On the Wing #7: Reaching the 300

I've made a goal for myself. A birding goal of course. I've made it my business for the last few months to reach 300 bird species on my life list. What I've learned so far is that: 1. Birding by how many you've seen and how many you've yet to see can be maddening, time-consuming, and yet extraordinarily good fun. 2. Rare birds are often more trouble than they're worth. And 3. While the pursuit of the goal is often the main driver, just the shear enjoyment of the task makes it all worthwhile.

This isn't one of those projects started in the new year as a resolution and slowly forgotten over the ensuing months. This was a journey born from the books I brought on vacation to Florida this March. One was based on the musings of an English teacher from Chapel Hill, North Carolina entitled "The Verb "To Bird"" I'm not sure where I got this book, but I go back to it from time to time to read a certain section (the anecdote about the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) always makes me smile) or just to read a literary interpretation of his many birding trips around his neighborhood. Pythagorean Warblers aside, The other book entitled "The Big Year" was recommended to me by my girlfriend who I was accompanying, along with her mother to Florida to visit her grandfather. Now I've seen the movie and read the book; to compare the literary interpretations of book to what was represented in the movie and what inaccuracies there was and so forth, isn't the point of this blog posting. I do however think that both kindled an interest in trying to find as many new species as possible.

Before this and even now as I'm writing this, I would describe my birding habits as "needs work"."Needs work" in the sense of my willingness to get up and go somewhere, as opposed to my inability to identify some birds (although shorebirds and warblers continue to be a chore and they always will be). This was clearly evidenced early this winter when several birds I've never seen before including Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) at Parker River, Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) at Jamaica Pond in Boston, and Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) in Pittsfield, Maine. While I'd never seen these species before, I figured I'd get around to seeing them at some point so why bother. My lackadaisical pursuit of new species continued until the aforementioned Florida trip. It was during this spring break that I formulated my goal. From that point on until December 31st, 2012, I would make it my primary business and purpose to reach 300 species of birds on my life list. During that trip to Florida I picked up thirteen new species including Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens), Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri), Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina), Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia), and Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). The last bird was a surprise indeed. The spoonbill I saw was feeding in a wet ditch by the side of the runway as the plane we were taking home was taxiing away. Upon siting the bird, I remember audibly crying "Are you kidding me?!". It was an excellent way to end the trip for me at least.

Since that point I have sighted seventeen more species including several at Assateague and Chincoteague Islands (mostly shorebirds and one scoter species) as well as an extremely rare sighting for Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge that came in the form of a Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis). (On the Wing #5a and #5b focus on that sighting and describe the circumstances of where I found the bird). I also saw it again recently when I went to Great Meadows to scout out some rails for the list as well. It flew past me in the waning hours of daylight, squeaking as it went. I managed to find a calling Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) as well.

Now I've reached an interesting point in my journey. I currently have 243 birds on my eBird account list, but I have seen many more birds than that list represents. The main problem is that I have seen many European species when I lived back in Wales and I don't have accurate dates as to when I saw them back then. Counting them and a few others from stateside that I don't have records for either, the total comes to 31 species which would bump my list up to 267 which is much closer to my goal than I previously realized. What this means for me is that I either keep listing from eBird perspective with correct dates or a mixed perspective including species that I've seen, but have no records for. What makes the most sense for me at this present time is that in order to reach the goal and I actually have seen 267 species as opposed to what's listed on eBird. This makes for a whole lot more sense than simply relying on the limited data I have stored in it and since I only started listing in 2010 and have added birds from much earlier as well. (Some entries came from some very old journals dating back to 2005 and others are based on memory, but I do remember seeing them and try to give as accurate a date to them as possible) I presupposed that in my pursuit to keep things neat and tidy, I was unable to recognize the value of those former sightings and in a weird way, assumed I would have to sight them again just to have them count for this year. It's silly when I think about it now, but I'm just glad that I remember so many other birds I've seen. With 267 species on the "unofficial" list, it's swiftly become the "official" list and brought me closer to my goal. I'll continue to use eBird and list those other birds to the best of my memory's ability to get a fuller picture of what I've seen.

And for those of you wondering what species I have seen but have little to no record for, here are two separate lists consisting of UK sightings and US sightings:

United Kingdom (Most if not all in Wales):

Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus)

Redwing (Turdus iliacus)

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

European Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)

Eurasian Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Eurasian Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes)

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

Common Gull (Larus canus)

European Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)

Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus)

European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus)

Eurasian Golden-Plover (Pluvialus apricaria)

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

Sand Martin (Riparia riparia)

Gargeney (Anas querquedula)

Smew (Mergus albellus)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) 

Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)

United States:

Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)

Yellow-billed/Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus spp.)

Eastern Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus)

Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum)

Fox Sparrow (Passerella ilicia)

I think I'll keep a backup list on Microsoft Excel (and in taxonomic order just to keep me sane...yeah right) to keep an accurate list of what I've seen and what's to come. 300 birds here I come!

P.S. You can check back at the end of the year to see if I hit the mark or not. I really hope so and with these revised numbers, I should be able to.