One Month Down, Halfway There

Life photo, Common Murre

I may have never said this phrase in the last 45 years, but January was fun. I spent all of my days off outside. Despite not doing a "big year" I racked up 125 species of birds in the first month of the year. Since I am only hoping to reach 250, I am more than satisfied.  I am actually ahead of where I was at the end of January last year (110). I have managed more birds even though I am only birding on weekends. I only "chased"one bird after work all month and that was a White Pelican. 

   The main reason I have seen more species, is there are more species to see. Last year, 143 species were seen in January. This year there has been 153. Many of the end of the year birds have stuck around. Even though I have seen fifteen more birds than the first month of last year, I am a cellar dweller in the standings. I am 8th out of fourteen but I had Thurs/Fri off and most people will have the weekend off. I have been hovering around tenth or eleventh and probably will again by Monday.

Enough about stats. I had a really fun two days. I birded twenty two hours over two days and that doesn't include my hour drive each way, each day. I went to over a dozen hotspots, and really just enjoyed myself.

I had two goals for my days off. I wanted to see the Tufted Duck, and because I was within reach, I wanted to reach 125 species. I needed seven. I had plans for Friday to take the Block Island Ferry with my friend Jan but other than that I mostly birded alone.

Tufted Duck

Even though I saw a lot of birds last year, I didn't see all of the waterfowl in the state. I missed one, Tundra Swans. I thought for sure they would show up but they never showed n the mainland. We found out later that Tundra Swans did show up on Block Island, so on January 2 a bunch of us went to the island to see them. Since then, the waterfowl have been spectacular. All of the rare geese showed up and most of the ducks. By January 15 I had every species that comes to Rhode Island except three. I still needed Wood Duck (very easy in warm weather), Blue Winged Teal (which will migrate through in early spring) and Tufted Duck. Tufted Duck is one of those rare birds that shows up once or twice a year. There isn't any one hotspot so you never know where they will be. The god news is, when one shows up, it usually sticks around. One was found last week and yesterday was my first chance to see it. Luckily, it took very little effort to see it. 

Getting that out of the way, I birded multiple spots, sometimes multiple times. I got five new birds yesterday. I also had many other fun birds even if I had already seen them.

Today Jan and I took the ferry. There were a possible six species out there, but three would require real luck. Long story short, we saw two. I got my first lifer of the year in Thick Billed Murre and I got a Life photo f Common Murre. Jan needed the Thick Billed. Although we didn't see a lot of birds, we were happy with the ones we got.

Glaucous Gull

Later in the day I saw the Glaucous Gull at First Beach. Again, this is another rare bird, sometimes not seen in a given year. So it was utterly ridiculous how easy the photos were. I   stood twenty feet from it with the sun at my back. 

There were many stops after the ferry before  and after the gull, but I won't bore you. My last stop was actually my first Thursday morning also. I had tried while it was still dark out for Great Horned Owl in Tiverton but struck out. However, tonight the owl was hooting. This gave me a total of 125 for January!

I still can't believe I'm saying it, but January was fun. Multiple photos from today below.

Note- I originally thought I had Wood Duck, but another birder got a photo of its leg and it has a band. It is most likely an escapee so I took it off f my list. Still happy with the photos though 

American Crow is my favorite common bird

Northern Mockingbird

This photo and the two below are of the
Glaucous Gull

Wood Duck

Some photos from the last two weeks

  I've been outside on my days off all winter. The weather overall has been pretty mild. Here are some photos I have collected over the last two weeks.

Male Northern Harrier, the Grey Ghost

Purple Sandpipers, Sachuest NWR

Purple Sandpipers, Sachuest NWR

Lapland Longspur, 

Misquamicut State Beach

Rusty Blackbird, Moonstone Beach Rd.

Life photo and first time I've seen them not flying

Iceland Gull, Galilee

A sea of Mallards...

