So How Is Your 2005 List Going (1 Viewer)

[jtibbetts]

Have just been looking through my records and have realised ive miscounted along the way, way back at 294 (Little Crake) which should have been 295! So the Phalarope is actually bird no 309!!!

 

[Gavin Haig]

Guess what my no 308 is? Youve guessed it: Grey Phalarope! It would appear that theres one for almost everyone at the moment!
Mine was at Belvide this morning, also there was a good inland record of juv Arctic Skua!

Ah! The joys of reservoir birding! It's a real buzz seeing seabirds miles inland, trying to make themselves at home on the contents of a concrete bowl. Used to bird the West London res's (especially Staines) so have seen a pretty good selection of storm-blown waifs.....more Leach's inland than at sea, in fact. My rarest London seabird probably Balearic Shearwater....

Another year tick today - courtesy of the recent BOU-sanctioned split.....adult Yellow-legged Gull on the Axe estuary. Local list now 180.

 

[Ben Rackstraw]

After 2.5 weeks of 5am and earlier starts on holiday, just couldn't face an early start on my first weekend back, so the planned seawatch at Selsey (and search for Laughing Gulls and Pallas's Warblers) didn't happen.

Took myself down to Pulborough instead...

UK 214. Grey Phalarope (just to be different)
UK 215. Common Crossbill (at last, two flyovers... will hope to get better views later this winter)

These two sightings also represent nos. 195 & 196 for Sussex and nos. 981 and 982 for the World in 2005.

Missed out on Ring Ouzels at Cissbury...leaving it until early November not generally a good strategy for this species (likewise, nor is looking for them at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon!)

 

[crispycreme]

Running out of relatively-easy-to-find birds...

171. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Doesn't look like I'll get 200 this year. Only about a half-dozen wintering duck species and a small handful of wintering and migrating shorebird species left to get for the year. Barring some deluge of vagrants, I'm going to end up around 180.

 

[Reader]

After a week in Norfolk a new record was created when I added three more year ticks to my list. 276 had been my previous British best but the yanks came to the rescue this week to up my score.

276. American Golden Plover
277. Green winged Teal

Edit due to doubt over the American Wigeon

 

[dbradnum]

277. American Wigeon

Reader,

was that the bird on Hickling Rush Hills, by any chance?

If so, looks like it's only worth half a tick - see photos <here>

 

[dan pointon]

Reader,

was that the bird on Hickling Rush Hills, by any chance?

If so, looks like it's only worth half a tick - see photos <here>

Reading his Norfolk report, it appears it was that bird he saw, oh well Reader, 277 1/2!!!!!! Unless of course it's hybridised with something else you need for the year..............but i assume it's just Wigeon x Am Wigeon.

 

[Reader]

Reading his Norfolk report, it appears it was that bird he saw, oh well Reader, 277 1/2!!!!!! Unless of course it's hybridised with something else you need for the year..............but i assume it's just Wigeon x Am Wigeon.

I tell you what. It didn't look like that when I found it and also the finder was a man that has actually kept American Wigeon in the past. He swears that this isn't the bird he & I saw. Still the odds that both a hybrid and a genuine bird would be there are far too great so it looks like I will have to take that one off the list.

 

[dan pointon]

I tell you what. It didn't look like that when I found it and also the finder was a man that has actually kept American Wigeon in the past. He swears that this isn't the bird he & I saw. Still the odds that both a hybrid and a genuine bird would be there are far too great so it looks like I will have to take that one off the list.

Now if you'd taken pics........

 

[Gavin Haig]

Amazingly got 4th year tick in 4 days this morning........

Dragged myself down the seafront in foul weather and was rewarded with 2 Leach's Petrels moving ever-so-slowly west.......181. In the afternonn watched 2 Grey Phals just off (and sometimes on!) the beach. Feel very spoiled at the moment.

Definitely on a roll right now.......hmmm - finding a Laughing Gull would be, er, nice...

 

[scoxie]

Back to Newlyn today for my 4th attempt at 183. Laughing Gull (L) and success at last. Superb views from ten feet on the harbour wall. o

 

[Nightjar61]

Went out in very heavy winds this morning (tornadoes touched down not too far south of here early in the morning and killed 21). Didn't expect to see too much, but I did see a new year bird, bringing my Year List up to 505.

505. Dunlin

Dave

 

[jada dulo]

Wow, just follow a major trend for UK Listers ....

227 - Grey Phalarope.

Also the Belvide bird, got this morning after a mad dash pre-work!! Busy and then ill at weekend, so was unable to go for it. But had the hide to myself this morning with the bird feeding on the shore directly in front of the hide. Also saw Black-necked Grebe .... which was nice!!
Have managed at least 1 life tick every month so far this year .... just need to get one in December to have the full deck for 2005!!!

 

[Jacamar]

A lifer today brings my year list to 197.

197. Northern Waterthrush

 

[gthang]

Topped 93 birds this year!! Man, if I top 100 this year, we're gonna have a party!

so, birds 91-93 are:
91. Ruddy Duck
92. Ring-Necked Pheasant
93. Brown Creeper (lifer)

I was waiting for the mail on Friday the 4th of November, and was sitting on the curb. I watched a White-Breasted Nuthatch forage on a tree trunk across the street. It was pretty easy to see. Then I saw what I thought was another Nuthatch land on another tree directly in front of me (still across the street). But there was something different about this one; for one, it was very well camoflaged. Second, its foraging was different than the nuthatch's. So I got up, walked toward the tree. as I got closer, different features of the bird became visible: the white eyeliner, the grayish-brown upperparts, whitish underparts, and wren-like bill. I thought about the bird's foraging habits: "I've never seen a nuthatch creep like that." At that moment, I knew what it was, and continued watching. I was probably 5 feet from the bird, and yet the Creeper just continued foraging as if I wasn't there. Occasionally he found something and downed the prey.

That day was a very good day for me, as at another time in the day I found myself staring at a Pileated Woodpecker that was 30 feet or so away! This sighting was the third time I've seen a PIWO.

Hope to get some more birds soon.

 

[buckskin hawk]

Don't you just hate it when you get stuck before hitting a round number like 100 or even 250!

As of November 2005
Local county list stands at 92
State List stands at 148
Year list stands at 233

 

[Gavin Haig]

It just gets better........a 1st winter Sabine's Gull feeding with Black-headed Gulls off Seaton Hole this afternoon tops off the storm-blown goodies tally of 5 Grey Phalaropes and 2 Leach's Petrels and takes the local year list to 182. As the target was 175 I can safely say it's been a very good year so far.

 

[marcus]

I have to say this one.
On Saturday, Nov.5, I went to the Potomac River, and saw a Neotropic Cormorant. That was not just a year's first, not just a lifer, but when a birder first saw that bird last month, it was the first time it had been seen in Maryland. When I went to see it, it was first time that I had ever seen any 'accidental' bird.
I also saw my year's first Common Loon, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Golden-crowned Kinglet that day.

 

[Andrew]

Computer & mobile phone problems lost me my bird news but still managed to add Laughing Gull and Franklin's Gull, naturally both were lifers.

281(BOU) & 288(UK400)

That Green Heron is mighty tempting!

Wonder if there will be an organised release of the Frigatebird if it recovers?

 

[Reader]

I was going to have the day off for the Green Heron but I have had a lousy headache for three days now so am not up to going for it. Unfortunately today was my last chance until next weekend (19/20th). I just hope it stays that long.