What was your last lifer?...

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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

I got another new Puerto Rico bird while I was home checking email.

Using my old Puerto Rican field guide, I had recorded the orioles we saw as Black-cowled Orioles. I had seen Black-cowled before in Mexico so it wasn't new.

Got an email from the Puerto Rico reviewer for Ebird informing me that the "black-cowled" orioles I saw in Puerto Rico were split off and are now called Puerto Rican Orioles. Kching! New bird!
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by dpurcell »

Campbell Albatross on a pelagic off Sydney, Australia.
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brick911
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by brick911 »

#241 - Clapper Rail

I just started birding this year and this is actually #232 for me for the year. With only 9 identified other birds from years past (mainly in vacation photos), my life total is only 9 higher than this year's total. Now that I'm getting to the point where not every bird is a lifer, I'll start contributing here.

Image
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/brick911/9293091543/]Clapper Rail
reptileexperts
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by reptileexperts »

Last lifer was the endemic and endangered Black-bellied Puffleg, a tiny hummingbird species in the Mid elevations of the Andes mountains, at Yonococha, Ecuador :-)
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Finally added a couple of Rocky Mountain lifers to my list last week from the Grand Teton NP.

Dusky Grouse
Image

Gray Jay
Image

Clark's Nutcracker

All three of these were "curse birds" that I have whiffed on over and over again in the last 30 years. I was really glad to get all three of them. We missed the Black Rosy-Finch even though we made a special trip up the mountain to see one.

Probably could have added half a dozen more if I had bothered birding harder. Mostly did mammal watching on the second morning.
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krismunk
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by krismunk »

Black woodpecker - magnificent bird, looong overdue.

One of those species I always figured would just show up somewhere so I never actually targeted it. Somehow, it never did show up, until a mature male flew by close overhead a few weeks ago.

Lifer #12 for the season, not particularly impresive, but effort and geography taken into consideration I'm quite satisfied.
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Andy Avram
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

Chris, nice work on the Dusky Grouse. I have failed at finding them before, but hopefully I can get my eyes on one (or some) this year. I haven't seen nearly enough gamebird species.
krismunk wrote:Black woodpecker - magnificent bird, looong overdue.
I have read accounts of other people having trouble seeing this bird. Are they pretty hard to come by? I was able to see one on the side of a mountain in s Germany as it was hammering away at a log. I had to stop in the middle of the road on a very steep hill to see it, but I am glad I listened to that little voice inside my head to turn around and take a closer look at the bird. Of course, I have no real clue if that was a pretty lucky sighting or something that can realistically be expected.
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krismunk
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by krismunk »

Andy Avram wrote:
krismunk wrote:Black woodpecker - magnificent bird, looong overdue.
I have read accounts of other people having trouble seeing this bird. Are they pretty hard to come by? I was able to see one on the side of a mountain in s Germany as it was hammering away at a log. I had to stop in the middle of the road on a very steep hill to see it, but I am glad I listened to that little voice inside my head to turn around and take a closer look at the bird. Of course, I have no real clue if that was a pretty lucky sighting or something that can realistically be expected.
I don't know much about how difficult they are to come by ine rest of thier range but in Denmark they're an uncommon species that you can't really expect to just bump into by chance. That said, thanks to their stationary nature, loud drumming and ditto calls as well as the distinctive marks they leave behind in logs they really shouldn't be all that difficult to find once you're in the right habitat.

Supposedly they fill the same niche in Europe as the pileated woodpecker in the US. Since they're also about the same size and equally conspicuous I guess that's not a bad reference point for an American.

In Denmark, the lesser spotted woodpecker and the wryneck are the rarer, more diifficult of our resident woodpeckers. I've found the lesser spotted a few times, even have (by my low standards) somewhat decent pictures. The wryneck is the one I'm still missing - guess I should start looking.
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

krismunk wrote: The wryneck is the one I'm still missing - guess I should start looking.
It took me many years of being in its range to see a Wryneck finally. They seem to be inconspicuous little birds in my limited experience.

Oh, and dpurcell - awesome albatross! Has the Campbell's Albatross been officially split off yet? I may need to look at my Black-browed Photos. Might have another species in there?
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

brick911 wrote:#241 - Clapper Rail

I just started birding this year and this is actually #232 for me for the year. With only 9 identified other birds from years past (mainly in vacation photos), my life total is only 9 higher than this year's total. Now that I'm getting to the point where not every bird is a lifer, I'll start contributing here.
Now is a good time to start using ebird then. Don't wait until 5 years from now when you have a backlog of 2000 sightings to enter.

