In response to Jenny Spry’s question on birding-aus about anyone planning an Australian Big Year, I plan to do a Big Year for Western Australia sometime in the future. The plan is to update my web site for the places visited, plus hopefully write a different version for a book on where to find the birds of Western Australia. I thought it could be possible to get 400 (using the IOC 3.4 taxonomy). I have just extracted the list for WA and put percentage chances on each species (probably a little pessimistic for quite a few). This indicated that I could expect to see 420 to as many as 440 in a year. I have a WA life list of 498 with many vagrants, so I was surprised that 400 looks fairly easy to achieve. This would require a trip to Ashmore (for the birds on the way – not the birds on Ashmore), but hopefully including stops on Adele Island and possibly Browse Island. Probably two pelagics from Albany, and maybe one from Perth. A trip to the Neale Junction area, and maybe the Canning Stock Route including Lake Gregory. One or two trips to the Nullarbor Plain area. A full trip (i.e. maybe two weeks) to the north Kimberley during the year (probably as a tour with George Swann), plus a short trip to Silent Grove on the Gibb River Road in early December. A trip to the Abrolhos Islands. A trip to the Esperance islands. Participating for a week on Western Ground Parrot surveys. Participating in the NW Australia Wader Expedition. Quite a bit of time in the Kununurra/Wyndham and Broome/Derby areas in the wet season for the uncommon migrants. Possibly a trip to the Kimberley Coastal Camp at Port Warrender. Obviously a big year for vagrants would help, but it appears that this would not be necessary to make it to 400. It would need most of the nomadic / irruptive species and a reasonable variety of seabirds. I would hope to add several to my WA list such as Scarlet-chested Parrot, Nullarbor Quail-thrush, Red Goshawk, Pale-vented Bush-hen plus maybe Cicadabird and one or two vagrants. I would not try for Night Parrot, Dusky Grasswren and probably Black Butcherbird. I have other priorities at the moment (trying to see each family of birds in the world, volunteering for BirdLife Western Australia, etc), but hopefully I will commit to it before the end of the decade. Anyone else would like to have a go? I would be happy to discuss locations for any of the species. _________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Mick, To have a go at guessing your total – I was looking at the wider list for Newcastle, and it contains 355 sp. Although many many of these are vagrants to the area, and many are from out of town. Without traveling out to sea, I’m thinking ~235 sp. Cheers, Tim ________________________________________ Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 7:58 AM Cc: birding-aus@birding-aus.org; birdswa Google Group From your calculations Frank I reckon you could very well get 400 or beyond. To answer Jen’s question, there are a couple of people I’m aware of doing Big Years next year. One is likely to be bigger than the other though. Incidentally, I am near the tail end of a Big Year of my own, but another “localised” one. With the birth of a baby daughter in December last year I had to “keep it local” so decided to see how many species I could see in the confines of the City of Newcastle (NSW). It includes seawatched birds, but not birds seen at sea from a boat. Anyone want to hazard a guess how many I’ve seen…so far?!? 😉 Mick On 30/12/2013, at 17:55, Frank O’Connor < foconnor@iinet.net.au> wrote: this would not be necessary to make it to 400. It would need most of the nomadic / irruptive species and a reasonable variety of seabirds. _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
From your calculations Frank I reckon you could very well get 400 or beyond. To answer Jen’s question, there are a couple of people I’m aware of doing Big Years next year. One is likely to be bigger than the other though. Incidentally, I am near the tail end of a Big Year of my own, but another “localised” one. With the birth of a baby daughter in December last year I had to “keep it local” so decided to see how many species I could see in the confines of the City of Newcastle (NSW). It includes seawatched birds, but not birds seen at sea from a boat. Anyone want to hazard a guess how many I’ve seen…so far?!? 😉 Mick On 30/12/2013, at 17:55, Frank O’Connor < foconnor@iinet.net.au> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org