Can I say that we are only 14 days in and already we have 4 species that we didn't photograph in the last challenge.
1. Gang-gang Cockatoo by Sue
2. Powerful Owl by Sue
3. Pale-vented Bush-hen be Devon
4. Ruddy Turnstone by Alex
Looks like its going to be a Big Year ;)
Yes, I think it is. Nice work BY Statistician
Here's my first draft of Stats as at 31 March 2020.
Great work Karen, amazing 280 species 1/4 of the year. I am only 2 short of my Small year challenge of last year (72).
Will I get 4 times as many? I seroulsy doubt it, but will get as many as I can.
Hope we can all keep it going, its great fun.
Looking forward to some more species soon.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Thanks for doing the work, Karen which is much appreciated. If you have time would you please check my number as I had posted 83 by 27/3/2020. Ready to stand corrected but I think that is correct.
Apologies Sue I may have missed a few.... I did it late after a long day. I will re-check.
** UPDATE **
As at 6/4/2020 and with Sue's count corrected. I loaded the data alphabetically so Sue was the last one, I think my brain was compromised by then and I completely missed your page 2 Sue!
I haven't noticed any new birds in the last week or so, but let me know if I've missed anything.
Thank you, Karen. Did not mean for you to rush back to it. Your efforts appreciated as are your posts.
That's ok, I was just finishing up some work so was able to check it out before signing out for the day. It's nice to finish the day on a non-work related task :-). Hey have you seen this doing the rounds on Facebook? I think it's very clever and has captured these personalities quite well. I am clearly a Powerful Owl....
Yes, I don 't quite fit any of them... somewhere between the last three!
Updated Stats as at 24th July 2020. Hopefully I haven't missed any updates.... let me know if so.
Considering the difficulties attached to this year's challenge, I am impressed with our totals. Well done to all of you. Our brief trip to Bourke was responsible for my total as my backyard lockdown birds sit at 19! Thanks, Karen for your work collating the numbers.
I do hope that all of you are travelling well and staying safe. For those in Victoria, I send you an extra big hug and a wish to stay strong. Would be delighted if all our team members found a moment to check in so we know that you are OK. Really this Big Year count is just a bit of fun to keep us occupied and our minds off the numbers that really count. Stay safe and strong, my friends.
Thanks Karen for doing this. I've struggled to get out much this year.
Stats update as at 14th October 2020
Thanks Karen.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Thanks for the tallies, Karen. Nice to see Alex come back with such a bang! I hope to get a few more next week with another short road trip so my tally will catch up next time. It is hard birding out there with little flowering at present and the rain has dispersed the birds. Wonderful to see such a variety of species being listed.
This year is producing some great sightings despite COVID 19 limiting our outings. Let us hope that our Victorian colleagues can get back out soon. I'm sending virtual hugs to all of you.
Thanks Karen for doing up the stats. I really need to get my butt into gear and finish processing all my photos, then get back out there again. Sue did you say rain, what's that look like??
Dev, I did not see the rain... just the water across dirt roads and in the Marshes. It was quite evident from the lush countryside everywhere we went but few flowers and little seed. Fortunately, there were insects again so the windscreen required washing. I hope you get to see it soon.
It has been wonderful to get out for these short trips and see some birds again as my backyard is still sitting at 19 sightings since March.
Your efforts are much appreciated, Karen. Let us know when you want some travel tips and one of us might have some suggestions. Big celebration next year for me.
Thanks for that Karen. Its great to see so many birds seen by all of us, and the large numbers of unique birds that we are introducing to each other. So cool :-)
And in terms of our little challenge - no complacency for anyone, with the leadeboard changing daily - I see I've already been overtaken by both Dev and Sue :-) Best I get out there again...
Status update as at 11/11/2020. We finally picked up our new 4WD ute yesterday, so I am going to organise a couple of day trips before the end of this year. I doubt I'll catch the leaders but will hopefully get my numbers up a little.
Thank you for doing the work, Karen. What a very interesting set of statistics.
State based birding is demonstrating the limitation of some distributions quite nicely... I love that Dale has so many unique species. Dale,19.5% of your sightings are birds unique to the list, same as Alex! Well done! Also very impressed with Dev's numbers and his list of unique birds. Considering our limitations this year, 378 is impressive.
I need to spend some time on the coast instead of inland as I seem to be missing some easy birds ... cannot believe I still have not seen a White-bellied Sea-Eagle or an Osprey this year! Still not sure where the Godwits are hiding!
Looking forward to more form you Karen as you test out the new vehicle. Capertee is probably calling you.
