Big Year (birders wake up)

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dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Mar 3, 2013 - 06:30pm PT
Craig, Dark Eyed Junco, but you knew that!
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Mar 4, 2013 - 12:04am PT
So here is my list. If there is any interest (probably even if not), I'll merge all the posted ones and do a combined STBY list. Like most of us, I've been "birding" my whole outdoor life (for me since the 60s, but this was the first time I counted and took notes for the whole year. And for me it was also a dairy of my shoulder recuperation from a 3way first rotator cuff surgery (a bike crash dee ee!). I tried really hard and really liked parts of it. I also kind of hated what it did to my birding at times, i.e. "oh I saw that already, move on". I learned, though, and March 1 2013(aka the day after it was over), I totally tripped looking at a Lincoln's Sparrow and saw it in a way I don't think I would have a year+ ago. The difference was mainly focus and concentration.

At the moment the top three were: a lone black swift in a cold grey afternoon, busting my butt to ride in 32F rain to a place where I knew there was a Snowy Owl, and stumbling on a Bohemian Waxwing around the corner from my house, but then I start thinking about other occasions and could go on an on.

Thanks y'all and especially Tony for the help. Also thanks to a local Seattle birder Connie Sidles. ps I think Tony underreported.

1. American Crow.
2. Song Sparrow.
3. Barrow's Goldeneye.
4. Great Blue Heron.
5. American Robin.
6. European Starling.
7. Wood Duck.
8. American Wigeon.
9. Green-winged Teal.
10. Pied-billed Grebe.
11. Mallard.
12. Bufflehead.
13. Northern Shoveler.
14. American Coot.
15. Black-capped Chickadee.
16. Double-crested Cormorant.
17. Killdeer.
18. Bewick's Wren.
19. House Sparrow.
20. Steller's Jay.
21. Bushtit.
22. House Finch.
23. Spotted Towhee.
24. Golden-crowned Sparrow.
25. Bald Eagle.
26. Dark-eyed Junco.
27. Gadwall.
28. Canada Goose.
29. Common Goldeneye.
30. Red-winged Blackbird.
31. Yellow-rumped Warbler.
32. Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
33. White-crowned Sparrow.
34. Glaucous-winged Gull.
35. Chestnut-backed Chickadee.
36. Northern Flicker.
37. Pine Siskin.
38. Eurasian Wigeon.
39. Ring-necked Duck.
40. Common Merganser.
41. Red-tailed Hawk.
42. Virginia Rail.
43. California Gull.
44. Mew Gull.
45. Violet-green Swallow.
46. Brown Creeper.
47. Downy Woodpecker.
48. Marsh Wren.
49. Tree Swallow.
50. Rock Pigeon.
51. Belted Kingfisher.
52. Surf Scoter.
53. Brant.
54. Red-necked Grebe.
55. Greater Scaup.
56. Lesser Scaup.
57. Lincoln's Sparrow.
58. Savannah Sparrow.
59. Cedar Waxwing.
60. Fox Sparrow.
61. Anna's Hummingbird.
62. Red-breasted Merganser.
63. Cooper's Hawk.
64. Barn Swallow.
65. Cliff Swallow.
66. Western Meadowlark.
67. Osprey.
68. Common Yellowthroat.
69. Golden-crowned Kinglet.
70. Barred Owl.
71. Pileated Woodpecker.
72. Cinnamon Teal.
73. Dunlin.
74. Hermit Thrush.
75. Pacific Wren.
76. Orange-crowned Warbler.
77. Wilson's Warbler.
78. Vaux's Swift.
79. Least Sandpiper.
80. Brewer's Blackbird.
81. Warbling Vireo.
82. Yellow Warbler.
83. Caspian Tern.
84. Horned Grebe.
85. Pigeon Guillemot.
86. Western Gull.
87. Townsend's Warbler.
88. Western Grebe.
89. Marbled Murrelet.
90. Western Tanager.
91. Pacific-slope Flycatcher.
92. Blue-winged Teal.
93. Pectoral Sandpiper.
94. Sharp-shinned Hawk.
95. Northern Rough-winged Swallow.
96. Black-headed Grosbeak.
97. Merlin.
98. Willow Flycatcher.
99. Black-throated Gray Warbler.
100. Swainson's Thrush.
101. Western Wood-Pewee.
102. Western Kingbird.
103. Black Swift.
104. California Quail.
105. Spotted Sandpiper.
106. Ruddy Duck.
107. Purple Martin.
108. Rufous Hummingbird.
109. Semipalmated Sandpiper.
110. Greater Yellowlegs.
111. Long-billed Dowitcher.
112. Peregrine Falcon.
113. Western Sandpiper.
114. Northern Pintail.
115. Green Heron.
116. Red-breasted Nuthatch.
117. Greater White-fronted Goose.
118. Northern Shrike.
119. Cackling Goose.
120. Wilson's Snipe.
121. Purple Finch.
122. Heermann's Gull.
123. Common Loon.
124. Northern Harrier.
125. Snowy Owl.
126. Snow Goose.
127. Trumpeter Swan.
128. Herring Gull.
129. Ring-billed Gull.
130. Bohemian Waxwing.
131. Varied Thrush.
132. Red Crossbill.
133. Black Turnstone.
134. Surfbird.
135. Pelagic Cormorant.
136. Canvasback.
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Mar 4, 2013 - 10:33am PT
Good point Tami. I just didn't feel comfortable ID'ing them. I see flocks of Crows, and there appears to be two distinct size populations, but I just couldn't bring myself to claim them. Maybe photographs! Tony had the idea of finding a feathers on the ground and sending them in for genetic analysis. I've got to start climbing again!!!!
perswig

