Birding goals for 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Tero]

I may be able to add some Finland birds in May. My list is some 70 but I did not have places and dates, so eBird is only 51. My birder buddy is in Pori, he may get me some coastal birds. And I have a childhood friend that has a cabin on an island between Helsinki and Porvoo.

 

[Paul Chapman]

2. Participate in new local bird surveys (probably one on sparrows incoming this year + French breeding birds Atlas)

That will keep you busy. Received an eBird query on some birds I recorded as Italian * Spanish hybrids. They seemed a total mix - mainly though of Italian * House - to me!

All the best

Paul

 

[Steve Babbs]

As others have gone away from birds a fair bit mine is to restart my cat list which has been stalled since black-footed cat in 2016.

 

[lgonz1008]

It's a bit of a coin flip right now, but most likely somewhere in the Old World, either trip will help me get to 1,500 in my life list.

If my Kenya trip goes through, then I'll be in Africa for the first time this upcoming May.

But my backup is just as good, I'll do Borneo (Sabah) in August, I found a good local guide that will help me target all the big targets of the island (birds and mammals), plus the chance to target Bulwer's Pheasant and a few other skulkers not covered in regular birding trips to the region. If Kenya fails, I'll likely ask for people to join me sometime in January, it would be around $4k if I get 3 people to join me.


On a nearer front, family is contemplating a trip to Northern California, which would give me a chance for Condor and the other regional specialties that I've missed in Oregon and Washington so far.

I also want to get my Florida list to 350, right now I'm missing a few targets that I could get if I did trips to the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast during winter and spring migration, like Nashville, Blue-winged and Kentucky Warbler, Snow Goose, Bell's Vireo and American Flamingo.

 

[raymie]

Larger animals such as Canada Lynx and Wolf are not unknown either. Most of the species we've mentioned would be a thrill for me.

John

There's Moose in the area, too, which is exciting for me at least.

 

[Scott98]

I just want to go to my local patches more often

same here! My local spot is Plum Island (Massachusetts)...every spring there are at least one or two epic "fallout" events where the island is overwhelmed with migrating birds for a day, usually warblers, like all of them at once! It's usually a storm that causes a shift to a strong northerly wind that causes them all to land and rest.

I missed the one in April and the one in May this year. I need to be checking a couple of online sources first thing every morning, hoping to do that starting in late April this year

 

[Val35]

That will keep you busy. Received an eBird query on some birds I recorded as Italian * Spanish hybrids. They seemed a total mix - mainly though of Italian * House - to me!

All the best

Paul

Yes, a lot of field work ahead !

Interesting...Italian Sparrow x Spanish Sparrow hybrids are rather common here in some places (especially the very south of Corsica as Sardinia as Spanish Sparrow everywhere...). It makes it very difficult to tell if a Spanish type Sparrow is "pure" or not...
What made you think they had House genes ? Greyish cap ?

All the best !

 

[Paul Chapman]

Valentin

In short, yes. My simplistic approach was:-
(1) Pic 1 - too much grey in crown was House Sparrow influence;
(2) Pic 2 - relatively limited bib with too strong flank streaking was Spanish Sparrow influence; &
(3) Pics 3 & 4 - Italian Sparrows.

But I know that I would respect your opinion & experience more!

All the best

Paul

 

[Val35]

Valentin

In short, yes. My simplistic approach was:-
(1) Pic 1 - too much grey in crown was House Sparrow influence;
(2) Pic 2 - relatively limited bib with too strong flank streaking was Spanish Sparrow influence; &
(3) Pics 3 & 4 - Italian Sparrows.

But I know that I would respect your opinion & experience more!

All the best

Paul

Agree with your opinion, just wondered how the Italian x House hybrids were like as they are uncommon here
Still missing House Sparrow on my Corsican list by the way...wonder what's the vagrancy potential of those birds, I guess I need to check sparrow flocks more thoroughly...

