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2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (4 Viewers)

DanielDoer said:
I think we are all a little bit spoiled (don't really know if that is the best English word for what I mean :)) by the pace that Noah and Arjan used to have (and needed to have! ) in there worldwide attempts (although the slow starting in Kuwait reminds a little bit of Noah's start in Antarctica).
Click to expand...

I have only been to Kuwait once and saw about 130 species in a week in November. I guess 150 species would be very good going in their 17 days.

I have always wondered what prolonged seawatching in suitable conditions may produce but not sure whether there is anywhere where that would be feasible or whether a pelagic is possible.

All the best
 
Steve Webb said:
LGRE still claims the biggest WP at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_G._R._Evans which says "Amongst his many accolades are seeing a record 386 species in Britain and Ireland in 1996, 704 species in the Western Palearctic in one calendar year".

All the above claims are fictitious.
Click to expand...

I've no idea who wrote the Wiki-page, but LGRE is claiming (dated September 2016) a different total - just 657 (UK400)... strange how he cannot even recall correctly the totals for his own records...

http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/2016/09/18/first-blog-post/

[bottom on the page]
 
Paul Chapman said:
I have only been to Kuwait once and saw about 130 species in a week in November. I guess 150 species would be very good going in their 17 days.

I have always wondered what prolonged seawatching in suitable conditions may produce but not sure whether there is anywhere where that would be feasible or whether a pelagic is possible.

All the best
Click to expand...

They have now seen already 117 species after 4 days and among them with Lesser Flamingo a real WP quality species!
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/

I was wandering about a pelagic in Kuwait as well, Paul. But - without any experience with seabirds in this region - I would suspect that another time of the year is better. Probably on their second visit of the country?
 
DanielDoer said:
I was wandering about a pelagic in Kuwait as well, Paul. But - without any experience with seabirds in this region - I would suspect that another time of the year is better. Probably on their second visit of the country?
Click to expand...

At a guess I'd imagine any seawatching or pelagic trips as the opportunity presents will be well worth taking in the more far-flung (and underwatched) corners of the WP. (Presume they'll have genned up on Indian Ocean seabirds?) Interesting species will only be found by taking the chance/putting the effort in ...
 
Not sure that Kuwait's location right at the far end of the Persian Gulf would lend itself to productive pelagic birding. Mid winter is also perhaps not likely the most productive time. Oman, which does have very good seawatching, is best in late summer.
 
17 days in Kuwait is astonishing, I just can't see how the cost-per-tick (CPT) stacks up; there is a good local network and rarities get reported, so I reckon they are about done by now......
On another tack the Surfbirds listing totals have LGRE as the highest for the WP, but they also some guy claiming 4048 for Africa, about double the real total!
 
Tomorrow they will try to see an assumed Grey-throated Martin that was found today! I hadn't even heard of this species yet (wouldn't have assumed that this would happen already on their 4th day of the WP Big Year :).

But now I googled that it is a split of Plain Martin - and with a look in HBW I found out that I had seen exactly that species 10 years ago in northern India!! Good luck for tomorrow, guys!
 
DanielDoer said:
They have now seen already 117 species after 4 days and among them with Lesser Flamingo a real WP quality species!
http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/
Click to expand...

Indeed, another bird on me for the WP (the fourth)...... :-C

I coded as Category 5 though again that is debatable because of the longstanding gettable birds at Laguna de Fuente Piedra, Malaga:-

http://www.netfugl.dk/ranking.php?id=wp&mode=hhhb&species_id=96

Of the 117 so far, 98 were amongst my 138 from my week long November trip. Maybe 170+ is possible for their trip.

Category 1 - 84 species
Category 2 - 22 species
Category 3 - 8 species (White-tailed Lapwing, Hypocolius, Black-throated Thrush, Bank Myna, Common Babbler, Lesser Sand-plover, Crab-plover & Red-vented Bulbul)
Category 5 - 3 species (Crested Honey Buzzard, Indian Roller & Lesser Flamingo)

All the best
 
Last edited:
DanielDoer said:
Tomorrow they will try to see an assumed Grey-throated Martin that was found today! I hadn't even heard of this species yet (wouldn't have assumed that this would happen already on their 4th day of the WP Big Year :).

But now I googled that it is a split of Plain Martin - and with a look in HBW I found out that I had seen exactly that species 10 years ago in northern India!! Good luck for tomorrow, guys!
Click to expand...

At least one record of Riparia (paludicola) chinensis for Israel - Eilat 6th May 1985 see page 376 of The Birds of Israel (Shirihai) and presumably it is this (sub)species on page 250 of Birds of the Middle East (Porter & Aspinall).

All the best
 
DMW said:
Not sure that Kuwait's location right at the far end of the Persian Gulf would lend itself to productive pelagic birding. Mid winter is also perhaps not likely the most productive time. Oman, which does have very good seawatching, is best in late summer.
Click to expand...

Certainly. Some evidence of seabird vagrancy to Kuwait - Persian Shearwater, Red-billed Tropicbird, Lesser Frigatebird & Masked Booby but spring, summer & autumn are likely to be better than winter....

All the best
 
Paul Chapman said:
At least one record of Riparia (paludicola) chinensis for Israel - Eilat 6th May 1985 see page 376 of The Birds of Israel (Shirihai) and presumably it is this (sub)species on page 250 of Birds of the Middle East (Porter & Aspinall).

All the best
Click to expand...

I had no idea that this species / subspecies is as rare in the WP. It would be a new species for Kuwait (according this interesting checklist: http://www.birdsofkuwait.com/annotated_checklist.shtml). But probably it is also a new WP species (see other posts on this blog)?

Very much suspense until the next update of Klacke et al indeed...
 
For those interested in the development and maintenance of the WP list, the following thread is interesting

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=274336

Although it concerns the details of the Italians' attempt to produce a list, I think that one is now out of date, as is the AERC list. The only fully maintained, up to date WP list is the one at netfugl and I'm my view this should be regarded as THE definitive WP list. It's certainly used by all the top listers.

Cheers, Graeme Joynt
 
The addition of a rodent at number 80 is slightly surprising and novel...........

http://www.bigyearwp.com/index.php/igoterra-ticks/

80 Sundevall's Jird Meriones crassus 01.02 Kuwait

Bird species now on 124 (not 125)!! Pallid Scops Owl is potentially useful.

Category 1 - 87 species
Category 2 - 26 species
Category 3 - 8 species (White-tailed Lapwing, Hypocolius, Black-throated Thrush, Bank Myna, Common Babbler, Lesser Sand-plover, Crab-plover & Red-vented Bulbul)
Category 5 - 3 species (Crested Honey Buzzard, Indian Roller & Lesser Flamingo)

All the best
 
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