Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

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Nikki McArthur
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Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Nikki McArthur » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:00 pm

Hi all,

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology have just announced they'll be running another Global Big Day this year - on the 14th May, 2016.

The Global Big Day is a worldwide challenge to birders to get out and record observations of as many of the world's bird species as possible on a single day. A number of the members of this forum participated last year, and a summary of our efforts can be found in the following thread:

http://www.birdingnz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4529&hilit=global+big+day

It was a great deal of fun, so I'd encourage you all to mark the date down in your diaries and to start planning a birding outing to mark this special day. If you're a little unsure on how to go about participating, or submitting your bird sightings, the Cornell Lab have produced this information sheet with some handy hints and tips:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/Taking-Part-in-Global-Big-Day.pdf

Regards,
Nikki

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Jake
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Jake » Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:26 am

Good stuff Nikki! Thank you for posting: I'll put it in my diary :)

Can we get this tread pinned to the top of the page? It would great to have maximum participation, I reckon.
Paul G

Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Paul G » Mon Mar 07, 2016 6:29 pm

Jake wrote:Can we get this tread pinned to the top of the page?

As keen on this event as I am, please don't do that. Whilst we enjoy this aspect of birding very much,
the 'anti-birder' lobby who see themselves as 'serious scientusts' would rightfully say that one faction
should not be forcing their interests upon the rest. Please let's just follow this thread voluntarily
because we enjoy it.
Thanks for understanding.
cheers
Paul
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Nikki McArthur
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Nikki McArthur » Tue May 10, 2016 10:21 pm

Hi all,

Just a reminder that the 2016 Global Big Day is coming up on Saturday the 14th May (see the first post in this thread for more information). I'm aware of a number of people & teams in the Wellington and Wairarapa regions who are planning to get out birding on the day, with the aim of beating last year's regional tally of 74 species. Some teams will likely be attempting individual "big days", while others are cooperating as part of a regional effort to visit a network of sites supporting locally-occurring species that got missed during last year's GBD efforts.

Personally, I'll be working up on Little Barrier Island on the day, so my colleagues and I have formed a GBD team comprising some of the resident DoC staff and visiting contractors to see how many of the island's species we can tally up in a single day. It also looks like a few of our colleagues based in the Chatham Islands are planning to get in on the act too, so a head-to-head competition between Little Barrier and Chatham Islands might be on the cards!

I hope you all manage to find some time on Saturday to get out and take part in this fun event, and if you do please post the results of your efforts here - it would be interesting to hear how you did! As per last year I'll write up a summary of how our Wellington/Wairarapa efforts went, together with any results available from Little Barrier & the Chathams.

Cheers,
Nikki
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Oscar Thomas
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Oscar Thomas » Sun May 15, 2016 7:55 pm

Hi Nikki,

I was lucky to get 51 species on Saturday and I wasn't even looking! Spent the morning at Shakespear Regional Park for a Robin release then the Evening at Miranda for a mist-netting session, then kept track of the birds along the way :) For those interested, here are all my reports (some species were seen at more than one location, but the difference is not included in my total number of 51. Hybrid stilt not counted):

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29668385 - Albany Wasterwater ponds
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29668306 - Gulf Harbour
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29668284 - Shakespear Regional Park & surrounds
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29668343 - Miranda (main hide)
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29668373 - Miranda (stilt ponds)
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George Hobson
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby George Hobson » Mon May 16, 2016 9:51 am

I had a good day birding here in Wellington with my good friend Huia, ending up with our target of 60!
I started out early morning down on the south coast and got about 15 species. Next stop; Pauatahanui inlet, where I got 13 species including 6 banded dotterel! http://ebird.org/ebird/newzealand/view/ ... =S29627059
After that, I had a look at the Plimmerton fire station, lots of terns but unfortunately no BFT.
Met Huia at Paekakariki, and started heading to Waikanae.
Driving up to Waikanae I was lucky to score some species such as feral chicken.
When we got to the Waikanae estuary to meet up with some friends, we had a look around the ponds first, where we found a couple of dabchicks as well as the normal waterfowl. After the ponds, we went out onto the spit type thing, to try and find some shorebirds. The first thing we found were 13 royal spoonbills, which gave nice views. What we found next was totally unexpected - some banded Caspian Terns (I'm sending combos to the banding office today), some colour banded and some alpha-numeric. Behind them were lots of Gulls, some WF terns, and some VOCs - eBird checklist here http://ebird.org/ebird/newzealand/view/ ... =S29627384
Had a couple of stops on the way to Otaki but nothing noteworthy.
In Otaki we had a quick look at the sewage ponds, and met Duncan and Diane who helpfully pointed out a few Black-fronted Dotterel - we also got another couple of species. http://ebird.org/ebird/newzealand/view/ ... =S29627219

Quick look at the Otaki estuary, a few banded dotts but nothing new - so time to head back to ZEALANDIA.

On the way to ZEALANDIA we got falcon!
At ZEALANDIA we (very quickly) got everything that we wanted - http://ebird.org/ebird/newzealand/view/ ... =S29627244
Quick detour on the way home got Eastern Rosella too.

I came back to ZEALANDIA in the evening for a chance to get Kiwi/Ruru, but no luck :(

Cheers,

George
Latest lifer: Little Shearwater in the Wellington Harbor (168)!
Jan
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Jan » Mon May 16, 2016 3:15 pm

Hi George,

What is the consensus about ticking Stitchbird at Zealandia? They only persist because they have supplementary feeding there so is that any different to me going to Orana park in Chch. and ticking Antipodes Is. Parakeet and other captive birds that may not be able to exist in the wild locally?
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Global Big Day - 14th May 2016

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Mon May 16, 2016 3:29 pm

But they are not captive. They can leave to be eaten by cats if they like.
Many species only persist because we feed them (deliberately or incidentally), provide nest boxes, or control their predators.
Good luck getting consensus on the rules for this game.

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