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| White Rumped Sandpiper #250 |
I started today at 249. Unfortunately I also started the day with a migraine. I woke up about 3 am and popped some Advil. The goal for the morning was to check out a spot my friend Jan heard a Tennessee Warbler two days ago. I thought those plans would be nixed. Luckily, a few more hours sleep and another round of Advil and I was good to go. Getting the Tennessee was a long shot because it is a migrant that passes through. Needless to say, it wasn't there.
Later on Jan and I walked through Galilee Marsh hoping (again, a long shot) for a Nelson's Sparrow. We didn't see any sparrows but ended up with sixteen species. The best were a Clapper Rail we almost stepped on and a Common Nighthawk that we accidentally flushed and flew around for over a minute. After that Jan went grocery shopping and I got breakfast.
I went to the Charlestown Breachway about 1 pm. Out on the flats were Carlos Pedro, Barbara Sherman, and Wayne Munns. All three played a part and adding numbers to my list. For that I am grateful. While we were talking Carlos noticed a White Rumped Sandpiper and asked if I still needed it. I said yes, and Barbara needed it also. We looked at the shorebird. It is just a little bigger than the sandpipers it was feeding with. Bird number 250!
We birded for a while together then they left. Jan came out and we again attempted to find Nelson's Sparrow. After she crossed the Breachway safely as I made my way back to my kayak I ran across my favorite shorebird Red Knots.
Now that I reached my goal, the question remains what's next? Number one, Laurie and I are going to Maine next week and it might be a good idea to get on my bike or go for a run before then so I can enjoy the hikes.
Secondly, there are more birds to see. There are a couple I can "chase" such as Purple Finch, but for the most part, most of the birds are making baby birds north of us now. I might go after the Purple Finch on Friday with my backpack and hike around Arcadia in southwestern RI to help get into some sort of hiking shape.
By the end of July, the shorebirds will be migrating south again and there will be more birds to chase. Some of the migrating shorebirds include some really nice birds such as Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, and Western Sandpiper. The last week of September I'm going out to Block Island for a couple days to see if I can get any of the birds I missed. If I don't see any new birds I won't be disappointed, because, well...it's two days on Block Island.
I know this is sounding like a broken record, but anyone in Rode Island that has seen a lot of birds surely didn't do it alone. We all rely on bird reports from each other. Today I got to report the two Red Knots that I found. But much more often than Knot (pun intended), I am the grateful recipient of other people's reports. Even though I thanked fellow birders in a few posts back, I'm doing it again. All of the people below share info with the rest of us. So thank you- ,Mike Tucker, Carlos Pedro, Marge and Dick Bradley, Matt Schenck, Sue Palmer, Joe Kroger, Amanda Pompili, Richard Tucker, Alex Patterson, Jess Bishop, Don Heitzmann, John McGill, Barbara Sherman, Barbara Gerhart, Wayne Munns, Dan and Sue., Diane Auld, Dian Kriz, Charles (from Newport). Ed Hughes, Rachel Farrell and newest Facebook friend Kevin Rogers.
For some reason Jan StJean has taken me under her wing (pun intended again). I can't imagine it is because of my charming personality. There is no one I owe more for some really great birds (Mississippi Kite, Short Eared Owl, etc). When I'm not in the mood to chase a really good bird, I can feel her screaming at me through text messages to get my ass in the car and drive. There is no way I'd be at 250 without her help. I am grateful for the birds and the friendship.
By the Numbers-
Like it or not birding is a numbers game. Lists are a must. I have a friend that even had a species list for a 75 foot spruce in his yard. So the question becomes how many birds will I end up with? I personally think 270, give or take five birds is where I'm going to end up. I counted 18 species I have a more than average chance of seeing. Jan and Carlos think my number will be in the mid 280's. We will see. Whatever I end up at is sort of irrelevant not because I reached my goal, but because the chase is as much fun as the end result. Seriously, I got to play in the mud today for two hours watching shorebirds feed with friends, would my day have been worse if I didn't see the white rumped? (okay, maybe a little worse, but only because I was at 249)
Another question you might be wondering, if I reached 250 in five months and a day was it too easy? The answer is yes and no. Like anything else, you build your knowledge over time. I learned a lot last year and am using it this year along with what I am still learning. My previous high was 232 last year. That meant I needed 18 new birds to reach 250. But some of the birds I saw last year were so rare, they weren't going to be seen again this year. Lastly, I'm probably not going to see every single common bird that I saw last year. So realistically, I needed to get about 30 new birds MORE than my previous high. That in itself seemed like a challenge.
Everybody told me to chase the rare birds. I'm going to get the common ones, but the rare ones will add up. So that's what I did, I have chased EVERYTHING. I took seven trips to Matunack for American Bittern. I went after work for Barnacle Goose on a cold windy day at Slocum. I went to Trustom three times to get White Eyed Vireo (which isn't really rare, but a species I'd only seen a couple times). I spent hours in the cold staring at one tree to see the Yellow Breasted Chat, and more hours at Laura Carberry's feeder waiting for Evening Grosbeaks to show up. Needless to say, the numbers started to pile up. I can't count the number of days in May alone I was out the door by 6 am for 90 minutes of birding before work.
250 species
23 life birds (between last year and this year I got 49 lifers, because of that, I'll be lucky to get five next year.
5 heard only (Acadian Flycatcher, Kentucky Warbler, Sora, Virginia Rail, Ruffed Grouse)
43 species that I did not see last year
Birds by month
January 110
Feb 12
March 22
April 34
May 71
June 1
Number of species seen in Rhode Island 271. Of the 21 species I haven't seen only five have been seen by more than two people. Meaning those other 16 birds didn't stick around and someone got really lucky.
Number#1 in the state Jan StJean 257, Number#2 Carlos Pedro 255, then me at 250
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| Notice how much bigger the White-Rumped is compared to the closer Semi-palmated Sandpiper |
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