So Hows your 2006 Yearlist Going then ? (2 Viewers)

[dan pointon]

Decided you've gotta be in it to win it, so headed down to Blithfield early morning today, and was duly rewarded by an absolute corker of a Franklin's Gull, shared with just 4 other birders!!

260: Franklin's Gull

 

[dan pointon]

Blith coming good again....

261: Ferruginous Duck

 

[Papuan birder]

Free from work today so I decided to take a day cruise down to Obi (a Island located south of Halmahera) for some birding, I decided to stuck to Jikotamo, a famous (one of few on the Island) bird locality and one of the most reliable places on Obi for seeing the only bird endemic to this Island, the Carunculated Fruit-dove. I found the bird rarer than I had expected, I only managed to see 7 birds during 6 hours of birding in this locality (although I saw another 4 birds in a forest east of Jikotamo).

688. Carunculated Fruit-dove LIFER


Other birds sighted during the day included some highly distinctive races, such the ones of Chattering Lory, Common paradise-kingfisher (the only subspecies of this widespread bird I have been amazed by), Red-cheeked parrot, Paradise crow, most of them being endemic or near-endemic to Obi (only shared with Bisa).

No effort was put down in trying to locate the woodcock, and aim sure that even hours of searching would have been fruitless; it’s definitely the most exclusive bird in the Moluccas.

A total of 38 species of bird sighted during the day and of these I think at least 5 is new species for Obi.

 

[Dave B Smith]

A day out at a local lake provided 3 new year birds bringing my ABA yr to 243 and World yr to 421:
Sora
Western Grebe
White-faced Ibis

 

[grackle121]

I'm finally up to 100! I'm losing! Yay!

 

[JRE]

Osprey, Bowling Green Marsh. 142 England, BOU, + 2 UK400

 

[gthang]

Well, my second consecutive week with a new year bird (Been going up to the cabin for the last 4 weeks now.)

71. Magnolia Warbler ***LIFER***

Saw a bird jumping around the top of a tree like a chickadee, so as I raised the bins, was thinking "Chickadee". But it was a Black, White, and Yellow chickadee, with a "necklace" It was only a glance, but I thought I got enough for an ID, which I got!

This is only the 5th warbler I've ever seen (boy are they hard to find) and only the second bird I've seen with "Warbler" in the name. The other is Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

 

[The Barn Owl]

Haven't bothered to update for ages, but I'll do todays:

154) Greenshank
155) Garganey

Both at Brandon Marsh

 

[dan pointon]

262: Red-necked Phalarope

 

[Gavin Haig]

Haven't updated for a little while.....

The recent addition of Wood Sandpiper, and two unexpected birds (a migrant Wood Warbler and Sooty Shearwater) takes the patch year list on to 177.

Last year's total of 186 is starting to look vulnerable!

 

[Helenelizabeth2]

Only on 188. First year list tho so I guess not too bad. Hoping to make the magic 200 soon if I'm allowed out a bit more!

Helen

 

[Charlie M]

Not been around here for a while, but just reached 845 for the year on a one day, very wet trip to Abuja in Nigeria. Finally saw an African Blue Flycatcher which I've wanted to see for ages. Posted a few photos on my blog (http://www.charliesbirdblog.com) if anyone's interested...

By the way, anyone on BF around for a day's birding in Phoenix next week?

Cheers
Charlie

 

[Papuan birder]

Just came back from a four day long birding trip to Northern Halmahera (14-17th August).

Finally my dream trip to Northern Halmahera come true, I managed to earn enough money to finally be able to spend a few days in this highly interesting Island. Our neighbours have great knowledge about the Island as they was born there and lived some 30 years there, so I took them with me on the trip, although despite we had planned to spend up to a week, the local police advised us to leave the area earlier as the situation in the surrounding towns had got rather unstable and our safety couldn’t be guaranteed, seems like parts of Halmahera still is very unstable, I just hope that a new civil war will start, aim afraid that it would make Halmahera inaccessible four outsiders for some time.

Although during out four day long stay we managed to visit two areas, Sondo and Kali Batu Putih, we spend one day in Sondo and two days in Kali Batu Putih
Kali Batu Putih was definitely the better of these two spots with loads of rare birds and Halmahera endemics, amazing spot for bird watching. Although Sondo is also amazing as its one of very few places where there have been recent records of the Invisible Rail.

689. Invisible rail LIFER
690. Sombre Kingfisher LIFER
691. White-naped Monarch LIFER
692. Halmahera cuckoo-shrike LIFER
693. Dusky friarbird LIFER
694. Moluccan cuckoo LIFER

Other species seen include Chattering Lory, White Cockatoo, Moluccan scrubfowl, FINALLY a displaying male standardwing and common paradise-kingfisher, a total of 69 sepcies seen.

Invisible Rail and Dusky friarbird was the best birds of the trip. Altough the displaying standardwing wasent to bad either

 

[Larry Lade]

Charlie, is that Phoenix, Arizona, or is there another Phoenix somewhere else? I just got back from Phoenix, Arizona. I was out there for two weeks on a birding trip. The flight out was uneventful, took some carry on luggage (no problem). Coming back to Missouri was quite a different scenario, heavy security, no carry on luggage (well I did carry on my binoculars, I did not want them thrown around in the cargo bay of the plane).

Anyway, I got 18 lifers, not least of which was my number one target bird, Montezuma Quail. Also got an unexpected Short-tailed Hawk which happened to be in the area. Heavy rains kept us from seeing the Spotted Owl because the canyon in which it is seen was inaccessible. Cheers!

 

[dbradnum]

Much quieter year for me thus far - about 40 behind where I was this time in 2005. To be honest, can't say I'm at all bothered!

Anyway, a quick post-work trip to Kent this evening eventually came up trumps with cracking views of (only) my third lifer of the year, following Ross's Gull & Scops Owl:

222: AQUATIC WARBLER

Tricky bird to get on the east coast...

 

[The Barn Owl]

156) Yellow-legged Gull (L)
157) Egyptian Goose
158) Osprey
All at Rutland Water yesterday, plus:
159) Spotted Flycatcher
at a stately-home type thing nearby, Burleigh House I think, when we picked up my brother and my mother from there after Rutland

 

[Nightjar61]

Got up early this morning to drive down to Louisville, Kentucky to chase a Little Stint, which is an extremely rare mega-rarity. I think it's the first inland record for the United States.

I saw my target within minutes of arriving, in its orange breeding plumage. Although not a year tick (I saw it in Tunisia this spring), it was ABA Area year bird number 333 and ABA Area life bird number 617. And it's among the top three best birds I've ever seen in the US.


Dave

 

[Reader]

Three at Rutland yesterday.

210. Black Tern
211. Yellow-legged Gull
212. Osprey

 

[Larry Lade]

Dave, congrats on the Little Stint!

Quite a few people around Missouri and beyond have been going down to Saint Louis, Missouri, to tick the Swallow-tailed Kite for a "state bird". I do not think that I will have time to get it though.

 

[Hotspur]

Got a few in T'egypt up to 162 WP with White eyed Gull, Sooty Gull, Sooty Tern, White-cheeked Tern, Lesser Crested Tern, Caspian Tern, Osprey, Hooded Crow, Laughing Dove, White Stork and Desert Lark