Their Birdlog app is an awesome and easy way to keep track of your stuff if you are a smartphone user (and bird in North America primarily). The BirdLog world version isn't as good. :(
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Curtis Hart
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

I'm currently in Washington, but have been in Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Glacier NPs recently. Looks like I may have been in the area at the same time as ChrisH. I also saw the Dusky Grouse, Gray Jays and Clark's Nutcracker in GT NP, but they weren't lifers. I must have seen 10 of the Nutcrackers, it seemed like they were everywhere. So far only, three lifers.

Williamson's Sapsucker - Yellowstone
Cassin's Finch - Yellowstone
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Idaho
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Curtis Hart
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

Added Heermann's Gull, California Gull, and Black Turnstone in WA and BC. Heermann's gull has to be the best looking gull in the ABA.






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reptileexperts
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by reptileexperts »

Image
First lifer when I arrived in Panama 2 weeks ago, Southern Lapwing - these guys were completely absent last time I was present in the country. . .

Also picked up Mottled Owl, Rufous-capped Warbler, and my last Lifer as of right now - Tody Motmot
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

I had to make a quick weekender to Colorado Springs last weekend for a friend's wedding. Had some birding time so I tried to get some mountain birding in.

This Townsend's Solitaire wasn't a real "lifer" per se since I accidentally saw one back in 1987 when I thought I was photographing a strange mockingbird in West Texas. I have looked for them many times in the intervening 25+ years and failed repeatedly. I was delighted when this bird flew up onto a tree where I happened to be standing.

Image

Another "non-lifer lifer" I got was when I finally got a decent look at a Clark's Nutcracker. I had seen then in flight back in August in the Grand Tetons, but this trip I finally got to see one standing still and close.

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But my best accidental lifer of the weekend was when I stopped for a few minutes at a reservoir near the airport on the way to leave Colorado. I didn't expect to see anything interesting, but I did stop to photograph a dark hooded gull I spied a long way off. Since it was an inland, freshwater lake, I assumed it would be the expected migrating Franklin's Gull and didn't give it much more thought. I put my camera away and as I was getting ready to leave, another birder came up and looked through his binoculars and asked me if that was a Boneaparte's Gull or not. I stopped and thought "hmmm, it does look rather small", so maybe it is Boneaparte's. I've seen thousands of Bones so I didn't care either way and I could always check my picture later. While waiting in the airport, I pulled out my camera and zoomed way in on my gull photo and realized....Sabine's Gull!!!

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I have chased Sabine's a number of times, and I know Sept/Oct is a good time for them in random freshwater lakes of the west, but I honestly never considered that species until I saw the photo. I later checked ebird and saw that someone else had reported it from this lake on the previous day. I do feel kind of bad that I wasn't able to tell the other birder what it turned out to be. He seemed to be hoping for Boneaparte's though.
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Sweet, got another lifer tonight....from December 26, 1985! :lol:

Cinereous Tit

I got it by reviewing my records against the new ebird update - http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/tax ... -for-2013/

That puts me at 1946. I need another trip somewhere to get me over 2K. The only trip I anticipate any time in the near future is back to New Zealand, and I doubt I could get 54 new birds there.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by reptileexperts »

Eurasian Magpie ;) currently birding Germany
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by josh_r »

For me, seeing kukaburras in the wild was awesome. But a real treat for me was a hike in the forests of northern New South Wales.... I came upon a pair of Lyre birds that were scratching through the forest floor picking off insects. They were COOL!!! I was so excited! That was one of the coolest bird finds I have had.

Another cool experience for me was finally seeing toucans in the wild, as they are one of my favorite birds. I look forward to seeing a large nesting group of Cock of the Rock soon. I also look forward to seeing Manakin birds for the first time.. Some of my favorites :)
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

josh_r wrote:For me, seeing kukaburras in the wild was awesome. But a real treat for me was a hike in the forests of northern New South Wales.... I came upon a pair of Lyre birds that were scratching through the forest floor picking off insects. They were COOL!!! I was so excited! That was one of the coolest bird finds I have had.

Another cool experience for me was finally seeing toucans in the wild, as they are one of my favorite birds. I look forward to seeing a large nesting group of Cock of the Rock soon. I also look forward to seeing Manakin birds for the first time.. Some of my favorites :)
Those are some good birds to see, and hear!
I would love to sit and listen to lyrebirds do non-bird noises.
Hearing Manakins at a lek is a really cool experience. Maybe even cooler than seeing them? Same with Kookaburra, even though I've heard them in every tarzan movie I ever watched. :lol:
Cock-of-the-Rock is a great bird!
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Got a few more "research lifers" tonight.

