birding-aus

WA Big Year

To: Frank O'Connor <>
Subject: WA Big Year
From:
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 07:58:10 +1100
>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 <> wrote:

> 
> 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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