End of the Year Review

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a list person. I get made fun of by family and friends for my list making. I have a " journal" that I write down most of the stuff I do. It is really a series of lists as opposed to a " diary". I keep track of movies I've seen, separate lists of course for rentals and movie theater outings. I keep a list of books I've read, concerts I've been too, and daytrips I've been on.

I have a couple oddball lists in my journal for things like athletes with cool names ( like NY Giants defensive player Mathias Kiwanuka) and cool words like Kalamazoo. Dork ?

- yes, lets move on.

One of the most important lists I do that I try to keep on top of is animals I've seen throughout the year. Of course this means WILD ANIMALS. Zoos do not count. I have two lists. The date I see an animal and a list of total species I've seen during the year. This year I had a goal of seeing more species than I'd ever seen by July 1 than I had ever seen during a full year. How did I plan on doing this? Easy- put in the extra effort. This means going out in the woods more than normal. It means, if I hear a report of an odd bird I would drive to its location and look for it. Also, there are some fairly common animals and birds that for one reason or another I have never seen, so I had to find them. Lastly, going on organized bird walks with people that know more than me, would guarantee birds I've never seen.

The most species I had ever seen in New England in a year was 148. This includes all vertebrates ( mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians). Keep in mind the easiest to see are birds. The hardest are reptiles and amphibians. Theres only a couple frog and turtle species, and other than garter snakes, most snakes don't exactly like to pose for a picture. When it comes to fish, I have a rule that a species only counts if I caught it or if its in the water. Fish species caught by someone other than me don't count. I chose July 1 as the date because my trip out west was in the summer. Of course I was going to see species that don't live around here so they don't count in my" New England list". If I fell short of my goal its not like I'd be crushed I'd still have 1/2 a year to achieve it.

Totals:

This year in New England I saw a total of 160 species. Of those 14 were life birds. This broke down:

Mammals 13

Birds 126

Fish 12

Reptiles/Amphibians 9

I had never counted any invertebrates before. This year I decided to identify butterflies. I did this all spring but did not go out much after my vacation. I counted 10 different species. All from spring and early summer.

New England lifebirds included Red Eyed Vireo, Sedge Wren, Great Crested Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, Savannah Sparrow, Black Throated Blue Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Wilson's Pharalope, Purple Finch, Least Flycatcher, Scarlett Tanager, Sora, Eastern Wood Peeweee.

As I mentioned, some of these species are fairly common. There are enough Scarlet Tanagers around. Purple Finch is a bird I'd probably seen many times but never identified. The best bird I saw was the sedge wren at Daniel Webster Wildlife Refuge. People were driving 2-3 hours for a peek at it.

Of course every year there are notable omissions. There are some species that I should have seen and just didn't. Here are some notables. Bald Eagle ( I never made it to the Merrimack River last winter) , tiger salamander, menhaden, smallmouth bass, yellow bullhead, brown bullhead, blue wing teal, white wing scooter, surf scooter, peregrine falcon, alewives, blueback herring, American Shad, white perch, eel

Some of these omissions are easy to explain. I easily could have had many more species of fish, if I'd have gone after those species. If I'd have gone catfishing on the Charles River, I would easily would have caught both bullheads and probably eels. If I went fishing for shad on the Indianhead river I would have seen shad, alewives ( herring) and possibly sea lamprey ( yuck) and possibly brook and brown trout ( stocked). I clearly did not fish for enough species. If I would have baitfished the ocean with squid or crabs, I would possibly have caught skates, dogfish and tatoug. One anomaly is white perch. I went fishing in Norton Reservoir where the biomass is probably 80% white perch, yet after a couple hours fishing and 25 fish landed, neither DJ nor I landed one.

As for birding, I put in a lot of time during the spring. Although I could have seen a lot more warblers, I was in the places they should have been at the times they should have been there. The one place I could have seen more birds was the ocean front during the winter. I only went once. I missed out on two scooter species, red throated loon, and possible sea species like gannets. I also didn't see any grey seals. I may have seen seals if I spent time at Beavertail over the winter. I have before.

On top of species, I keep totals of certain species every year to compare to the years before. These animals include deer, moose, bear, turkeys and bald eagles. Considering how much time I spent in the woods this year my totals for these species was pathetic ( at least in New England) I saw 8 deer, 4 turkeys 1 moose and no bald eagles or bears.

Since 2002 my deer totals were 22, 68, 66, 74, 27, 34, 38, 33. Seeing 7 is a ridiculously low amount.

Since 2002 my turkey numbers were 1, 0, 20, 14, 5, 70, 40, and 82 in 2009.

My high number of bald eagles was 9 and my high for moose was last year with 17.

