the field moth trapping - a poor year in 2023 for me with maybe a dozen nights - so a minimum of twenty nights targeted including recording on some of my previous local sites to update recording.

Another miss but I managed 16 nights' mobile trapping with 13 at my local rewilding site where I volunteer, two at their site in Scotland & one other night at Dungeness. Repeat after me.... I will do more moth trapping in 2025....

So only three out of eight targets achieved. Next year maybe more success but I will need to think about my targets over the next few days... 🙂

All the best

Paul