WP not-so-big years (1 Viewer)

[opisska]

I think it would be hard to find a WP birder that hasn't hard about the insane 2017 effort of Big Year WP, which, to my knowledge, still is the undisputed biggest WP year. But who is on the next places in the competition? There are probably many lists done and never published, or maybe hidden in local competitions. So let's have a look on what is easy to compare.

I went to eBird and checked the WP leaderboard for all years since 1940 - https://ebird.org/top100?region=Western+Palearctic and then I also went to surfbirds.com WP year list archives year by year (and checked Bubo, but no list contributed) - and ended up with the following scoreboard (its top 20, but by accident, I was originally looking for people who beat Tomáš, who is our friend, but then I found Maciek is immediately bellow him, so I put the cutoff there).

741 Erik Rask 2017 eBird (which I presume is the BYWP crew account)
627 Lee G R Evans 2008 Surfbirds
615 Graham Hardy 2017 Surfbirds
603 C. Zockler 2015 Surfbirds
569 Jim Blunt 2007 Surfbirds
519 Lee G R Evans 2006 Surfbirds
517 Lee G R Evans 2009 Surfbirds
514 George Green 1961 eBird
506 Lee G R Evans 2007 Surfbirds
494 A Clifton 2005 Surfbirds
492 Sam Woods 2000 eBird
479 Hugues Dufourny 2004 Surfbirds
477 Lee G R Evans 2005 Surfbirds
473 Robert Vaughan 1979 eBird
465 Ed Opperman 2002 Surfbirds
455 Joachim Bertrands 2015 eBird
453 Jaap Erdmans 1980 eBird
453 Tomás Grim 2022 eBird (currently in Israel with a lot of potential to add more)
453 Janne Aalto 2004 Surfbirds
448 Maciek Kowalski 2018 eBird

Is there any relevant source I missed?

My best WP year is at 344 ... I am a lazy birder

 

[Andy Lakin]

Don't know about the other websites but a lot of people don't bother to put their lists on Surfbirds When I used to have a go at an annual U.K yearlist it was pretty easy to be fairly high in the rankings. I would suspect BUBO may be a lot more accurate/ complete.



p

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

I think it would be hard to find a WP birder that hasn't hard about the insane 2017 effort of Big Year WP, which, to my knowledge, still is the undisputed biggest WP year. But who is on the next places in the competition? There are probably many lists done and never published, or maybe hidden in local competitions. So let's have a look on what is easy to compare.

I went to eBird and checked the WP leaderboard for all years since 1940 - https://ebird.org/top100?region=Western+Palearctic and then I also went to surfbirds.com WP year list archives year by year (and checked Bubo, but no list contributed) - and ended up with the following scoreboard (its top 20, but by accident, I was originally looking for people who beat Tomáš, who is our friend, but then I found Maciek is immediately bellow him, so I put the cutoff there).

741 Erik Rask 2017 eBird (which I presume is the BYWP crew account)
627 Lee G R Evans 2008 Surfbirds
615 Graham Hardy 2017 Surfbirds
603 C. Zockler 2015 Surfbirds
569 Jim Blunt 2007 Surfbirds
519 Lee G R Evans 2006 Surfbirds
517 Lee G R Evans 2009 Surfbirds
514 George Green 1961 eBird
506 Lee G R Evans 2007 Surfbirds
494 A Clifton 2005 Surfbirds
492 Sam Woods 2000 eBird
479 Hugues Dufourny 2004 Surfbirds
477 Lee G R Evans 2005 Surfbirds
473 Robert Vaughan 1979 eBird
465 Ed Opperman 2002 Surfbirds
455 Joachim Bertrands 2015 eBird
453 Jaap Erdmans 1980 eBird
453 Tomás Grim 2022 eBird (currently in Israel with a lot of potential to add more)
453 Janne Aalto 2004 Surfbirds
448 Maciek Kowalski 2018 eBird

Is there any relevant source I missed?

My best WP year is at 344 ... I am a lazy birder

You will need to know that LGR Evans totals are based on his own taxonomy, so are higher than comparable ebird totals.

 

[opisska]

Maybe I didn't write that very clearly looking now at what I wrote - I checked BUBO, but there is no WP list there with more than 448 species for any year, so it doesn't have any impact on the scoreboard.

 

[jogresh]

Don't forget our very own Dan The Man from this parish, can't remember his score though 😃👍🦆🦆

 

[Paul Chapman]

I cannot think of any other resource but I am sure that plenty of the WP listers will have years at c450 simply from their national birding and multiple trips without tryijg to produce a year list as such. I think my biggest British & Irish yearlist was c336 in 1994 & I didn't go abroad during the year. I think that I am about 370 for the WP this year so far having done a few trips to target a few things. I doubt that I will ever British & Irish or WP yearlist in the future.

I am sure that I have not had any years bigger than those on your list. I may try and work out 2012 as I did Morocco, Finland & Turkey trips in addition to national birding. A few years when I combined a few trips but normally only 2 or 3.

All the best

Paul

 

[Nohatch]

This may be slightly controversial, but I feel a geographical (country-based) list would make more sense, especially when comparing to the ABA. For example, the EU-ME-NA region is very well defined and would make for a great challenge. So no to Cape Verde, or those odd bits of Mauritania and Kazakhstan, but yes to Iran, Yemen/Socotra, and all of European Russia

 

[opisska]

Well anyone can list anything they want But I see no reason to care about artificial country borders when discussing nature at all. Frankly even the current WP borders are way too country-based - the end at Iranian border is so arbitrary. Including the entirety of Iran is wrong as well, the line should be drawn according to the birds, not people. Eastern Iran, as well as Yemen (but also Dhofar in Oman) have some really different birds .. On the other hand Cape Verde has a really WP fauna - I was against it at first as well, but when I looked further into it, it really makes sense.

