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 :
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