...had one Wood Duck

Wood Duck, Tiverton, RI

The small goose center right is a Cackling Goose

Gardiner Pond, Middletown, RI

Life photo

American Coot

Easton Pond, Newport

Photo upgrade

Virginia Rail in bad light, still it is a photo

upgrade. Moonstone Beach Rd, South Kingstown

Keeping my ego in Check

 

The bird in the back is a Green Winged Teal, bird #105

   Today at 4:03 pm  two White Pelicans were spotted in Tiverton. I was home, if I could have gotten through Providence with little traffic, I could have seen them just as it were getting dark .At least four of my friends jumped in their cars and they all got the birds. Instead I chose to stay home. Of course, the main factor was thinking I couldn't get through Providence and see the birds before dark. But last year I would have tried. My heart would have been racing and anxiety would have overwhelmed me. Instead, I stayed home.

   In my last post I wrote a couple paragraphs about self-restraint. I am really learning to accept I will not see every bird this year. Today was an example of putting my brain where my heart is. White Pelicans are extremely rare in Rhode Island. There will not be another one possibly for years. The people that got it today will refer to it as a "blocker bird" because it will help block other birders from getting ahead of them.

Sometimes the problem with being self-aware, is just that, self-awareness. I know that I can't chase every bird this year. I have other things I want to do and I can't let "the list" be all-consuming. Yet, I want to. Last year I hovered around 4th place all year. At points I was tied for third. And I liked it. My ego liked it. I loved the competition. I loved the chase.

   There is a difference between ego and arrogance. I loved being near the top. However, never did I consider myself a better birder than many of the people I was above. There were multiple great birders that I had thirty or more birds more. The reason, I put my heart and soul into chasing every bird, while they had lives outside of birds. Again, the whole self-awareness curse. I know where I stand when it comes to my birding ability and experience compared to others. I know many birders are far better than me, I just tried harder. As I told many people, at the end of the year, the only person that will remember your number is you.

   So. as the year starts, I have finally reached 100 birds (106). There are seven people in front of me with the leader already seeing 132. Other than birding close to home on a 60 degree night after work, I have only birded on my days off. That has been my plan and until now, I am sticking to it. My plan has been to chase the hard birds and not worry about the easy ones. So my list has anomalies up and down it. For example, I have seen Pink Footed Goose but have not seen American Goldfinch.

   I'll try not to write too many boring articles about self-awareness. However, not chasing every bird, and accepting I won't have as many because of it is a stepping stone for me. I still have birding goals, but being near the top of the list isn't one of them. Seeing 100 birds in January was. It doesn't matter that seven others have seen more. Like I said, at the end of the year, no one is going to care anyway.

This beauty is a Black Headed Gull. It is the "best bird
I got over the last two days. Besides being pretty rare,
it is quite a sight

Life Photos and Upgrades

This is a Horned Lark. I have some okay photos of  them. But
the flock of them were very cooperative today and I got this
photo upgrade.

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone that reads this is having a great start to the new year. Now that we turned the page from last year, I have tried to make some smarter decisions. I had two New Year's Resolutions. The first was to give up soda. I had never been a big soda drinker until this year. When I was out chasing birds I would buy a couple cans with my lunch. Then I found myself buying soda when Laurie would have pizza or our Sunday dinner. Other than Sunday's there really wasn't soda in the house. The problem was neither was I, I was always out and about. So far, so good. I haven't had soda this year.

My other resolution is really self restraint. After chasing every bird I could for 365 days, I am finding it fairly hard to ween myself off of chasing everything, but I am. My plan is to bird on my days off and fish after work (when it is nicer). Because I am only birding on my days off (so far four) I am way behind my friends for the year list. I have a total of 95 birds so far, where as  Carlos Pedro already has 124!!!  I have to keep reminding myself that I am not doing a big year and that I will not be getting 290 species of birds. Still it is annoying the hell out of me that are so many easy birds out there that I haven't checked off. First World problems!

