On the Wing #11: Meanwhile, on the Cape....
In my struggle to get to 300 species before the end of the year, the start of the fall migration should be a point of joy for me. Instead, I'm feeling anxious that I won't meet my goal, despite having 277 species on my life list with the recent additions of Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), American Pipit (Anthus rubescens), Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), and Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) and the quickly closing gap that would mean I only need 23 more species in order to reach my goal.
(For clarifications sake, I didn't go on a whirlwind tour to see those birds, but instead happened to remember seeing them in the past and put them on my own list. This benefits me more than simply using eBird as I mentioned in On the Wing post #7, due to the flexibility I have with the entries in that I know I saw them within a given time period without having a particular date or time of seeing them.)
My reaction to meeting this daunting challenge has been two fold. I have made a list of productive places to bird for specific species I have had trouble seeing due to my personal inland location such as shorebirds, gulls, and more pelagic species or due to my ineptitude to being able to find them on my own. This is where services like Mass Audubon bird sightings and eBird's range maps come into play on the second method of assistance. For example out of a list of 105 species that I'm likely to see in the coming months, 48/105 listed have been seen in the last two weeks (roughly 45%) and in relation to my goal, I would only need to see 47% of those 48 species seen recently to finish my goal.
With this in mind, over the past few weeks, I've been constantly dismayed with the enormous amounts of shorebirds that were showing up on Cape Cod. Not that this is unusual, but more along the lines that I have limited access to this bounty and would mean a very easy way to rack up more new species. Every eastern species imaginable in the last few weeks has been sighted in Cape Cod, starting with the "trifecta" at South Beach in Chatham with a Marbled (L. fedoa), Hudsonian, and Bar-tailed Godwit (L. lapponica). This trend has continued with the recent sightings of a Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) at Tern Island, and two Little Stints (Calidris minuta), also at South Beach. It's having sightings like these in places I can't get to without having to spend four hours in a car on Route 6 and having to walk five miles down a beach (high tide permitting of course.... ) to see these rarities in their ever pleasant glory that really winds me up. I shouldn't get too annoyed however. I still have a chance to see 53 other species that would help advance me towards my goal and hopefully help me succeed a lot sooner than expected.
Hopefully, this coming week I can do one better and visit Parker River NWR to spy on some of their shorebirds. Hopefully, I can rack up some more species there including 2 Baird's Sandpipers (Calidris bairdii), 2 Stilt Sandpipers (Calidris himantopus), 2 Clay-colored Sparrows (Spizella pallida), and a single Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) spotted there in the past week. Wish me luck and good birding!
(For clarifications sake, I didn't go on a whirlwind tour to see those birds, but instead happened to remember seeing them in the past and put them on my own list. This benefits me more than simply using eBird as I mentioned in On the Wing post #7, due to the flexibility I have with the entries in that I know I saw them within a given time period without having a particular date or time of seeing them.)
My reaction to meeting this daunting challenge has been two fold. I have made a list of productive places to bird for specific species I have had trouble seeing due to my personal inland location such as shorebirds, gulls, and more pelagic species or due to my ineptitude to being able to find them on my own. This is where services like Mass Audubon bird sightings and eBird's range maps come into play on the second method of assistance. For example out of a list of 105 species that I'm likely to see in the coming months, 48/105 listed have been seen in the last two weeks (roughly 45%) and in relation to my goal, I would only need to see 47% of those 48 species seen recently to finish my goal.
With this in mind, over the past few weeks, I've been constantly dismayed with the enormous amounts of shorebirds that were showing up on Cape Cod. Not that this is unusual, but more along the lines that I have limited access to this bounty and would mean a very easy way to rack up more new species. Every eastern species imaginable in the last few weeks has been sighted in Cape Cod, starting with the "trifecta" at South Beach in Chatham with a Marbled (L. fedoa), Hudsonian, and Bar-tailed Godwit (L. lapponica). This trend has continued with the recent sightings of a Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) at Tern Island, and two Little Stints (Calidris minuta), also at South Beach. It's having sightings like these in places I can't get to without having to spend four hours in a car on Route 6 and having to walk five miles down a beach (high tide permitting of course.... ) to see these rarities in their ever pleasant glory that really winds me up. I shouldn't get too annoyed however. I still have a chance to see 53 other species that would help advance me towards my goal and hopefully help me succeed a lot sooner than expected.
Hopefully, this coming week I can do one better and visit Parker River NWR to spy on some of their shorebirds. Hopefully, I can rack up some more species there including 2 Baird's Sandpipers (Calidris bairdii), 2 Stilt Sandpipers (Calidris himantopus), 2 Clay-colored Sparrows (Spizella pallida), and a single Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) spotted there in the past week. Wish me luck and good birding!
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