Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

[Kotatsu]

Re: Asian Grey - the one in Japan or the one in Thailand? I think both are the same species:
Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica
In Japan, I travelled with a great French guy who had studied only the scientific names, and the Japanese knew only the Japanese names, so I never learned the English ones properly... I did know almost all the birds I saw in Japanese, though, but it's falling away now that I don't use it.

Also: a further complication on trying to calculate how many species we've had from the thread alone is that we have at least one person who has contributed records to me via PM, but which I haven't written in the thread.

 

[EHocking]

We're practically there, then.
I'll drop you a line tonight once I've made the corrections from the above.

 

[sphenisc]

Isn't that an Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis?

That was my conclusion. Any American birders like to comment?

 

[sphenisc]

My guesses are 778 and 793.

I take it the winner will be the nearest to the total number of species?

 

[RedIbis]

Did we get a decision on the ID of this?
I'll have a look tonight at my US field guides and see if I can help.

Ironically, it's an ID by Kotatsu that is now holding me up finalising the list for 2008.

Get those guesses for the total in to be in the running for the sweep.

Yes, it is an Eastern Bluebird! I forgot all about this guy, but now I'm familiar with this relatively common bird.

 

[Kotatsu]

My guesses are 778 and 793.

I take it the winner will be the nearest to the total number of species?

Yes.

I have asked Chillzero if it was allowed to advertise this in Community for those people who have participated before, but who dropped out during teh year, but received no answer so far.

 

[EHocking]

2008 Stats

While Kotatsu gets on with the unenviable task of checking my latest collation of the 2008 sightings, I thought I'd share a few summaries of the data that I find interesting.

Species sighted around the world.
Top 10 x number of countries

Species|Countries
Barn Swallow|31
Domestic Pigeon|31
House Sparrow|27
Wood Pigeon|27
Blackbird|27
Starling|26
Mallard|25
Magpie|24
Jackdaw|23
Hooded Crow|23
Chaffinch|22

For some reason I'm rather pleased that the flying rat was at least drawn, if not beaten, into first place by a "wild" bird.

Top 10 around the world - Order

Order|Sightings
Passeriformes|1095
Charadriiformes|438
Anseriformes|250
Falconiformes|191
Ciconiiformes|142
Columbiformes|115
Pelecaniformes|61
Piciformes|55
Gruiformes|54
Galliformes|37

No.1 shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

Top 10 around the world - Family

Family|Sightings
Anatidae|249
Scolopacidae|176
Corvidae|144
Accipitridae|136
Columbidae|115
Laridae|114
Fringillidae|109
Ardeidae|105
Muscicapidae|86
Paridae|77
Sturnidae|77

Now I know this wasn't a contest, but what the hell.

Top 10 members' total sightings from 49 members who posted (or PM'd Kotatsu)
(No surprise about No.1)

Member|Sightings|Species
Kotatsu|1178|473
Ehocking|389|211
sphenisc|335|200
Kestrel|94|85
Mercutio|82|69
Fiona|68|53
RedIbis|45|39
mummymonkey|37|36
Hokulele|37|31
Bruto|28|26

A total of 36 individual subspecies were spotted as well.

Stay tuned for the end result - and get those bets in. At the moment sphenisc wins by default....

 

[Kotatsu]

Well, I have sorted out some misspellings, some missattributions, some missplacements of genera (and countries, in one case), and some other stuff and sent what I consider to be the final version of the 2008 list to EHocking. Most likely more errors can be found, but they are then generally misspellings. If anyone wants to check through the whole list, please send me a message somehow, but otherwise I will consider the list closed, and let EHocking do the final count and then post the results here.

It seems sphenisc is about to win by default, so unless someone else barges in in the very last minute, I'd like to know how to send the prize to you. It hasn't arrived from Japan yet, as far as I know, but I have some boxes of stuff waiting for me at my parents' place, and it might be in there. I already have a far better prize in mind for next year, so I hope there will be a bit more participation then.

 

[EHocking]

Just give me the weekend to go over it again. The pivot tables tend to throw up any misspellings etc.

Monday latest everyone.

 

[I Ratant]

First robins of Spring

I have never seen Robins in the desert.
Saw these two this afternoon out back.
(turdus migratorius)

 

[BillyJoe]

Maybe you should start a new forum:

Forum Birdwatching: 2010

 

[EHocking]

Maybe you should start a new forum:

Forum Birdwatching: 2010

Or just use the one we've already started.

 

[BillyJoe]

Oh $#!+ I've missed a whole year!

 

[EHocking]

Oh $#!+ I've missed a whole year!

Yes, that would have been this thread.