Birding Year in Review

I just finished compiling a list of the number of birds that Libby and I saw in the last year, and it turns out it was a pretty productive year birding for us. A lot of birders keep "year lists" - some compete to compile the largest - in North America and the whole world. We weren't competing (we didn't even seek out birds solely for the sake of the year list), but I thought that with all the traveling we did around the country in 2009, it might be interesting to put one together.

So, the results are as follows:

We saw 402 different species of "countable" birds this past year. We also heard, without seeing, a further eight. We also saw three species that aren't countable, but exist in self-sustaining breeding populations, so they're not included in that total (Nutmeg Mannikin, Orange Bishop, and Aplomado Falcon in south Texas).

402 is larger than our life lists were at the end of 2008. Our lists at the moment are around 470, including lifers from so far in 2010.

Looking over the list, it serves as a kind of journal of the past year's travels and experiences. We birded in five states: California, Arizona, New Mexico (just the morning of the January First!), Texas and New York. We saw birds in southwestern pine forests, sub-tropical thorn scrub, the Sonoran desert, eastern deciduous forests, and at the edge of the Pacific Ocean; naming only a few habitats. We birded from over 10,000' above sea level to 226' below it.

We saw over 100 new birds last year. Our first new birds of the year were Black and Brown-capped Rosy Finches at Sandia Crest in New Mexico on January 1st, and our last new bird of the year was a Black-capped Gnatcatcher at Patagonia Lake in Arizona on December 31. In between, the bulk of our new birds were from Texas.

From the birds not on the list, one can tell where we in North America we did not go. We didn't go north during the winter, to the Atlantic coast, to the southeast, Alaska or Florida. We didn't go to sea (no Pelagic birds) or birding in the dark (few owls).

It's also interesting the birds we just missed. We went to the Central Valley area, but we never saw Yellow-billed Magpies. We birded in southern California and Arizona, but we missed Rufous-crowned Sparrows (but saw them on Dec 29, 2008!). We visited the Sierras and the local mountains, but we missed a few mountain species - most conspicuously White-headed Woodpecker.

My favorite bird of the year was probably the Crimson-collared Grosbeak in Texas. Other personal highlights would include Painted Buntings in Texas, the male Blackburnian Warbler and pair of Scarlet Tanagers in New York, finding the southeast Arizona warblers and Sinaloa Wren, and the Prothonotary Warbler that showed up in Creek Park.

Speaking of Creek Park, local birding was pretty good for us this fall, too. Creek Park hosted Lucy's Warbler, American Redstart, Vesper's Sparrow, and Summer Tanager in addition to the Prothonotary Warbler and Dusky-capped Flycatcher. A Black-and-White Warbler was at Neff Park, and Libby found a Tropical Kingbird when we went looking for the Wood Stork at the Whittier Narrows which many people have seen since!

All in all, it was a pretty remarkable year. This year will involve less travelling and fewer birds, and that's OK. For us, it's not about the numbers so much as it is about the experiences. After all, the numbers are only a reflection of all things we'll have to remember: the places we went, the birds that were there, and the people we saw them with.

Here's to more rich experiences in 2010!