Looking at the most recent Clements splits, I realized I added:

My sightings of Stonechats now represent two species, European Stonechat and African Stonechat.
My various sightings of Golden Whistler now represent three species: Golden, Fiji, and White-throated Whistler.
Nullarbor Quail-thrush, although I really just traded my Cinnamon Quail-thrush sighting in for this, so I guess it is gain one, lose one?

EDIT - Just got an email from the ebird reviewer who sent me a range map of the various subspecies and my Nullarbor is now back to Cinnamon Quail-Thrush.
That's what makes ebird immensely superior to our database!

I love research birding!
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Owen
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Owen »

Pretty lame, but today, I saw my first White-throated Sparrow:

Image

My prior last lifer was even more lame... Blue Jay this past July. But my disclaimer is that I only travel North and South and not East.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Excellent shot with that white-throated sparrow!

I haven't been keeping a life list for years now, but I have been keeping an Ohio-only list. I found my 290th species in Ohio today, a Brown Pelican that has been present along the Lake Erie shoreline since summer. I then went on to miss would-be Ohio bird 291 (Royal Tern) by ten minutes, but I did find some other cool goodies today (Black and Surf Scoters, Red-throated Loon).
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Andy Avram
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

Jared, we are tied for Ohio birds. I am at 290 with the Northern Gannet the other day. Got the Brown Pelican weeks ago. I wasn't at the tern locale today, but did see the Pacific Loon there the other day (2nd this year in the state) BUT I still have yet to see a Red-throated Loon. It is a gaping hole in my life list. Also, you were 10 minutes from my house. Should have called.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Andy,

Cool, I should have called! Yeah, the Red-throated was at Sunset Park and the scoters at Sims. The pelican was my first new bird in the state since 2010...haven't been birding much as of late. I think you're going to get that loon real soon, Andy. Now's the time! And I'm jealous of that Pacific...
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

Red-throated Loon - finally. Looks were unsatisfactory though, but enough for a tentative ID and then confirmed by another guy who also saw it. Also pulled an Ohio birds today (Harlequin Duck).
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Northern Gannet? Brown Pelican? Royal Tern? Pacific and Red-throated Loons?....in Ohio?

Is this stuff showing up at Lake Erie, or is there some secret inland sea outside of Columbus somewhere?

I was too lazy to drive down and chase the Amazon Kingfisher, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, and Golden-crowned Warbler in the valley last week. Its hard to get motivated to chase a bird that I've seen dozens of times before just to get a new Texas/US bird. When a Horned Screamer, Torrent Duck, another Jabiru, or a Rhea shows up in SoTX, then I'll make the trip.
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Andy Avram
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

chrish wrote:Northern Gannet? Brown Pelican? Royal Tern? Pacific and Red-throated Loons?....in Ohio?
Is this stuff showing up at Lake Erie, or is there some secret inland sea outside of Columbus somewhere?
Yeah, Lake Erie is amazing for accidental coastal birds.

Northern Gannet - has been around a week or two, they show up every few years in the state.

Brown Pelican - pretty rare in Ohio, only a few records, but one juvenile decided that Cleveland was a good spot to summer, been here months now. White Pelicans on the other hand is uncommon, but yearly migrants.

Royal Tern - Pretty rare.

Pacific Loon - rare to uncommon, one or so are seen annually in the state.

Red-throated Loon - expected migrant, but not in large numbers. Not sure why it has taken me so long to see one.

Cave Swallows - appear in November at Lake Erie too. That is the next lifer I am waiting to show up again.

Much of this stuff is found in my county (Lake County) or neighboring Cuyahoga County (Cleveland's County). From fall to spring, Lake Erie is pretty fun to bird.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Agree with Andy. Lake Erie is absolutely amazing. I also missed a little gull yesterday...and it was seen again today.

Good job on the RT loon, Andy. I've never seen a harlequin, either. Our AC/refrigerant guy at the family business is a hunter, and he shot a female/imm. harlequin off Cleveland last year. I take it you've been birding Sunset Park. Awesome views of the lake there.
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Andy Avram
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

Black-legged Kittiwake.

I had previously seen one we thought was alive in Ohio a few years ago, until another gull picked it up and tossed it aside. It was dead and frozen in a sleeping position.