So other than holding myself back from driving to Narragansett after work for one hour of daylight, my other goal is to upgrade and get life photos of birds. A life photo is simply getting a photo of a bird I've never photographed before. As best I can count I have photos of 278 birds including trips to Florida, North Carolina, South Dakota, and the west.Of those, I have about 240 photos from New England. I put a photo album together and wrote the names of 300 RI birds in the margins. Obviously this leaves about 60 spots empty. I'm hoping to fill in a few of those spots this year with new life photos. I won't get 60 new ones, I probably won't get twenty, but trying to get  mote life photos is a goal.

I also want to get upgrades of birds I have photos of. Of the 240 or so birds not all of the photos are wallhangers. Far from it! When you only get a glimpse of a small bird 20 yards away for five seconds your photo most likely won't be jaw dropping. The good thing about this goal, is it is ongoing, and there is always room for improvement. I only have "perfect" photos of a few species. So although I have a photo of a Yellow Breasted Chat, it is nothing more than a lemon colored blur in a bush. Next time I see one (it is rare around here) I will be mindful that I need to upgrade the picture.

No matter what happens, I'm going into the year looking forward to hiking, fishing, and birding. Hopefully I can cut back on the self-imposed birding anxiety (I actually enjoy the stress and the reward, so it is harder than you'd think to let it go) and just enjoy being in the Great Outdoors.

End of the Year Review- Everything not birding

Great Shearwater from my favorite non-vacation day last year

Somehow, as  I start writing this, I feel this post will be a thousand words shorter than the same post a year ago. I spent so much time looking for birds, I didn't do much else. I normally keep track of my day trips throughout the year, but started to forget because all of my daytrips were to South County to, you guessed it, to chase birds. So here is the short version of the rest of my 2019. As I've said before, this is just a way for me to keep track each year. You would be surprised at how often I do go back and check on things.

I went to five concerts this year, The Happy Together Tour, Midtown Men, Peter Noone, John Fogerty, and the Beach Boys.

I went to two plays "I Hate Hamlet" and a night of three short Christmas plays. I also went to the Nutcracker and it wasn't as miserable as expected.


I still fished more than the average fisherman, but far less than normal. I had my best day ever at the Cape Cod Canal catching multiple keepers and at least three over 30 pounds. That was followed up by one okay day and multiple skunkings.

Laurie and I made one trip to New Hampshire during the foliage.  We saw four mountain lakes that were new to me. However, I never did the hard hikes I had planned (damn birds!)

My favorite two days of the year (not on vacation)were on boats. In early June my bird club chartered a boat to look for pelagic birds. The weather was perfect. Besides the birds we saw a shark, an ocean sunfish, and two species of dolphin.

The other day was July 4th. I got lucky enough to score a spot on Blair Nikula's short pelagic trips out of Chatham. I had to get up at 3 am but it was worth it. We had Shearwaters feeding next to the boat. I could have caught Wilson's Storm Petrels with my hands they were so close. The water was glass calm and the photos came out amazing.

My favorite vacation day was probably swimming with Manatees.

My biggest disappointment for the year came in Maine. I reserved a spot to go to Machias Seal Island to see puffins June 4. We planned our week vacation around this day. However, Mother Nature was a bitch that day. My trip got cancelled due to rain and ten foot waves.

I went on two vacations with Laurie , the just mentioned Maine trip. We spent four days in Acadia. The highlight for me was watching Harbor Porpoises feed from shore.

 I wrote enough about Florida in previous posts. So this will be short. It was probably the most fun vacation of my life. Every day was a bucket list adventure.I knocked thirteen things off of my bucket list in an 11 day period. Everything as beguine as eating key lime pie in the Keys to swimming six inches from Manatee. Laurie had the perfect day at Disney's Magic Kingdom. The weather did not ruin one day.


I am not really superstitious, but I do find that I enjoy even years more. So, looking back on 2019, I have to say, for an odd year, it was great. I ended up getting forty more birds in Rhode Island than I challenged myself to get. I saw 311 birds total in three states. I went on my favorite vacation ever. I shortened my bucket list n Florida. I went on eight boat trips including three whale watches. Laurie and I planned the perfect vacation and the weather was even better. So if 2020 is as good as this year was, than I have a lot to look forward to. I wish a great year outdoors for all of you also.

