Tag Archives: big year

County Big Year Goals – February

January was a good birding month for me in Washington County.  I missed by monthly goal of 35 by one but also picked up several birds I didn’t expect: a Bald Eagle and a Barred Owl, and saw my nemesis bird, the Northern Shrike, for the first time.  I now see one at least weekly but we knew that would happen. I got two new life birds, the aforementioned shrike and a Barrow’s Goldeneye (over in Chittenden County.)  In spite of my whining about missing Texas birds, it was a good winter birding month.

The best January bird was this handsome Bald Eagle along the Dog River just south of Montpelier.  Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Settings: 1/160 ƒ/6.5 ISO 640  215 mm

The best January bird was this handsome Bald Eagle along the Dog River just south of Montpelier. Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Settings: 1/160 ƒ/6.5 ISO 640 215 mm

Looking over the birds I missed in January, I’m only concerned about one — Pine Grosbeak —  because if I don’t get them now they may not  be here in November or December this year. I have reviewed historic eBird sightings in Washington County for February and frankly, there aren’t a lot to add to my missing list.  Things will heat up a bit in March as early migrants return.

Here’s the list of birds I am targeting for February:

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Black-backed Gull  (a little iffy but seen at Grow Compost)

Golden-crowned Kinglet (I know they are here but hard to spot, or hear)

Cedar Waxwing

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Pine Grosbeak

Purple Finch

Pine Siskin

House Sparrow (I’ve been walking around parking garages and strip malls with no luck)

Red-winged Blackbird (Perhaps an early returnee)

Common Grackle  (Perhaps an early returnee)

Brown-headed Cowbird  (Perhaps an early returnee)

While I know I won’t get all of these, I may pick up something I hadn’t counted on so my modest February goal is 14 more for a total of 48.  Stay tuned.

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County Big Year – Good First Day

We awoke to more new snow and a stiff Northwest wind, and a forecast for even colder temperatures.  It stays dark until about 7:00 AM but sure enough, at 7:05 the first Black-capped Chickadee visited with window feeder.  Right after that, a Common Redpoll came to the thistle seed feeder and then the parade of hungry birds started.

Our first bird of 2013 was a Black-capped Chickadee.  photo by Mac Mansfield.

Our first bird of 2013 was a Black-capped Chickadee. photo by Mac Mansfield.

Shortly afterwards, I took our Vizsla out on a cold birding snowshoe outing but most of the birds still around were back at the house chowing down.  We then went out and birded for an hour at North Branch Nature Center and got a lot of exercise but few birds.

I had figured that there were about 15 species here in the County this month.  When I returned home, the feeders were alive with redpolls and after studying them for some time, I spotted a Hoary Redpoll right next to a Common Redpoll.  By noontime, I had logged the following birds:

American Crow
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Redpoll
Hoary Redpoll
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Dark-eyed Junco

It was a good first day. Tomorrow’s temperature is supposed to be even colder. Is is OK if I crank up the wood fire and hope for a Downy Woodpecker and a Brown Creeper at the feeders?

County Big Year – Goal Setting

As I plan for a Big Year for the county, I’ve been looking over the data on eBird for Washington County for counts of birds for the last few years.  This year’s reports have new records — 196 for the county and 167 by the top individual, the team Fred & Chris Pratt.  They are gone three months of the year which makes the feat even more impressive.

The Hairy that hits our suet daily should be an easy New Year's Day county tick.

The Hairy that hits our suet daily should be an easy New Year’s Day county tick.

We had finch irruptions this year but few if any rare species like the Northern Hawk Owl or Varied Thrush of former years so based on about 200 species for the county, I’m going to to set a personal target of 170 species in Washington County for 2013.  (I have only logged 132 species for this year although we were gone from the state quite a bit.)  So, off we start next week.

I'm hoping that the Common Redpolls that are overrunning our feeders will stay for another week -- or longer.

I’m hoping that the Common Redpolls that are overrunning our feeders will stay for another week — or longer.

I decided to set some monthly goals as well based on past arrivals of species on eBird.  I took a look at January bird records and set a target of 35 species for the month.  Many of them will be easy (crow, chickadee, blue jay, nuthatches,etc) but I’m hoping to see Bohemian Waxwings, which I’ve missed this year, a Northern Shrike, which is a nemesis bird for me, and a return of Pine Siskins and Pine Grosbeaks.  The waterways have pretty much frozen up so the Mallard and mergansers I have on the list may have to wait until later.  I also need the Common Redpolls to hang around for another week.

White-breasted Nuthatches, like this one visiting today, are here all winter (along with their red-breasted cousins.

White-breasted Nuthatches, like this one visiting today, are here all winter (along with their red-breasted cousins.

The next step in my planning will be to spend more time with maps of the county, putting together a list of hot spots and areas that have potential that I’ve never visited.