Should have gone a little further west to also get Little Gull for Ohio, but I had to get to work.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by monklet »

Andy Avram wrote:I had previously seen one we thought was alive in Ohio a few years ago, until another gull picked it up and tossed it aside.
Reminds me of my life Rhino Auklet ...saw it floating languidly but right side up off a point. Came back half hour later and it was belly up. No problem, in the bag:) Remember, early bird gets the bird ;-)
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by josh_r »

I saw magnificent frigate birds recently when I went to Ecuador. They were really cool!
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Spent another enjoyable morning at Lake Erie today in Cleveland, OH. Found a state-lifer (#291 for Ohio):

Image Eared Grebe, picked out among the common Horned Grebes.

And while not a lifer, this guy was entertaining birders at extremely close range:

Image Red Phalarope

Image

And regarding the Royal Tern seen a couple weeks back (that I missed by ten minutes!)...it is now suspected that it was actually an Elegant Tern. Damnit!
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Andy Avram
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Andy Avram »

Nice, that same grebe was Ohio bird 295 for me. 5 more until 300!

When I learned that the tern was an Elegant I knew you would be doubly mad at that miss!
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Pretty neat that the eared was a state-lifer for both of us. Eared Grebe isn't that rare in the state and with us both over 290 species you'd imagine one of us would have caught one earlier! I went out for about 90 minutes this morning before work, and while there were no lifers to add I did see two snowy owls and another red phalarope. Lake Erie rules.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Freddy81 »

Long time no see, but here is 2 new lifters for me.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
Image

And a heavy lifter in Sweden Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea)
Image
Image
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Freddy81 wrote:Long time no see, but here is 2 new lifters for me.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
And a heavy lifter in Sweden Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea)
Hoopoes are awesome birds.
But an Ivory Gull is simply amazing. It is one of those birds I figure I will never see.
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Not a true "lifer", but I did get a new state bird for Texas yesterday.

For the last few weeks, there have been a couple of birds at Aransas NWR that I haven't got on my Texas list yet. These included a group of Black Scoters and a Painted Redstart who was reportedly very cooperative right by the visitor center. I went down in the middle of last week and struck out on both.

So yesterday we made a quick day trip down to try again. We did see a group of three Surf Scoters (also a very good bird for TX, but one that I had seen before) but alas no Blacks.
But we did get the Painted Redstart which will go down as bird #465 on my Texas list.

Image
Image
Being at 465 for the state has got me thinking....can I get another 35 species in the next year?

right now there are reports of birds that would be Texas lifers for me, even though I had seen them before:
Amazon Kingfisher
Golden-crowned Warbler (might still be around)
Rose-throated Becard (a TX nemesis of mine)
Blue-throated Hummer (west TX)
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl at the King Ranch
Brown Booby (Corpus Christi)

Looking over the Texas birds list, there are 59 birds that I could get because they are either here every year and I just haven't seen one here (Lazuli Bunting, Anna's Hummer, Lesser Prairie Chicken, etc,) or they are sporadic enough to be hard to find (Brant, etc.) or they occur in areas of the state I don't bird/access often (Audubon's Shearwater, American Flamingo, Spotted Owl, Juniper Titmouse, Smith's Longspur, etc.).

Then there are the birds that just show up miraculously, like the only Texas record of King Eider and Yellow-nosed Albatross...but you can't count on those.

Now that I've spelled this out, I'm depressed. I might never make 500 for Texas :( but mostly because I'd rather spend the money going to New Guinea or somewhere like that.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Cool bird on the Painted Restart. I've seen them in southeast Arizona and they truly are beautiful.

Don't be depressed, Chris. I'll never get 350 birds in Ohio. Oh well. It's just fun to have lists, and right now I'm looking to get to 300 for the state. Once there, it won't be as much fun anymore!
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

I've started sailing now, and my first new bird of the trip was a Parasitic Jeager in Tampa Bay. I also saw a Thick-billed Vireo on South Bimini today.
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Curtis Hart
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

I've been doing pretty well in the Bahamas. I picked up Smooth-billed Ani in Bimini. In the Berries we saw Cuban Pewee, Bahama Woodstar, La Sagra's Flycatcher, and Greater Antillean Bullfinch. I've been in Andros for the last couple of days and things have really picked up. We have seen Great Lizard Cuckoo, Western Spindalis, Loggerhead Kingbird, Black-faced Grassquit, Bahama Oriole, Red-legged Thrush, Cuban Emerald, and Bahama Swallow. It's been really nice finally seeing those Bahamas birds that sometimes make it to the US and are in the field guides.

