400 In A Year?? (1 Viewer)

[AlanMatthews]

Ring Bill Oddie ... about the likelihood of seeing 400 in a year. The question is, which do more people "list" to nowadays:

- UK400 (Britain and Ireland)
- UK400 (Britain only)
- BOU / IBRC
- BOU only

I suspect the answer is the last option? Time to phone a friend.

BOU only is the most meaningful target and sounds just a bit too easy. Doing it by moped sounds like a good way to turn it into a challenge. Personally I'm considering bicycle only.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Adrian's List is at pages 69 to 77 of Birding World Vol 14 No 2 (February 2001). I have just worked my way through it. (Its a bit like reading The Biggest Twitch. You can't read it without thinking that it's there to be beaten.)

I think that the only subsequent additional UK400 Club split which he would have necessarily seen is White Wagtail. So on that basis (and with a few assumptions), I get:-

UK400 (Britain and Ireland) - 384
UK400 (Britain) - 378 (less Small Canada Goose, Short-billed Dowitcher, Bonaparte's Gull, Ross's Gull, Gull-billed Tern and Blue-winged Warbler)
BOU/IRBC - 373 (less additional Bean Goose, additional White-fronted Goose, two Brent Geese, Ruddy Shelduck, Marbled Duck, Booted Eagle, Black-headed Wagtail, White Wagtail, Desert Lesser Whitethroat and Siberian Chiffchaff)
BOU - 367 (less same 6 Irish species)

Apologies to Adrian if there are any errors in that analysis.

All the best

Paul Chapman

 

[a_j_steele]

Well the bike option would save on that gym membership

 

[AlanMatthews]

Well the bike option would save on that gym membership

And at the end of it, heart and lungs that would live long after the rest of me. The rest of me would have passed on about March anyhow!

 

[McShifty]

How many BOU species have there been this year?
One should not enter the 'darkside' :eek!:

 

[Colin]

Well the bike option would save on that gym membership

Mopeds, bikes - all wimps. Just get a good pair of walking boots

Or for the older person, get a bus pass for free travel. Now that is not as simple as it seems as buses like National Express don't take such things. It's only local buses so you need to do a lot a careful planning to 'chain' between local towns to get anywhere - bit like making long distance telephone calls by chaining between local exchanges but that is showing my age.

Yes, 400 in a year is difficult but in a year where there are already 450 on the list it means you can afford to have missed 50 which is quite a lot and a different way of looking at the numbers.

 

[Isurus]

How about highest county totals for a year?
Currently on 235 in 2011 for Norfolk but reckon there must be some totals nearing 300?

I think one of the Punkbirders has a massive year list from norfolk a while back (which was diarised on their website) but I can't seem to find it online right now.

 

[malcurtin]

How many BOU species have there been this year?
One should not enter the 'darkside' :eek!:

Yes I agree get them Irish euroticks off o

 

[dan pointon]

Yes I agree get them Irish euroticks off o

Not in Scotland then big Malc?

 

[Frenchy]

What about a self-found year list? The record for this is (AFIAK) currently being set by Ivan Lakin on 249, and represents a much harder and more rewarding target than following the pager. Punkbirder rules apply.

http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html#listtop

Its almost as interesting to see peoples ommissions as to what they have actually found.

Edit - for some reason the link will only go the home page, so you'll have to navigate to the British year list and then change the parameter to self-found records only.

 

[pete wragg]

. Punkbirder rules apply.

The "Darkside" of self-finding.

 

[mäkpe]

What about a self-found year list? The record for this is (AFIAK) currently being set by Ivan Lakin on 249, and represents a much harder and more rewarding target than following the pager. Punkbirder rules apply.

The record can't be that low, can it?
I have self-found this year 248 species in Finland (almost all better species photographed )and i haven't been in Lappland (+10 species easily), actually they're nearly all from my hometown Pori. And i'm not sure if this is even my record, though it could well be.

 

[James Emerson]

How about highest county totals for a year?
Currently on 235 in 2011 for Norfolk but reckon there must be some totals nearing 300?

Rob Martin holds the record for Norfolk as far as I know with 280 (it was 279 at the time then something got split - Caspian Gull maybe?). The Norfolk record used to be the record for a single county as well I think.

 

[Frenchy]

The record can't be that low, can it?
I have self-found this year 248 species in Finland (almost all better species photographed )and i haven't been in Lappland (+10 species easily), actually they're nearly all from my hometown Pori. And i'm not sure if this is even my record, though it could well be.

Not many people have attempted it, so yes, it is that low. But to be honest, in taking part myself i know how hard it is to get over 220. I think that if someone spent a lot of time and money doing it, you could get to about 280, but that involves many rarities and getting a full sweep of all the breeders and winterers. I think 300 will always be out of reach.

Any takers??

 

[Andrew Clarke]

Would be an interesting exercise and probably lots more fun than following the crowds - I just have to wonder how distracted people might be by the odd rarity turning up withing striking distance?

And if you have a species 'nailed on' eg a nest site how self-found would that be?

Always remember one of many excellent articles by Anthony McGeehan in Birdwatch years ago where he employed the services of a mystic to work out where the next Pallas's Warbler was! Who needs Birdguides?

Considering what an autumn we have had I do wonder what else might be out there that the twitchers have driven past?

 

[McShifty]

Not many people have attempted it, so yes, it is that low. But to be honest, in taking part myself i know how hard it is to get over 220. I think that if someone spent a lot of time and money doing it, you could get to about 280, but that involves many rarities and getting a full sweep of all the breeders and winterers. I think 300 will always be out of reach.

Any takers??

I cannot see how you can 'self find' 220+ with the world of birding now swamped with bird information services etc.:news:
Does one go out wearing blinkers without a mobile phone and/or pager and not speak to a fellow birder. It might work if you're cast away on a deserted Scottish Island maybe. How do you prove what you've seen/claimed? photograph everything :h?:
Funny though I do have a Self found life list (think I've just contradicted myself):eat:

 

[JamesA]

I cannot see how you can 'self find' 220+ with the world of birding now swamped with bird information services etc.:news:
Does one go out wearing blinkers without a mobile phone and/or pager and not speak to a fellow birder. It might work if you're cast away on a deserted Scottish Island maybe. How do you prove what you've seen/claimed? photograph everything :h?:
Funny though I do have a Self found life list (think I've just contradicted myself):eat:

This. I used to count up a list of the things I'd "self found" but then, for example, if I stumbled across a lesser-spot, while birding on my own, but at a site that is known for them - it wouldn't really be self found, would it?

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Why not? If you were doing a self found year list and you saw a blackbird in your garden on the 1st Jan you'd count it....even if you expected one there. Where do you draw the line? Would you count a yellow browed on shetland in early october as self found....you'd probably be expecting to see one after all.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

I cannot see how you can 'self find' 220+ with the world of birding now swamped with bird information services etc.:news:
Does one go out wearing blinkers without a mobile phone and/or pager and not speak to a fellow birder. It might work if you're cast away on a deserted Scottish Island maybe. How do you prove what you've seen/claimed? photograph everything :h?:
Funny though I do have a Self found life list (think I've just contradicted myself):eat:

Its pretty easy to receive rare bird news without acting upon it!

 

[Nick Moran]

Rob Martin holds the record for Norfolk as far as I know with 280 (it was 279 at the time then something got split - Caspian Gull maybe?). The Norfolk record used to be the record for a single county as well I think.

Chris Mills reached 251 - non-motorized - in Norfolk in 2005; shurely that should be the gold standard (particularly for those who are still 3 years off being moped-legal)?!