Given the new two feet of powder, I have a feeling that much of my January birding will be on snowshoes or XC skis.  Oh Darn!

Planning for a Washington County Big Year

Previously, I wrote that I was looking into doing a big year in 2013 since we are staying in Vermont this winter.  I was considering a state-wide effort but after giving it more thought, felt that it would be a nice challenge to bird Washington County — it’s more energy-efficient, time-efficient, and manageable with having to bird mostly with a dog along.

"I hear you're planning a big year -- can't wait."

“I hear you’re planning a big year — can’t wait.”

So, I’m already learning a lot as I plan.  We have lived in this county for about 25 years total — including the last 13 — and I am just now learning the boundaries.  It’s a 695 square miles with lot of zigs and zags.  There are only a few bodies of water so we look for shorebirds in flooded cornfields.  Here is some material that my friends at North Branch Nature Center put together for a county contest a year ago.

Q: What birds can be found in Vermont / Washington County?
A:
  –  Vermont Daily Field Card: This is a great checklist that can be used for day-to-day
birding in Vermont. It includes rarity and time of year for each species.
  –  Bird Checklist for NBNC & Surrounding Parks: This checklist was designed for use at
NBNC and surrounging parks but also includes directions to some other local hotspots.
  –  Vermont State List: A list of all birds ever seen in Vermont, even if they were only
seen once.
  –  Breeding Bird Atlas: Contains a list of known breeding birds in Vermont and includes
maps of where breeding has occured.
  –  Vermont eBird Bar Chart: The powerful eBird website allows for a bar chart displaying the
frequency at which birds occur throughout the year in our state. You can submit your
sightings to eBird too! (added 1/12/10)
  –  Washington County eBird Bar Chart: Similar to above and specific to Washington Co.

Q: Where are the best places to see birds in Vermont / Washington County?
A:
–  VT eBird: Has a list of birding “hot spots” and even allows you to see which birds have
been reported at those sites.
  –  Birding Guide to Chittenden County: A resource from Green Mountain Audubon.   –  Birdwatching in Vermont, by Bryan Pfeiffer and Ted Murin, is an excellent resource
for birding in the state.
  –  Birdwatching in the Mad River Valley: The “Mad Birders” have posted a list of places to
bird in the Mad River Valley on their website.
–  Lake Champlain Birding Trail: A free guide to birding spots along the lake.
–  Connecticut River Birding Trail: A $5 guide to birding spots along the Connecticut.

Q: What are good Identification Guides?
A: There are many great identification guides and you may ultimately want to obtain several. Some have different features and/or styles such as detailed life history, range maps that appear next to plates, photos vs. illustrations, etc. Some may be small & compact (for field use) while others may be bulky but comprehensive. Furthermore, some guides are specific to a certain region (ie, Eastern vs. Western) or type of bird (Gulls, warblers, shorebirds, etc.) Below are some suggestions:
–  Cornell’s “All About Birds”: an free, online guide
–  Sibley Guides
–  Peterson Guides
–  Audubon Guides
–  Stokes Guides
–  National Geographic Guides
–  Kaufman Guides

Q: What Towns are in Washington County?
A:Washington

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A Big Year for 2013?

Since we are not traveling to the Southwest this winter, I’ve been giving some thought to doing a low key birding big year.  I have no interest in a national effort but at first was thinking about a Vermont big year.  I’m gravitating toward a Washington County big year but we’ll see as this year ends and plans for next year firm up a bit.

I’ve read a number of big year books and blogs and enjoy many of the quests, as crazy as they might get.  As we know, a big year is an informal quest among birders to see who can see or hear the largest number of species of birds within a single calendar year and within a specific geographical area. A big year may be done within a single US state, a Canadian province, within the lower 48 continental U.S. states, or within the official American Birding Association Area.  Here’s some historical information from Wikipedia:

The earliest known continent wide Big Year record was compiled by Guy Emerson, a traveling businessman, who timed his business trips to coincide with the best birding seasons for different areas in North America. His best year was in 1939 when he saw 497 species. In 1952, Emerson’s record was broken by Bob Smart, who saw 510 species.[1]

In 1953, Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher took a 30,000 mile road trip visiting the wild places of North America. In 1955, they told the story of their travels in a book and a documentary film, both called Wild America. In one of the footnotes to the book Peterson said “My year’s list at the end of 1953 was 572 species.” In 1956 the bar was raised when a 25-year-old Englishman named Stuart Keith, following Peterson and Fisher’s route, compiled a list of 598 species.

Keith’s record stood for 15 years. In 1971, 18-year-old Ted Parker, in his last semester of high school in southeastern Pennsylvania, birded the eastern seaboard of North America extensively. That September, Parker enrolled in the University of Arizona in Tucson and found dozens of Southwestern U.S. and Pacific coast specialities. He ended the year with a list of 627 species. (Before his death in 1993, Parker went on to become one of the world’s most renowned field ornithologists, and the acknowledged leading expert on the birds of the American tropics. He is recognized as an influential birder today.)

