Garden (Yard) List 2012 (3 Viewers)

[chowchilla]

And as luck would have it sitting here this fine evening a Papuan Frogmouth has started up outside my study window! They're pretty active in my street at the mo'.

Here's a description for Ken's perusal:

Seriously weird looking nocturnal bird with a gargantuan mouth; looks like a sawn off log with eyes; makes an unearthly 'oom-oom' sound which is what I can hear right now.

92) Papuan Frogmouth.

 

[KenM]

Ken, you're very welcome to adjudicate on my Aussie records.

Am probably the least qualified on that score chowchilla...Budgerigar and Kookaburra would be extra limital for me. :t:

 

[halftwo]

Little crake!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nooooooooo. Need it.

 

[chowchilla]

Am probably the least qualified on that score chowchilla...Budgerigar and Kookaburra would be extra limital for me. :t:

Now if we get an influx of Budgies in Cairns I'll be seriously excited!B

 

[JWN Andrewes]

I still think the best level playing field of all is 'Birds seen within walking distance of home' as that is merely dictated by your own fitness.

Can you establish walking distance once, and then drive thereafter?

James

 

[chowchilla]

Can you establish walking distance once, and then drive thereafter?

James

If you like but I think you will find that if there are rules in any such thread then it would be characterised as cheating. Sorry to point out the obvious.

FTR, if people think my idea is a bit silly because some people can walk much further than others (which strange as it seems, I was aware of) having good eyes (which I don't have), good ears (which I do have) and being able to ID a distant flying speck (which I couldn't do the other week with my Tern) all greatly influence ones chances of adding to this list or any for that matter as well as a ton of other variables.

Ultimately however, the Garden List or a hypothetical Walking Distance List are meant to be fun, something which some people are seemingly forgetting in their desire to be exhaustive with rules. And anyway... at the end of the day we are policing ourselves so only have our consciences to consider if we mis-ID something or, heaven forbid, fabricate species in a competitive desire to 'win'.

 

[Dom F]

33 Nankeen Night-Heron - a most unexpected addition as I have no water in or near the garden, it had been roosting in the tree during the day and i was just out at the right time to see it come out of roost. Will look in the morning to see if I can find it!

Must admit like the idea of a walking from house list, my ears would fail me (well more the knowledge of what it was I was hearing) but my eyes would make up for it.

 

[KenM]

A flyover Pied Wagtail.....no. 64

 

[chowchilla]

33 Nankeen Night-Heron - a most unexpected addition as I have no water in or near the garden, it had been roosting in the tree during the day and i was just out at the right time to see it come out of roost. Will look in the morning to see if I can find it!

Must admit like the idea of a walking from house list, my ears would fail me (well more the knowledge of what it was I was hearing) but my eyes would make up for it.

Dom I had Night Herons roosting in my street in January but failed to see them from my place even though they were close by. I haven't seen them for some time now so may fail to get them altogether this year as a 'garden' tick.

Apart from a small stream out the back of my place the nearest year round water is Centenary Lakes, several hundred metres away, though the closer palm swamp floods in the wet and they turn up there when opportunities for food present themselves.

 

[The Falcon]

137. House Sparrow - finally! uncommon in yard.

 

[Dom F]

34 Orange-footed Scrubfowl

 

[Jos Stratford]

One week on, barely a pause in the rain throughout. If the Little Crake was still present, I can only assume he'd moved into the swamplands just a little yonder, an effective 'Bermuda Triangle' in there!

Quite amazing, in total contrast to the forecast, the sun not only deigned to appear, but gave a pretty good performance all weekend - and with it, a most welcome showing of raptors. In addition to the usual Common Buzzards and Marsh Harriers criss-crossing, an Osprey flew north mid-afternoon on the 23rd, presumably the same bird doubling back at dusk. Also a pair of hawking Hobbies, a fly-over Sparrowhawk, a Lesser Spotted Eagle dropping in to roost in a dead tree in the flood forest and, a bird that has been very thin on the ground over the last couple of years, a male Honey Buzzard engaging in 'butterfly' display high above my meadows.

Otherwise, fairly quiet - Corncrakes still calling, some fly-over Crossbills and still plenty of birds tending young in the nests and nestboxes.


113. (miscount somewhere)
114. Honey Buzzard
115. Crossbill

 

[Jos Stratford]

Incidently, 115 is already four above total for the whole of last year, but I think I will struggle to add many more this year - I can think of one more certainty, two or three more reasonably regulars, but beyond that it's going to be a pretty lean pickings for the remaining six months!!!

A thank you to the creators of this Garden Listing thread - it has certainly got me working more intently when birding on my land, peering at certain patches of sky in hope of a species here and there.

 

[Jane Turner]

Ahh..that would explain the large list then!...perhaps there should be more of a level playing field yard list...within the yard only, running in tandem with the current garden list and perhaps called the ''yarden list'' then those of us with small gardens would have more of a competitive chance?...Clearly if someone is averaging 15 species within their yard per annum with perhaps 15 flyovers that's 30 for the year as opposed to those with ''Serengeti vistas'' sporting 200+...might encourage more players..and one could opt into and out of as one wishes....just a thought?

That's why I always quote this way

115 from, 75 in airspace, 44 in (contact with the house or some part of the garden. House Martin briefly landing on the side of the House and adding itself this week.

 

[BillN]

Upupa

Upupa - a pair have just arrived in the garden, (we have quite a big garden living in SW France)

damp, dark morning - sorry about image quality - but they usually stay for some time so should get some better shots

just realised that I need to count the ones that I have seen in and over the garden and the ones that I have seen elsewhere

 

[KenM]

and, a bird that has been very thin on the ground over the last couple of years, a male Honey Buzzard engaging in 'butterfly' display high above my meadows.

.....think you'll find them fatter..in the air Jos.

 

[KenM]

That's why I always quote this way

115 from, 75 in airspace, 44 in (contact with the house or some part of the garden. House Martin briefly landing on the side of the House and adding itself this week.

Question...I've had swift flying at eye-level a few metres out from my bedroom window..clearly beneath the guttering..just!...does this constitute an ''in the garden.. or out?

 

[Jane Turner]

out... its only in air space!

 

[KenM]

out... its only in air space!

Yes...but it's ''my'' bloody air space! :smoke:

 

[Larry Lade]

A couple of birds which I have seen in our yard (2012) which I omitted to include:

38. Chimney Swift
39. Mourning Dove
40. White-throated Sparrow