climber
Mar 4, 2013 - 12:49pm PT
You guys are awesome.
Thanks for letting us hike/ride along - vicarious birding!

Dale
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Mar 4, 2013 - 12:49pm PT
Nice y'all!
Darwin, I would be interested in our total.
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Mar 4, 2013 - 11:55pm PT
Dave(right dee ee?) and Tony;

Between the three of us, a'hem who posted, I get 228 birds. I would like to go over my merging script a little more before "publishing". And maybe some others will contribute. We're all on the West Coast, and I sure would like to hear form those, oh say, in Colorado, gee who could that be?, or Arizona or New Mexico or, a'hem a'hem, the Gulf of East Coast. You know you look out your window and see something we'all out here don't see, like a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a Roseate Spoonbill, or even a Cardinal.

(edit): One can only ponder what wonders lie out on the Kenai.

I was looking for a Red-headed Duck the last day of the stby but missed it even though it was only 200 yards from my place of work. But it stuck around, and I saw it yesterday and today. It insisted on staying right in line with the sun, but nonetheless here are some photos.
They really do dive that way.



Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Mar 5, 2013 - 01:21am PT
Timid;
w.r.t Ferruginous Hawk, I think that's a first for the list. Oh and, Golden Eagle. I didn't go through the rest.

Tami,
Do you call them South-West Crows? ;-) Maybe a better name would be Salish Sea Crows.
We have a big fly by for crows going to their roosts here in the U District. Sometimes it's transcendental, other times I have to admit that it gives me the willies. Did you get a beautiful but a little cold and breezy day up there in Vancouver today? We had one of the nicest days of the winter here.
DanaB

climber
CT
Mar 5, 2013 - 07:23am PT
Fascinating birds, the crow !!!!

Anyone who likes crows and knows what a murder is

is pretty okay in my book.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Mar 5, 2013 - 09:57am PT

Hurray for Corvidae!!!!
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Nov 25, 2013 - 11:16am PT

Hang with me. This does turn around to being entirely on topic.
I was down in the Bay Area visiting family and friends. We had a tentative trip to Parkline Slabs planned, but what with the short days and just perhaps a glass too many of red wine, we bailed to the Berkeley climbing gym Ironworks. I usually have a hard time with climbing gyms (not fun and too difficult), but I had a blast this time.

Tony, being,the super birder that he is, had heard that there was a Painted Redstart nearby in Berkeley, and we headed up to look for it. After a little search we came upon other birders that led us to the tree with the Redstart. The day had great light, and we had great views of it for as long as we stuck around. Also as we walked up, I notice a fairly heavily loaded touring bike and I immediately looked around trying to figure out who was the birding biker. The biker introduced himself first as Mark Kudrav, and he is on a green (bicycle only) big year. He threw himself into it a WHOLE LOT more than any of us did at least w.r.t time an bike miles invested. I'm not providing the spoilers of his distance covered and #birds, but it's impressive. Check out his blog

http://greenbigyear2013.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html


He seemed like a really nice guy.
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Nov 26, 2013 - 12:05am PT


bump.

And another friend saw the Redstart today. 2013/11/25
amyjo

Trad climber
Nov 26, 2013 - 01:09am PT
Me too!

Three days ago, in the rain.
Spinning front & back like a weathervane.

Any chance you might know what that Oak was
it was in. The only cones I could find were
really really tiny...
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Nov 26, 2013 - 06:42am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]Filmed on the 23rd Nov.
This is murder, keeping track of what the local crow gangs are doing.
Last evening, only two days after this aerial melee, I was standing on the corner opposite the park, had my tripod and camera ready and waiting, but saw not one crow!

I saw my son, Scottie, though, come walking up through the murky twilight, and he was taking my picture with his phone!

What I think is happening here with the crows is that their evening roosts vary between the park and some other spots in the city, nearby, but not right there. I have seen them off in the northwest from the Tioga, as well as to the north, and they pull off an aerial gang fight every so often, like the one I filmed from my window.

I don't understand, simply, how they get to be so "choosy"--if that's the word--but it may not be a choice. It may be that there is a good reason they move around, or maybe not.

To meld with the mind of a crow, or the collective crow mind, would be an experience, since they live so long. I'll have to talk to Don Juan abut this.

Here is another tuber on crows, more like what I wanted last night.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
steveA

Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
Nov 26, 2013 - 07:32am PT
Crow's--one of the most intelligent of all animals.
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