In 1973 Kenn Kaufman and another birder, Floyd Murdoch, went after Parker’s record. As recounted in the book Kingbird Highway, both broke the old record by a wide margin. Murdoch finished with 669 in the newly-described ABA area (North America north of Mexico, essentially) and Kaufman had 666. Kaufman set a North American record of 671 species, with the addition of five species that he had seen in Baja California.

Murdoch’s record was broken in 1979 by James M. Vardaman, as recorded in his book Call Collect, Ask for Birdman. Vardaman saw 699 species that year and travelled 161,332 miles (137,145 by airplane; 20,305 by car; 3,337 by boat; 160 by bicycle; and 385 by foot). Benton Basham, in 1983, topped that with a total of 710. 1987 marked the second time that there was a competition during a single year, with Steve Perry ending up with 711 and Sandy Komito setting a new standard with 721. In 1992 Bill Rydell made a serious attempt at the record and ended with 714 species for the year.

Big year competitors of 1998 were the subject of a book, The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik. Three birders, Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller, chased Komito’s prior record of 721 birds. In the end Komito kept the record, listing 745 species[2] birds plus 3 submitted in 1998 and later accepted by state committees for a revised total of 748.[3] The book was adapted for the 2011 20th Century Fox film The Big Year.

In 2005, Lynn Barber did a big year in the state of Texas and saw a record 522 bird species. In 2008, she did a big year in the ABA area (see above) and finished with 723 bird species.[4]

Starting in the summer of 2007, teenager Malkolm Boothroyd and his parents, Ken Madsen and Wendy Boothroyd, attempted a big year without the use of fossil fuels by planning to bicycle over 10,000 miles to get over 400 species for the year.[5] They started in their home province of the Yukon Territory, rode down the Pacific Coast, looping back around Arkansas to catch the Texas spring migration, then eastward to Florida. They dubbed this attempt a “bird year,” rather than a big year. In the end, they covered more than 13,000 miles by bicycle and tallied 548 species, raising more than $25,000 for bird conservation in the process.

In 2010, Chapel Hill, North Carolina birder Chris Hitt set out to try to find as many different species of birds as he could in the lower 48 states (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the country of Canada) while enjoying good food and the company of friends. He became the first birder to see 700+ species in the lower 48 in a single year, finishing with 704.[6] In the same year, Virginia birder Bob Ake generated the second highest total for a continental big year, ending the year with 731 species, an extraordinary total achieved without the benefit of the relatively unique weather effects of 1998.[7] Also in 2010, John Spahr finished his ABA area big year with 704 species.

The highest total for a mixed gender couple was also in 2010, Claire Spengler and Kyle Martin; who combined for 728 species. The couple spotted a majority of their birds in the Northeast United States.

In 2011, Colorado birder John Vanderpoel set out to complete a big year and had spotted over 700 species before November. Vanderpoel was considered a threat to Sandy Komito’s big year record of 745 species, and was reportedly the fastest birder on record to reach 700 species in a year. However, ultimately John only managed 744 birds, missing out on the record by 1.[8]

Published big year books

  • Wild America (1955) by Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher
  • Call Collect, Ask for Birdman (1980) by James M. Vardaman
  • Looking for the Wild (1986) by Lyn Hancock
  • The Loonatic Journals (1987) by Steven Perry
  • Birding’s Indiana Jones: A Chaser’s Diary (1990) by Sandy Komito
  • The Feather Quest (1992) by Pete Dunne
  • A Year for the Birds (1995) by William B. Rydell, Jr.
  • Kingbird Highway: The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand (1997) by Kenn Kaufman
  • I Came, I Saw, I Counted (1999) by Sandy Komito
  • Chasing Birds Across Texas: A Birding Big Year (2003) by Mark T. Adams
  • The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession (2004) by Mark Obmascik (later the basis for a 2011 comedy film distributed by 20th Century Fox)
  • Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent’s Natural Soul (2005) by Scott Weidensaul
  • The Big Twitch (2005) by Sean Dooley (an Australian “Big Year”)
  • The Biggest Twitch: Around the World in 4,000 Birds (2010) by Alan Davies and Ruth Miller
  • Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year (2011) by Lynn E. Barber

References

  1. ^ Kaufman, Kenn: Kingbird Highway: The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand; Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997, p. 16.
  2. ^ http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/Attu.html
  3. ^ http://www.nabirding.com/2011/11/08/interview-with-sandy-komito-745-or-748/
  4. ^ Barber, Lynn (2011). Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-60344-261-9.
  5. ^ Stewart, Ian. “A big green year for the birds”. Yukon News. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  6. ^ Slow Birding: the big year meets the big night
  7. ^ Bob’s Birds and Things
  8. ^ Atlantic Monthly October, 2011