>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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