Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As many people probably already know, I'm a little bit loopy. Verbally, action-wise, and philosophically, I'm completely off the wall. It's an asset in a job where I'm both batty about nature and batty in general. However, despite my setbacks with my old computer what with losing my life list, year list, and SBMWA property bird list, I'm still determined to hit 350 species this year. I currently have 316 with the most recent edition being a Louisiana Waterthrush ( Parkesia motacilla ) seen in the Stony Brook a few weeks ago at camp. I'm hoping for some excellent migrants in the form of shorebirds, songbirds, and shearwaters. Yeah. You heard me! Welshie's going to sea and wants to find himself some mutton birds! Okay, okay...maybe not that badly, but a whale watch is definitely an excellent excuse to look for pelagic birds like shearwaters, gannets, and terns. Who knows? I might even seen some storm-petrels. It's only mid-August after all and I figur...

It's the middle of the summer (although some might argue that the middle of the summer would be around August 6th) and the lull before migration is weighing in. There have been a few bright spots such as the recent sighting of that Red-necked Stint ( Calidris ruficollis ) in Parker River NWR and at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, as well as the many Little Gulls ( Hydrocoloeus minutus ) dotted around the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes. With my other computer in less than perfect condition, I have to rebuild my bird list from scratch, starting with the difficult decision to scrap all bird records without sufficient dates. I know I've seen them before, but I don't know when. As a result, I have no better recollection of what I might have seen and what I might not have seen and as a result, the numbers on the list will suffer. This does throw the goal of 350 birds into jeopardy as well and at the moment, I'll have to see what the list looks like without those dateless species fi...