 

[Nohatch]

Joining the relaunch of the UK Patchwork Challenge (excited about that). Keeping a casual 10 km local area list as well to add a but of variety. And I'll try to focus more on green, slow, local birding experiences - my life is busy enough as it is!

 

[Richard D]

I'm very much a local patch birder. Started submitting records to county group last year and will keep that up, might start listing again for the first time in over 20 years...

 

[Mono]

Get my garden list up to 16! It's been on 15 for 3 years.

Success! Just had a Jay perch in the oak tree for all of about 5 seconds, but that counts!

 

[cloudarms]

Reach 300 species for my state, 400 species for the year, and 600 species seen worldwide.

 

[Paul Chapman]

I have settled on the following:-

1. Get my world list complete & at least one photo of each species photographed into eBird - some omissions on the first & a few hundred species probably missing on the second;

2. Record my bird & moth lists throughout the entire year - I always run out of steam at some point;

3. Photograph over 1,000 bird species worldwide in 2023 - this should be possible with the trips planned but some trips need to be firmed up; &

4. Spend more time in the field moth trapping - 19 field sessions in 2022 of which 9 were at a rewilding survey site - this should be possible getting the year off to a better start.

All the best

Paul

I dug this out to work out what my goals should be for 2024.

1. Sort out my world list to date. I will renew efforts to get this done in the remaining days of this year but it is likely to be carried forward to 2024.

2. Record my 2023 bird & moth lists. My bird list is up to date and is currently 2,041 for the year with an addition this morning. My moth list floundered as personal circumstances interrupted my available time but I will try and use BUBO for this in 2024 and for once get my overall list done!

3. Photograph 1,000 bird species. I suspect my final list for birds photographed is nearer 1,750 species than 1,000 species. A real challenge though to process as many of these as possible before I am away again!

Paul's 2023 Photographic World List

Well, let's see how long I can keep on top of this... :) 1. Northern Shoveler 2. Gadwall 3. Eurasian Wigeon 4. Mallard 5. Northern Pintail 6. Goosander 7. Pied Avocet 8. Grey Plover 9. Eurasian Curlew 10. Ruddy Turnstone 11. Dunlin 12. Common Snipe 13. Little Egret 14. Barn Owl 15. Merlin 16...

www.birdforum.net

4. Do at least 19 field mothing sessions. I suspect that I fell short of 19 field trapping sessions but will check my records on my return. Maybe a dozen or so sessions only.

I will tweak these for my 2024 goals.

All the best

Paul

 

[Mysticete]

Well it's that time of year!

So what are folks plans and goals for the new year, as far as birding and related hobbies (Butterflies, mammals, herps, what have you)?

My biggest planned event is a dedicated birding trip to Ecuador in June. Outside of that my plans are more nebulous. There are a range of other birds I would like to see this year in and around Wisconsin, including Kentucky and Worm-eating Warbler and LeConte's and Nelson's Sparrow, all four of which would still be lifers. I'd also like to do more patch-birding, and maybe pick-up a Harris' Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, or Connecticut Warbler on my local patch. Would also like to expand my Wisconsin and Winnebago county lists.

So what are your plans and aspirations?

Well, I went to Ecuador, so there is that . All the lifer targets I had then continue to be targets for this year (just like the year before I think!) Didn't get any of those birds on my local patch either...Fall migration kind of sucked and I didn't get to to out as much as I wanted for Spring. On the other hand, I did get American Flamingo and Tundra Bean Goose, neither of which were on my radar then, and a few other good birds for the county, including Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and Limpkin. AND with luck I will get to add Great Gray and Northern Hawk Owl next week.

 

[Richard Prior]

I miscalculated in thinking five lifers were possible for me in Georgia, it was six. I managed four in fact.
Locally the target was Rock Partridge of course and I’m getting closer each year, I heard one in 2023 so you could say that makes 4 and a half lifers!

