BirdingNZ.net

Just to add - I saw a non-Long-tail/non-Shining Cuckoo today at Ladbrooks. Gone before I could ID it and probably gone forever, but I've posted location info elsewhere in BirdingNZ if folks want to go look/listen in the neighbourhood.

Also, breaking news, Jill Hanna videoed what appears to be a Large Sand Dotterel at the Ashley Estuary today and Bev has sent through a couple of pics she took off Jill's video (also a post elsewhere on this).

cheers

By the way - one of my traps nailed these two little buggers on the edge of the Kaitorete Spit tip mud flats yesterday, only a couple of hundred metres from the stint/sandpiper/wrybill flock.

Great news on the migrants! I know you've posted before Andrew but is access to the end of the spit ok at the moment or is permission required?

Its ok at the moment (lambing appears to have finished). Ofcourse good for all birders if every visitor takes a low profile and (in contrast to trail bike riders, etc), farmers out there get the sense that birders are respectful of the place and are absolutely no trouble - so continue to be welcome...

Are you still doing traplines, AC? Thought you were no longer a ranger?

Out of interest I checked up the top 100 for Melbourne recently. I realise Melbourne does actually miss out on a heap of Aussie birds with the species count rocketing up as you travel North but still.....Canterbury isn't a bad place to be!

Yep, though I think the Melbourne "county" on ebird is a lot smaller than Canterbury. I could be wrong but I don't think Weribee is even included.

Yeah, thought that after I posted! The stats for Victoria were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay higher!

Hi folks, just a look at how the Canterbury BIG YEAR is shaping up as we enter the final 2 months of 2019.

Over 100 people have submitted ebird lists so far and the tally exceeds 6000 (with Phil Crutchley responsible indvidually for more than 1000 of those). There's been more than 14 thousand hits on the topic in BirdingNZ which is quite an incredible number. As a result of everyone's interest and bird-finding efforts 162 species have been found in Canterbury this year. That's a pretty impressive tally and no doubt more species will be found as summer migrants and seabirds are spotted. The Regional rankings for ebird are currently as follows:



And so far within Canty 9 birders have found 100 species or more.

Hi all. noticed quite a few reported Bittern sightings in October at hearts creek. As this is one bird thats always avoided me where are people seeing them? In the Raupo around the track to the hide or out in front? I'm 99% sure I saw one flying over the far raupo from the hide last year but it was so distant I cant really count it. Could possibly have been a heron flying in in the low light. Anyway any tips for where to concentrate our search would be great. Love to get this one on my life list yet alone the Canterbury big year list

Adam