News from abroard

[Reg Clark <>]

Hello all,

I recently received an email from a friend in the USA in which he conveyed
the following information which may of interest, as follows:

 

All of my birding has been local ever since I got back from Africa in February.  That's not all bad but it does keep the year's bird list lower than it might be otherwise.  My United States list has slowed to a crawl since I hit the magic 700 in late 2002 with a Golden-crowned Warbler (from Mexico) that I went to see in south Texas.  In 2003 I got a new U.S. bird and life bird without hardly getting the car engine warm.  In the mountains just 12 miles from my house a Crescent-chested Warbler (from Mexico with less than 10 U.S. records) was discovered in one of my favorite hiking areas.  This year a Yellow Grosbeak (from Mexico) was discovered in Tucson, Arizona, just 35 miles from my house.  Then just last month it was announced that the powers that be (who gives these guys the power anyway?) had split the species formally called Canada Goose into two species (Canada Goose which is uncommon in Arizona and Cackling Goose which has only a few records in Arizona).  Less than two weeks later a Cackling Goose showed up at the Tucson sewage lagoon and there was number 703.

 

With your new peacock and pheasant you must have a pretty large Australia list by now.  Are you close to seeing all of them?

 

In news that may affect Australian bird listing, the American Ornithological Union has split the Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava into two species one to still be called Yellow Wagtail M. flava and a new one Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis .  In A Field Guide to the Birds by Graham Pizzey (I have the 1980 copyright version) it states that Yellow Wagtails "that reach northern Australia probably belong to the race tschutschensis that breeds in northeast Siberia and Alaska"  Tschutschensis, of course, is the new Eastern Yellow Wagtail.  But tantalizingly Pizzey goes on to say that other races of Yellow Wagtail which breed in Asia and winter in Indonesia may reach Australia.  These would be races of the new Yellow Wagtail M. flava.  So, Australia may have gained another species and may have records of both Yellow Wagtail and Eastern Yellow Wagtail.  I'll be interested in seeing what the Australian "powers that be" decide on that one.  Keep me posted.

 

When you have time to write I would love to hear more about your trip to Tasmania.  I'll bet that there were other birds there more familiar to you and less familiar to me than Ring-necked Pheasants and Wild Turkeys

Reg