Tdgraves big year 2019

October 24, 2019

2 hours ago, Tdgraves said:

I give up

No. PLs don't. These things happen and in a catch of 400 plus it ain't easy.

Like our SLO friend I use a spreadsheet. Two pages. One to just list em in order and the enxt page to use the wonders of Windows and convert same list to A-Z.

You can of course just use the 'binoculars' to search but that is cumbersome and fraught anyway.

Simpler just to be consistent in names.

I list in name of the type not the species.

i.e. Kite. Black winged so all Kites come together rather than Yellow-vented Bulbul bunched with canaries and even Yellow-billed Kite and Oxpeckers.

Sounds complicated but it is not. It is why I list 'as seen'.

Good luck.

October 24, 2019

I wasn’t literally going to give up. It is a problem with having different parts to a trip and being under the weather :wacko: . I actually search quite a lot before posting, but I think what I will do going forward is search each and every time. I already have my list in Roberts (or equivalent) so I don’t want to duplicate work.....

October 24, 2019

1 hour ago, Tdgraves said:

I wasn’t literally going to give up.

We all knew that.

October 25, 2019

I have just spent the past two hours fruitlessly searching for a hooded vulture (only had one sighting, but I was convinced I got at least a proof shot) or a spotted flycatcher and it turns out that the other sighting was also a dusky flycatcher, so strike that. The remaingin time was spent trying to ID LBJs. I am tempted not to even add numbers and wait for your (well @Galana 's) agreement with my IDs, but what the hell??

Near Lower Sabie, KNP, 3/9/19

Canon 5D mark IV, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/2000

442 again) Southern red bishop (female)

October 25, 2019

Near Lower Sabie, KNP, 4/9/19

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 250, f 7.1, 1/800, EV +2

443) Long-tailed widowbird (female)

October 25, 2019

Near Skukuza, KNP, 5/9/19

Canon 5D mark IV, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/2500, EV +1/3

444) Village indigobird (female)

October 25, 2019

Near Satara, KNP, 7/9/19

Canon 5D mark IV, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/2500, EV +1/3

445) Dusky indigobird (female)

October 25, 2019

And that is it for KNP. A grey-backed camaroptera landed right next to me in camp in lower sabie, where there were so many birds, I didn't know which to focus on, but as soon as I spotted it, it flew off. There was a female cuckoo of some description which flew past and a pair of extremely fast falcons, which I assume must have been peregrine's but no shots of either. If I ever find a shot of a red-headed weaver, then that can be added, but I have already looked three times

October 25, 2019

4 hours ago, Tdgraves said:

but what the hell??

Exactly.

For 444 please visit @Dave Williams's thread for ID purposes. "Village Indigo - Red bill, legs and feet differentiate both male and female from other Indigo birds.

More likely to be Purple and the same darn leg colour also puts your Dusky in doubt too.

October 26, 2019

You did better than I did on your trip, I think you have around the 170 mark, and you did it in half the time too! Mind you the longer you stay the less the return I suppose. I also had the disadvantage that having already been to Africa this year I saw a fair few that I couldn't count. I guess the biggest disappointment was our day out to Pafuri and Punda Maria. We arrived at Parfuri at 10.00am and most birds seem to have gone in to deep cover. I added just one new bird for the whole day! Then there's the ones were you don't have the camera to hand, or you stop the car and the bird immediately flies off. Frustrating!

As for recording the list, I use a spreadsheet too. A list for each trip and a grand total one.I leave the trip list in the order I have posted them in so I can check back if the numbers don't match. To be honest it takes a lot less time than the amount you must spend adding dates and camera details, all of which are there for everyone to see if you click on one of your photos as it takes you straight to your Flickr page. You really could do yourself a favour and save an awful lot of time.Just my opinion of course.

October 26, 2019

@Galana are you saying that the bill and legs are not red enough in 444? To my eyes, 444 and 445 are different birds...

@Dave Williams 181 (if I only have 1 indigobird) which is probably the best ever (would know definitely if I had not allowed the Roberts app to delete my old lists last year :wacko: ). I only add new birds, so the app would have the date that the bird was first seen, but not subsequent sightings.

I don’t think we added too many in Pafuri, but it was just a lovely day out.

October 26, 2019

5 hours ago, Tdgraves said:

@Galana are you saying that the bill and legs are not red enough in 444?

In my opinion, yes! The bill should be almost waxbill red for Village. (Except in the Okavango :rolleyes: )

Same with the legs of 445 in RSA I think.

October 29, 2019

OK, the great man has spoken and 444 is purple indigobird, as is 445 apparently, so one off of the score. The next batch are from a B&B near Rietvlei dam. As our friends have moved to Cape Town, we no longer have free bed and board in Joburg. It seemed pointless to battle the traffic and probably pay more to stay in the centre of town, just for the sake of it, so I looked for B&Bs near the dam, which would also give us something to do on the last day, as well as only being an easy 30 min drive to the airport. I was pleasantly surprised with the Pheasant hill B&B. Despite being right on the R21, it is a lovely old house with gardens (and of course, birds!). It is also approx. 0.5 km from the entrance to Rietvlei!