 

[Farnboro John]

Sri Lanka might produce a World Top Ten animal (Blue Whale) but anything we see will be great (I'd probably put Sloth Bear right up there as well but that's very much luck of the draw).

A tick in Britain would be nice - I haven't had a blank year yet though it's been close once or twice. I'm hoping the Stejneger's Scoter reappears, that would do it.

I'd like a good photo of an Icterine Warbler in Britain. They seem much thinner on the ground than way back, but maybe that's just my perception.

Other than that I'm going to stick closer to home than on this year's trek for a year list, now on 309 and not likely to move much before 31 Dec; next year I'll go for what feels nice at the time.

John

I got the Blue Whale in Sri Lanka which was tremendous. No Sloth Bear - five minutes too late was as close as we got!

A tick in Britain.... Stejneger's Scoter the same day as Grey-headed Lapwing: Black-winged Kite, Red-footed Booby, Magnolia Warbler and shamelessly Great-tailed Grackle. Good lord!

Still awaiting that compliant Icky, but it's a fairly minor matter compared to the aforegoing.

A great year. 2024 can't compete - can it.....?

John

PS: edited after Dan's excellent grammatical crack, original still in his post below!

 

[dantheman]

A tick in Britain.... Stejneger's Scoter the same day as Grey-headed Lapwing, Black-winged Kite, Red-footed Booby, Magnolia Warbler and shamelessly Great-tailed Grackle. Good lord!

What an absolutely awesomely stupendous day!


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Good stuff!

 

[Swindon Addick]

Birds: I always set myself two targets, at least one UK lifer in the year and at least one year-tick each month. My birding trips for the past year or so have been mainly to places in the UK, in a rough priority order according to how much I sulked about not having to visit them in 2020. So probably Pembrokeshire and Lancashire rather than anywhere that's likely to deliver lots of ticks.

Insects: I used to target one new odonata a year but that gets tricky in the UK now, so the target is at least one trip aimed at either seeing something I haven't seen (eg 2021 yielded my first female Southern Migrant Hawker after lots of males) or something I haven't got a photo of (finally nailed Clubtail this year). Also hopefully at least one new butterfly; there are still a few available within day-trip range.

Two UK lifer birds in the end, Forster's Tern and Pallid Swift, the latter just by the skin of my teeth, getting to the site perhaps 5 minutes before it returned for one last showing before clearing off. Completed the one-year-tick-per-month with a Red-Crested Pochard at the Cotswold Water Park a couple of weekends ago.

Two new butterfly species, although the Glanville Fritillaries, while breeding happily at a site in Wilts, are blatantly only there because someone released their ancestors a few years ago. So perhaps only one, depending how you count. I did the trip to look for a new odonata species (Southern Emerald as usual) and didn't see it (as usual). They'd been showing about an hour before I got there, of course. But I did get a photo of a self-found Clubtail at Goring, having previously only got good enough views for a photo while on a guided walk.

Oh, and a lifer mammal as a bonus. Red deer.

 

[Owene]

1+2 Chequered Skipper and Black Hairstreak. My final two british butterfly species. Trouble is they fly around the same time and I think going for the skippers (have a scottish trip booked at the prime time) will preclude me trying for the hairstreak. But definitely my main targets for 2023

3) Brown Bear Got a trip to romania with naturetrek booked and bears are pretty close to guaranteed (illness etc apart) but they're a species on my fridge door bucket list and I'd love to see them.

4) An American swallowtail species. Got a family theme-park holiday to orlando booked and want to try and make it as much a family trip as possible but they have some amazing looking swallowtails

5) honey buzzard, I think I have 4 breeding British species I've never seen anywhere. one in the uk would be lovely but I'd settle for abroad.

Did very well on these Got both British butterfly species and I think 5 US swallowtails. The bears were far more numerous and active than I could have hoped and had one flyby honey buzzard in Romania . Would still like a U.K. one