Guinness Records of Birdwatching (1 Viewer)

[JWN Andrewes]

Wasn't the crowd on the bank holiday Sunday for the Salthouse Little Whimbrel once considered to be the biggest single day attendance for any rarity? 2500 or thereabouts? Don't know if the Golden-winged Warbler ever got that in a single day. We were there on the first day, which I think was a Thursday, but certainly a weekday, so attendance wasn't as high as it might have been at the weekend. I wasn't in the country when the Red-breasted Nuthatch turned up, but with a fair contingent on Scilly I'm guessing that there again wasn't that big day one hit, spreading numbers out a bit. (Fortunately the Nuthatch took a liking to Holkham, allowing me to get home and then cool it out till March before going for it.)

 

[Farnboro John]

Wasn't the crowd on the bank holiday Sunday for the Salthouse Little Whimbrel once considered to be the biggest single day attendance for any rarity? 2500 or thereabouts? Don't know if the Golden-winged Warbler ever got that in a single day. We were there on the first day, which I think was a Thursday, but certainly a weekday, so attendance wasn't as high as it might have been at the weekend. I wasn't in the country when the Red-breasted Nuthatch turned up, but with a fair contingent on Scilly I'm guessing that there again wasn't that big day one hit, spreading numbers out a bit. (Fortunately the Nuthatch took a liking to Holkham, allowing me to get home and then cool it out till March before going for it.)

Some say (I wasn't there having been on the Thursday) that the first Saturday of the Golden-winged Warbler hit 5,000: photos of the Tesco car park overflowing with birders and a marooned bus in the middle of the crowd tend to agree. I think the rapidity of the news and the proximity to London probably contributed to the rush.

The first big day of the R-b Nuthatch was extraordinary, with tensions overflowing as rarely seen before or since (I recall a voice from somewhere near me saying to someone else "if you do that one more time I'm going to wrap that round your ****ing neck") and the track from Lady Anne's Drive West, which on our outward walk in the near-dark of early morning had been just Land-Rover wide bordered by high herbage, nettles and brambles, on our later return looked like the Elephants' Dance! Was that the occasion the Scillonian ran twice? Certainly Scilly emptied, the annual Islanders v Birders football match was postponed for lack of a squad!

Happy days.

John

 

[James Lowther]

Amazonia lodge in Manu region of Peru had a huge list, something like 550-600 species. Perhaps there are other lodges in South America that are better though
James

 

[Kratter]

For the last question, Stephen's Island Wren (endemic NZ wren on a small island off the north tip of the South Island) was likely seen only by one person, the lighthouse keeper David Lyall. Also seen by his cat, who killed off the last known birds.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Or Nechisar Nightjar, no verified live sightings?

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Or Kinglet Calyptura?

 

[Warixenjalka]

It's a line drawn in water which is a birdwatching tower and witch is a observation tower (for landscape etc.). But I found information that Finland's tallest birdwatching tower is Luhtajoki tower in Lahti (23,5 m). But this could be already old information. And there is a lot of other observation towers which are taller and you can use them also to watch birds.

A question about WP's rarest bird with known population I want to bring Yellow-breasted Bunting. According to European Breeding Bird Atlas 2, European population is estimated at 600-1200 (mostly in Russia). But it's declining fast.

 

[Warixenjalka]

I search little more that EBBA2. Lesser Flamingo has few attempts to breeds in Spain and France. Allen's Gallinule has breed succesfully in Malta at least once (2014). And there this kind of breeders few more.

Accordin to EBBA2, the Buttonquail is extinct from Spain and I don't know how many live in Northern Africa. It might well be rarest breeding bird in WP area.

 

[opisska]

How many Nubian Nightjars breed in WP?

 

[Muppit17]

How many Nubian Nightjars breed in WP?

I'm not sure anyone knows. Between 5 & 20 pairs in Israel, per Yoav Perlman in Sandgrouse. Also a paper on birds in Jordan had over 40 males in song in one area of the country. It also occurs in Egypt in the Rift Valley.

The area has a number of scarce breeders that must be close to that as a WP population, including Arabian Warbler, Basalt Wheatear, Sooty Falcon and Lappet Faced Vulture.

 

[opisska]

Where are Lappet Faced Vultures breeding in that area? Do you mean the new "greater" WP (I have seen one in Oman), or is there an area around Israel/Jordan/Egypt with them? And if you knew where was the area in Jordan with Nubian Nightjars, that would be of interest to ... well at least myself, but I can imagine more people

I don't think Arabian Warbler is that scarce in Israel, they are known from quite a few areas - it's just a small number of birds at each area, but together it must be hundreds if not more, or not?

 

[Muppit17]

Where are Lappet Faced Vultures breeding in that area? Do you mean the new "greater" WP (I have seen one in Oman), or is there an area around Israel/Jordan/Egypt with them? And if you knew where was the area in Jordan with Nubian Nightjars, that would be of interest to ... well at least myself, but I can imagine more people

I don't think Arabian Warbler is that scarce in Israel, they are known from quite a few areas - it's just a small number of birds at each area, but together it must be hundreds if not more, or not?

Lappet Faced Vulture breeds only in Egypt in the WP AFAIK. Even here it is only in the far south.

The paper on Nubian Nightjar in Jordan refers to the Fifa area, which includes the southern end of the Dead Sea, which is due East of the area where they are found in Israel on the Jordanian part of the Arava valley.

Arabian Warbler only had a population of 120 pairs in mid 80s, and has declined massively since then. No sure of the latest data.

Black Scrub-robin is another scarce breeder here, but my understanding is that this is increasing.

 

[opisska]

Do you by any chance know whether the nightjar area is accessible to the public. Or is Jordan also twitchy about the border zone?

Black Scrub robin surely deserves a spot in the list, if nothing then as one of the most absurd breeding birds in the WP. Feels like they got kinda lost in migration and then they just said screw this, let's colonize Arava!

 

[stuartelsom]

In reply to John's message #22, I've attached pics of the Golden-winged Warbler and Red-breasted Nuthatch twitches. The GWW twitch was for a very fast moving bird which quickly moved from garden to garden but was visible at times from the Tesco Car Park on the Lunsford Park Estate, whereas the RBN was more or less in the same area of trees at Holkham, that day anyway.

I would say that the GWW was the biggest turnout I've seen, with the Nuthatch a very close second, although I've heard it said that the Saturday twitch for the Long-billed Murrelet was getting that way too

Stu

 

[Muppit17]

Do you by any chance know whether the nightjar area is accessible to the public. Or is Jordan also twitchy about the border zone?

Black Scrub robin surely deserves a spot in the list, if nothing then as one of the most absurd breeding birds in the WP. Feels like they got kinda lost in migration and then they just said screw this, let's colonize Arava!

I have never birded Jordan. Been at the border a few times but never crossed. The NP is 60 km2, and there are some visitor comments. No idea if you can get to the right bits. Perhaps a local can comment

 

[Xenospiza]

Black Scrub robin surely deserves a spot in the list, if nothing then as one of the most absurd breeding birds in the WP. Feels like they got kinda lost in migration and then they just said screw this, let's colonize Arava!

It breeds in the mountains of Saudi Arabia, so it is similar to Fan-tailed Raven, Palestinian Sunbird, Tristram's Starling and (sadly extirpated) Ostrich, Lappet-faced Vulture and Verreaux's Eagle which all (used to) occur in this lost bit of Africa. The birds that do well are linked to oases – and the Arava has been turned into one.