Well done everyone
Karen thank you so much for putting the list together. You have done an amazing job. Interesting that common birds such as the Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Laughing Kookaburra and Magpie Lark arn't on our seen by all list. I would be interested to know what birds just need one more person to photograph them and who needs to do it. Just out of curiosity though Karen, not askig you to do more work. lol
Thanks Karen, your work is appreciated. 378 total species is indeed a grand effort, well done to all. My target was 100, if I get there, I will have seen around 1/3 of species available to me. Unfortunately time, work and weather has not been in my favour, the few trips I have had have not been very rewarding.
Interestingly, there have been a couple or "Rare Vagrants" in the north of Tasmania - a single Black Shouldered Kite, and some Pink Eared Ducks, however there sightings, whilst frequent cannot be relied on enough to make the journey at this time.
Goodluck to all, let's see how many more we can get.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Here you go Dev. 22 Species that have been seen by 6 of us.
Also note I had an error in my previous report as I had Budgerigar listed twice (once as Budgerigars). So it's really only 377 species we have seen!
Dale you are at #3 for adding the most unique species to our list so nice work there! Still a few weeks to go too so you may get to the 100 yet :-). I need to get out more too.....
Thanks again Karen, I have my 100 in sight, and all being well will exceed that by a few, with upcoming plans which will hopefully be productive.
Your table makes for, interesting reading, and Spurs me on to try for a few extras.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great work, Karen. It made me check and find I have a number of locals missing from my sightings. I think we may also have a few less in total as there are some variation in names e.g. we should only have Australian Pipit not Australasian, Great Egret not Eastern Great Egret, Australian King Parrot not King Parrot ( I'll go back and fix mine!) and as for the Stilt --- Pied, Black-winged and White-headed have all been used. Pied Stilt is still the official Australian Birdlife name but the data sheet is still Black-winged. Hard work for you.
Karen your bloods worth bottling. I can't believe I havn't put up a Rock Dove. I know I have photographed them. Thanks again for all your hard work Karen
Thanks Sue, yes I have tried to use consistent names for all species regardless of what they have been reported as. I only have one version of the Pipit and King Parrot, but I did have two versions of the Great Egret so will fix that one.
And ha ha thanks Dev, I did the same thing - I'm sure I've seen a Black Swan and a Little Black Cormorant! I've definitely seen the swan but I didn't get photos, she had babies too but I was driving. I think I do have a Little Black Cormorant somewhere though. And I've definitely seen a Pacific Black Duck but maybe it wasn't this year.
I might post a list of birds that only 5 of us have seen, there's at least one left for everyone to find there :-)
Here's a list of birds seen by only 5 of us.
Thanks yet again, some species missing on mine, that I won't get, but it makes for interesting reading none the less.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Karen you're wonderful, that really helps a lot!
Wait what, I don't have a Spotted Dove or Whitte Ibis. C'mon Devon what are you doing, lol
There's a few that I won't be able to get here like Red Wattlebird and the Shelduck. Shoveller, Eastern Rosella and even Starling are not impossible but not common where I am either
Thanks Karen, I know I'm also missing a Darter, New Holland HE and a Lewin's Honeyeater.... what was I doing? I just need to get out to some favourite places this weekend to fill a few gaps. I am sure I've seen Little Wattlerbird & I did look for the Corellas but they were so distant ... well, that is my excuse. Thank you again.
I did discover a few more duplicates in the list, so have fixed those up, we are still in the 370's for species count though. I have modified my system for adding species so should be easier to maintain... even if there's just 6 or 7 weeks left.
Thought I'd try a visual instead :-). Annoyingly I saw a Rock Dove and a Little Black Cormorant today driving through Richmond and Windsor, should have stopped for a photo! Might go back tomorrow on my own :-).
Thanks Karen. Actually I have Australasian (or Purple) Swamphen as #10 so we have all seen that one.
Karen, love your work, thanks for doing this and keeping it up to date - it does make for interesting reading. And as the year draws towards a close, its a good opportunity to review our own lists and look for some of those obvious and easy birds we just haven't photographed for some reason. We need all the help we can get to try and claw back some of Dev's lead!
Stats as at 30 December 2020
I've finally found some time to update the stats, again let me know if anything looks amiss and I will fix.
Also any other stats anyone is interested in? I will see if I can get it from our data set.
Thanks for all that effort, Karen. It is appreciated by all of us. I don't want to cause you more work but my numbers are a bit different and it may be due to naming problems meaning same bird but named differently. I wonder if that is why you have not included Australasian Swamphen (also known as Purple Swamphen) as one seen by us all. I think you may also have missed a couple of my posts. See what you think as I am only using Excel spreadsheets.
FYI: the vagrant that Pip saw was finally called a Paradise Shelduck and may have been the same one seen earlier in the year at Lake Wollumboola.
Hi Sue, yes you are right. I just added Tom's Purple Swamphen without thinking. I've adjusted it now. And added the extra ones of yours that I missed.