WESTERN VACATION

I can't really count birds and animals I saw out west on the same list . Of course I was going to see animals out there that are not in New England. Unless buffalo magically start herding up on the dunes of the Cape, I can't see wild ones in New England. That said, I saw way more wildlife out west than I ever expected. I saw more buffalo than I can count. I saw 500 pronghorn and 500 mule deer. I saw 50 bighorn sheep.I saw 14 bears. I didn't spend time birding. Any birds we saw were while hiking or looking for big animals. Ohter than in passing I really haven't wrote about my western vacation. Since the blog is about New England and you can't drive out west in one day ( as you can to Shenandoah National Park or Washington D.C.) I've decided not to write about the trip. However, in an end of the year review, I would be remiss if I didn't consider 3 wolves stalking an elk herd a memory worth remembering.

Totals from out west:

Mammals 26 ( including 19 life mammals )

Birds 58 ( including 26 life birds )

Reptiles 9 ( including 4 life lizards )

Fish 10 ( including 3 life fish )

Life mammals were: Wolf, Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Elk, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Mountain Goat, Grizzly Bear, Pika, Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel, Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, Yellow Bellied Marmot, Black Tailed Prairie Dog, White Tailed Prairie Dog, Kaibab Squirrel, Rock Squirrel, weasel, burro and longhorn cattle

Life Birds: Three Toed Woodpecker, Red Headed Woodpecker, Trumpeter Swan, Western Kingbird, Sage Grouse, Blue Grouse, Eastern Meadowlark, Western Meadowlark, Mountain Bluebird, Western Bluebird, Violet Green Swallow, Lark Sparrow, Burrowing Owl, Vesper Sparrow, Magpie, Swainson's Hawk, Golden Eagle, Western Tanager, Black Headed Grosbeak, Cliff Swallow, Upland Sandpiper, Bullock's Oriole, Pine Grosbeak, Clark's Nutcracker, Lark Bunting, Stellars Jay

Fish and Reptiles: Cutthroat Trout, Flathead Catfish, Grayling,

4 types of Lizards including Sagebrush Lizard, Western Fence Lizard, Leopard Lizard, and one that I couldn't identify.

If you looked at the list you saw longhorn cattle on the list. That is one exception to my wild animal rule. I have wanted to see longhorns since I was seven. It may not be wild but come on, its a longhorn! The burros were wild. I saw them at Custer State Park. They will beg for food from passing cars. They do have freedom over 70,000 acres and winter outside.

As for the other animals, I know how lucky I was to see them. Seeing 14 bears including 7 grizzlies was awesome. I saw 3 black bears while backpacking. I can't tell you all the memories I made. Seeing bighorn sheep ON the trail and lying there as I walked by three feet away. The memories go on and on. The west is awesome!!!

Fishing-

This was my worst year fishing in New England. I did not catch many stripers. I only targeted keeper stripers at night a couple of times. My biggest was a 34 incher caught in Providence. When I went schoolie fishing during the spring, I didn't do bad. I had some decent nights. The numbers were way down, no one caught as many as they normally do. The fall fishing for stripers was terrible. Lack of bait may have been the reason.

As for carp fishing, I did so badly, I felt like a jinx to everyone I fished with. The only place I had any real success was Lake Tiogue in Coventry. My big fish was only 18 pounds. Eighteen pounds is a respectable fish, but a little on the small side for a biggest of the year. I did so badly carp fishing, I can remember everyone I caught this year. That is not good.

I did really well spring trout fishing. I caught a fair amount of rainbows out of Falls Pond. For whatever reason, I think trout fishing is easy. I almost always catch more than the people around me and I rarely get skunked.

Out west I had a blast fishing. DJ and I did a 3 day backpacking trip just outside of Yellowstone. On the middle day we fished a mountain lake. Using flies and worms we caught so many fish we lost count. We estimate we got about 60 trout between us. I was using a two fly rig and caught 2 fish on the same cast once. Most of the fish were brookies and a few cutbows ( hybrid between rainbows and cutthroat trout) we didn't catch any monsters but it was my best day of the year. We caught all these fish in less that three hours. Since the fish were still biting when we left, I suspect we could have caught 100 trout if we tried.

The next day, while hiking out I caught a decent brookie in another lake. It was around 14 inches. It is the picture in my profile.

A week later while in Yellowstone, DJ and I hiked out to another mountain lake. Although we did not catch 60 fish, we caught a few purebred cutthoats and arctic grayling.

I did manage to learn to fly fish this summer. Although I am not an expert at it, I can at least make a cast long enough to reach the fish and apparently quiet enough so I don't spook them.

Other than my western experience, this was not my best year fishing. I spent a lot of time birding and counting species. Next year, I plan on doing a lot more fishing. I won't be trying to see 160 species. Instead of taking trips to see warblers, hopefully I can catfish or fish Wachusetts Reservoir. I really want to go fly fish around here and as usual follow my favorite quarry ( stripers) up and down the Rhode Island coast

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!