On lesser note, I just learned of the former existence of Tyto pollens, and am a bit disappointed it is no longer around.
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Not really my most recent lifer, but I just got another research bird this morning.

I was going through my old photos from a trip to Queensland in January of 2008 and I was looking at this photo -

Image

and I thought to myself....hmmm...where did I take that? So I checked ebird and avisys and realized I had forgotten to record it. I can't believe I forgot to record it because I was VERY excited when I saw it. Bustards are just cool.

Australian Bustard - bingo - new bird...on the list at least.
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Curtis Hart
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

I finally manaed to find a Bahamas Mockinbird in Andros, since then, they've been one of the more common birds. I saw a few White-cheeked Pintails on Eleuthera, then White-tailed Tropicbirds and Brown Boobys at sea. I just saw a couple Cuban Crows from the dock in TCI. Headed SE.


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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Coluber Constrictor »

My last lifer was probably a Clay-colored Sparrow, if that's even what it was. :lol:
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Antonsrkn »

I saw my first Whooping Crane today!! Didn't get any decent photos, still kicking myself.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by mikez »

http://www.carlislemosquito.org/index.p ... s&Itemid=3

The story of the Once in a Lifetime Lifer I DID NOT get. Last year a fieldfare showed up just down the road from me. Pic in attached article is by a friend of mine.
I headed out to see the bird and was flabbergasted by the out of control mob scene. I've been around rare birds and excited birders but nothing like this. The narrow winding roads were lined both sides with cars and people walked everywhere, in the road, yards, fields, whatever. I couldn't find a parking place. Finally gave up and went home when I had to use my horn to get walking people to clear a lane through the road for me to drive down. :roll:
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jonathan
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by jonathan »

Living in Asia means that I'm still getting lifers almost constantly (when I can actually identify them, at least), but seeing a group of four Kalij Pheasants while I was hiking in the mountains yesterday was really special. I had never seen pheasants in the forest in Asia until now (though I'd seen a few of other species in agricultural fields). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a photo through the trees.
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Curtis Hart
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by Curtis Hart »

The trip from TCI to Puerto Rico had few birds. I did pick up three lifers though. A Brown Noddy in TCI waters, a Red-footed Booby in DR waters, and a pair of Black-capped Petrels sitting right over the deepest part of the Puerto Rican Trench.

Puerto Rican birding is easy, and I saw 23 new species, my favorites being the abundant Puerto Rican Tody, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, and the Puerto Rican Screech Owl. Chrish, I saw plenty of lifer Black-whiskered Vireos. They were quite common at Philips, on the south side of El Yunque.
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chrish
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

Curtis Hart wrote:The trip from TCI to Puerto Rico had few birds. I did pick up three lifers though. A Brown Noddy in TCI waters, a Red-footed Booby in DR waters, and a pair of Black-capped Petrels sitting right over the deepest part of the Puerto Rican Trench.

Puerto Rican birding is easy, and I saw 23 new species, my favorites being the abundant Puerto Rican Tody, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, and the Puerto Rican Screech Owl. Chrish, I saw plenty of lifer Black-whiskered Vireos. They were quite common at Philips, on the south side of El Yunque.
You saw all those BWVI because it isn't a "curse bird" for you. :lol: I don't care if I ever see another of that @#@$! bird, I got one!

Cool find on the Screech Owl and way cool on the Black-capped Petrels. Any pelagic birds are an automatic winner. I hope to get one or two new ones in May.
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by J-Miz »

Got a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher here in northern Ohio today. Keen-eyed birders first spotted it yesterday and I was glad to get a chance to see this spectacular bird. Crappy shot, but at 80 meters you take what you can get. My 292nd bird species in Ohio:

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jonathan
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by jonathan »

Saw a bunch of brilliant birds on my last day in the Himalayas, with another few lifers. But the worst was went I went out to get the milk in the morning. I thought "it's cold, no herps out, don't need to carry a camera". Then a gorgeous Aquamarine Flycatcher landed on a railing 3 feet from me. When I moved on, it flew and landed right in front of me again, mocking the fact that I didn't have my camera with me. :lol:
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Re: What was your last lifer?...

Post by chrish »

J-Miz wrote:Got a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher here in northern Ohio today.
Very cool. Scissor-taileds are neat birds. Now you need your keen-eyed birder to pick out a Fork-tailed. ;)
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