I've attached my full list of species, perhaps you can have a look and see if there any duplicate names in there? I did do a quick review, but my brain is pretty full at the moment so maybe you can do a better job of it for me :-).
Thats awesome Karen, thank you so much for doing that. I could not have done it this year and you've done such a wonderful job!
Hi Karen, I have found 12 issues which would make our tallies the same
Double-ups as follows:
Fairy Tern not Australian Fairy Tern
Nankeen Kestrel not Australian Kestrel
Pied Stilt not Black-winged Stilt
Common Starling not European Starling
Eastern Curlew not Far Eastern Curlew
Australasian Figbird not Figbird
Grey Teal not Grey Teal Duck
Australian Pied Oystercatcher not Pied Oystercatcher
Australasian Swamphen not Purple Swamphen
Variegated Fairy-wren not Purple-backed fairy-wren as not yet on Australian species list (but on international list)
Two species that I don't think were seen:
Chestnut Mannikin (does not exist) so was probably the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
Western Corella not seen unless someone was in WA
A few corrections which will not impact but might be easier for future reference:
Australian Pipit not Australsian Pipit
Southern Boobook not Australian Boobook
Black-necked Stork not Jabiru (as that bird is in South America)
The vagrant Shelduck seen by Pip was a Paradise Shelduck (likely from NZ) not Pacific Shelduck (not sure that name exists)
Hope that is of help and useful. EBird can use a different name if not set to Australia. Your work on this is much appreciated by all of us.
Thanks so much Sue!!! I will make those changes. I mostly just write what people write except for some that I know the right names for. I did think the Boobook was now officially called the Australian Boobook rather than Southern Boobook though?
Glad that I could help. Still called Southern Boobook on the Working List of Australian Birds v3 on Birdlife Australia's site unless a new version is finally out. It is only one of the Boobooks found in Australian territory.
It's interesting re the Boobook, as the Working List of Australian Birds v3 you mention Sue has Tasmanian Boobook (Ninox leucopsis) listed as well as the Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae), which is what I thought our Boobooks had been changed to (formerly known as Southern Boobook). Incidentally Morepork is also found in New Zealand.
I guess my only concern is where do we draw the line, as we agreed earlier this year not to include separate sub species. Maybe only affects someone who,is lucky enough to travel. Doesn't matter for this year, maybe next?
Not like we are betting the family sheep station, so probably doesn't make much difference.
Sorry to hijack your thread Karen.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
This is the official list for Australia that we agreed to use some months ago when Purple-backed Fairy-wren versus Variegated Fairy-wren came up for discussion. The PBFW is accepted internationally as a separate species as genetic studies support it but not yet official in Australia. It simplified the issue for us.
Tasmanian Boobook and Tasman Morepork are still different species from Southern Boobook so no problem there but I had thought it was now Tasmanian Morepork rather than Tasmanian Boobook so it seems we need to await the update which occurs annually (I think).Perhaps a question for Holly? Might have more species to play with next year!
Agree Dale, not betting the farm and not sure there is any reward apart from our mutual respect and the fun we have from sharing the birds we see. I won't be adding any more birds this year as trying to do my bit for Sydney at the moment.
Apologies, Karen, rest up and no rush to get the stats finished as the others might still have a few surprises for us. Thanks to all for the fun.
Yes, Karen, your work on keeping the records is much appreciated, thanks for keeping the tally updated. I see there have been a few more come in and I think Dev is currently the leader at 243. We normally allow some time to get photos taken last year updated - I think we'd said Sun 10th this year as cutoff - but if everyone declares on their threads that they are done, we can close it off at that point. I'm not done yet - might not catch Dev but I gave it a crack ;-)
Lets make specific reference to WLAB (as amended from time to time) as the official list in the "rules" for 2021.
I'm done at 233 - I left my move too late and not being able to go to Qld scuppered my last minute plan to overtake Dev :-) So I'll concede gracefully (unlike some famous people in 2020!) and just say what a joy its been playing the Big Year with you all over 2020. I've so enjoyed sharing with you, the additional focus it brings to my photography, seeing all of your own wonderful birds and reading your descriptions and anecdotes about them. Thank you all very much - I'm looking forward to doing it all again this year!
Karen, you can close my list off now, thank you.
Karen, I have also declared on 106. Thanks once more for your efforts.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Thanks everyone. I will do a quick update today, then one more on the final day - the 10th right?
Sue - I've made the changes you suggested. I was curious about the Western Corella so I went back to find it - it is a Long-billed Corella but just has 'Western Corella' as the hover text and I was working from that. I can see in the pic it is a Long-billed Corella and the info/fact sheet is a Long-billed Corella.
So I'm just adding in the new ones reported since then and will post another update shortly.
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