Canterbury Big Year

[scaber]

Ok, figured it out so no need to answer this now

Andrew, I've been adding my meagre list of observations to ebird but wonder is there something else I need to so they show up to you? I'm well below the top 10 so I'm not worried that you left me out, more concerned that I might be invisible!! Thanks for your help.

[rowey]

Hot Tip!! Did the hard yards at Crescent Island today. Lake so low the island is huge, maybe nearly 2kms long. Mud is a foot deep to get there from the fenceline, but only 30mts wide. Found (and photographed) the Hudsonian Godwitwith 85 BTG's to the south of the island. Also 10 Red Knot associating. At the opposite end found 2 PGP and a Turnstone that flew behind me as I was recrossing the mud. Kierans Law of Mud Traversing dictates that it is not physically possible to turn around quickly when mid calf in gloopy mud to observe said chirping Turnstone without falling on your arse! It also states that it is not easy to get back up, whilst trying to keep phone, bino's and camera free of mud.

[Davidthomas]

Good stuff Kieran! No sign of any peeps? Sandpipers etc? Those pectorals reported early on in the wader season appear to have gone awol.

I had one red knot amongst two thousand odd Godwits on the Avon-Heathcoate today but no other odd Godwits. I tried my hardest to turn one into a Blawit/Hudwit or a Dowitcher

[rowey]

Nothing even close. Did get some good photos of those Pectorals, but have not seen them since. Is an awful lot of lake margins though, with the east side especially low and teeming with stilts. Were also 10 Wrybill at Crescent. Only 3 Bandies at "Coops," No Shovellor of any sort. A lot of possible countryside...

[Davidthomas]

Interesting also that there were only two PGP. There have been so very few on the lake this year compared to the 50+ last year.

As you say there’s so much habitat at the moment it’s be hard to work out where they are.

[andrewcrossland]

Mathias reported 53 Pacific Golden Plovers at Jarvis on 2 Jan, thats a fairly normal number for Ellesmere, although sometimes upwards of 100 are present.

[Davidthomas]

Whoops must have missed that! Thanks Andrew.

[RussCannings]

To Greg's question about the Top 10. That is viewable when you "explore region" on ebird but if you look up 2019 Canty stats through the "Top100" feature in Explore Data you'll see the top 100 birders by species and by complete checklists.

Great to see Shane Mac back in the country!

Russ

[andrewcrossland]

Yeah, that screen shot of top 10 or so was just to tempt people to keep their efforts up. As Russ says the top 100 canty birders are listed on ebird

[andrewcrossland]

An update folks - Canterbury is marginally just ahead of Auckland in the total species seen to date stats, although once a few more Kaikoura pelagics get underway and folks have time to get into the mountains and forests we should get a nice healthy margin over our northern rivals:

With regards to BIG YEAR birders' personal efforts, well its early days yet and totals still largely reflect who has had time and energy to get round all the traps and tick early species off, but once the keenest (or luckiest) Big Yeares reach around 120 sp, things will start heating up!

I suggest a key species to pick up is Pomarine Skua (don''t delay getting to the Ashley estuary or you may not run into it again within the year!). Others to see before they leave on migration are the various rarer migratory wader species - Marsh Sand, Hudsonian Godwit, Grey-tailed Tattler, Sanderling, etc). Long-tailed Cuckoos are also a key species to go for - in Feb/March they tend to flock up. Its also Crested Penguin moulting time soon.

Good luck

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