 

[Nohatch]

That's fair enough and I am not opposed at all. It's just that, within the context of listing the world over, doing it by biogeography is a bit of an idiosyncrasy. County lists, country lists, the ABA, it's all done by (admittedly entirely artificial) administrative boundaries - the WP (however you want to define it) is the one outlier. But as you say, it's personal preference at the end of the day.

 

[opisska]

So nobody keeps a Nearctic list (+big part of Mexico, -tip of Florida) in the US? It's probably something I'd do but I have never visited any of the areas where US and Nearctic border differs so far. Maybe that's actually weird

In the same way I could call county listing an indiosyncrasy - as far as I know, that's done in the US and the UK and that's it for the world. I do not know a single person from the continental Europe who would hold any kind of county lists. I think a lot of people here do not even remotely know where the county borders would be!

 

[Nohatch]

Interesting, my experience/perspective is the exact opposite! The county/country/continent thing is very common across North America, Britain, Australia, etc. but I also know examples from the Netherlands, Iceland, Mexico, Argentina, India, Malaysia, etc. So definitely not confined to the Anglophone sphere. Tbh I have never heard of anyone doing a Nearctic list, or any listing based on biogeography, other than the WP. "PA0436 Sarmatic mixed forests" year list anyone?
I do like your more natural approach, but using country borders seems more straightforward to me (and would be easier to compare with global listing efforts).

 

[opisska]

There was recently a couple doing a yearlist in Africa, but I don't remember if they did continent or Afrotropics!

 

[Mysticete]

I keep an ABA list (USA + Canada), a North American list that is essentially North + Central America, plus Caribbean and Hawaii, and then states lists for states I have actually lived in. I've only lately gotten into county listing, mostly because ebird makes it so easy. I would imagine Nearctic listing isn't popular for the same reason Mexico isn't considered part of the ABA; birders not wanting to be bothered with dealing with a region that wasn't English-speaking and which seemed exotic/less developed/less safe (Not saying these are true, just that I would guess that was the perception).

I think the most recent biogeographic studies place South Florida in the Nearctic. From a birder perspective, there are really not that many Neotropical birds that are native to only South Florida within the ABA. Same goes with Herps and Mammals, so I think that placement was more driven by flora, which I don't care about

Although I think that same study did lump more of the Caribbean into the Nearctic.

 

[dantheman]

Don't forget our very own Dan The Man from this parish, can't remember his score though 😃👍🦆🦆

Bah, was going to keep quiet on this one ...

554 I believe (was 555 but Alexandrine Parrot in Turkey was at some later point deemed not self-supporting or something like that) back in 2011, can't believe it was that long ago.

Can be found on Bubo under the relevant section. In fact all years on there can be searched if anyone wanted to, but probably a bit of a palaver as would have to be done each individual year (maybe the admin would have a shortcut?). Wouldn't be surprised if higher totals are hidden away there or in the woodwork.

With regard to my year, it was interesting to say the least, and a great experience. It was on a budget, which was fine, but I wish I'd had a bit more financial resources as it had to fizzle out later in the year (cost per bird became too high for me, even though things were get-able/do-able) and even near the beginning I had to forego a trip or two that others were doing but were outside my budget. Other regrets were doing it at short notice and not being organized. It was a bit of a solo effort but did manage a fair bit of birding with others which was great - would have been better to do more in hindsight. Wasn't a full-time thing, didn't hit the birding blues but did hit motivational travel issues a bit ... no issues as badly as mentioned by the guys doing the really big year effort late in their effort, but kinda gave an insight into how it can be.

I should probably have been getting 600 if I'd been able to do things a bit differently without too much extra effort (he says), and more could have been attainable, but these things are what they are. Total respect to the current record holders - different ball park altogether that one!

 

[Deans Sanctuary]

Don't know about the other websites but a lot of people don't bother to put their lists on Surfbirds When I used to have a go at an annual U.K yearlist it was pretty easy to be fairly high in the rankings. I would suspect BUBO may be a lot more accurate/ complete.



p

Here just taking a light hearted approach with your Image and thinking the star of Breaking Bad...NO?

 

[opisska]

After returning from Kuwait, Tomáš Grim has 509 WP species this year on eBird - but here we see, how the different ways to count change the perspective, because in our local competition only 497 if these count, because the eBird total includes escapees, which he saw plenty of (including such absurdities as a Cape Starling in Kuwait for example).

Still a pretty solid result. Also one that makes me bow before everyone who ever got more, because I have insight into how much effort Tomáš did sink into getting "just" about 500 - surely, it was not a "dedicated WP big year" as he also went for non-WP trips, but he has spent immense amount of time birding in various places during the year, digging out difficult birds.

 

[KC Foggin]

To this ignorant birder, just what does "WP" stand for?

 

[Paul Chapman]

To this ignorant birder, just what does "WP" stand for?

Western Palearctic. Boundaries differ but BWP (Birds of the Western Palearctic) is a seminal reference work & it is one of the defined areas on eBird if you use that & look at your totals.

All the best

Paul

 

[MJB]

To this ignorant birder, just what does "WP" stand for?

Western Palearctic... (Standard or extended are the most popular varieties...)
MJB

 

[KC Foggin]

Thank you very much MJB. I tried looking it up but was not getting much luck.