As for all of you reading this, I challenge you to put together a year list of things you want to do in 2020. Then go out and do it. Unless the Buddhists are right, we don't get a do over. Go out and make 2020 the best year of your life. New Year's Eve going into 2021 isn't promised to any of us.
One line from a song I try to live by is a lyric from a Clint Black song called "No Time to Kill"

The highest cost of livin's dyin', that's one everybody pays
So have it spent before you get the bill, there's no time to kill

Make it count! Happy New Year everyone!!!

End of the Year Review- My Rhode Island Big Year

One of the first crazy vagrants I got a photo of was this
pelican seen in Galilee on Jan 4 

   As we near the end of the year/decade I get to do my yearly end of the year review. I look forward to writing these posts. I enjoy reliving fun memories. I suspect these posts aren't the most fun to read by the general reader, but they are a way to keep track of highlights, numbers, and lists. Usually I do my review in two to three posts. However, I birded so much this year, that I'll most likely have this post and one short one to follow about everything else I did in the last 365.

   Even before the year started I knew wanted to do a Rhode Island Big Year. My previous high number of RI birds was 232 in 2018. To be honest, that was pretty tough. I got many of the birds on my own and hadn't yet made many friends in the birding world. My goal for 2019 was 250 species of birds. Because you are most likely not going to see the same rarities every year. I figured I needed about 35 new species that I didn't see last year. I figured getting 35 new species over my previous high was a tough enough challenge. Towards the end of 2018, I was birding a lot and running into the same people. I became friends with many of them. With their help and unselfish birders reporting I knew 250 was possible, but still a challenge.

I owe Ed Hughes and Jan a thanks for reporting this
one. Yellow Crowned Night Heron. At the time it was a lifer.

   For reasons I still don't know, Jan StJean befriended me. She helped me all year. She was privy to info that only a small group of birders were sharing. She would feed me reports of all the good birds and I would go chase them. The one thing everyone told me was to chase everything. "you'll get the common birds but you need to chase the rarities." That is what I did, I chased everything, some multiple times. Later in the year "the list" expanded and almost everyone with an interest in birds is now on it.

    I went after American Bittern eight times before it showed itself. I won't even attempt to add up the number of times I've looked for Purple Finch this month alone! Chasing every bird is a crazy game. There were two nights n May that I was birding after work in Providence and rare birds were reported in the Newport area around 5 pm. So both times  jumped in my car and went to Newport during rush hour! I went one for two. I saw the Tufted Duck but missed the Olive-Sided Flycatcher. These are just two of the couple of dozen crazy chases I did starting after 4 pm.

My Number-

   I ended 2019 with 290 species of birds in Rhode Island. This puts me in forth place in the state. I can safely say that of the 1.05 million people that live in RI, the thousands with bird feeders, and the 180(roughly) people in our bird club, that I saw the forth most birds. Jan StJean, Carlos Pedro, and Matt Schenck will always be the top three, the only question is what order they finish in.  They are the best listers in the state. The first two are retired and extremely competitive. Matt works full time at a bird sanctuar and he goes out birding at 4 am all spring before work to get the birds.

   Because the top three birders are unbeatable and I am firmly entrenched in the 4 spot, I have been referring to myself as "The first mortal"  because Jan, Matt, and Carlos are gods (along with Barbara G, but she was injured the first half of the year.)

Stats

   There are roughly 104 weekend days a year. I know I birded about 95 of my days off this year. I know there was a snow day, a rain day, 3 days fishing the Cape Cod Canal, 4 days were part of my vacations (2 each n Maine and Florida) I also birded a lot after work. I chased many rarities after work when they were found during the day. I birded almost every May evening at Swan Point or Trustom. In October I sent at least 10 evenings at Snake Den looking for stupid little brown birds. It is safe to say I birded somewhere between 150-175 times this year for at least two hours (95 of those days were for most or all day)

309 species were seen in RI according to the list I keep track on. I saw 290
290 my number seen (Jan 298, Matt 297 and Carlos 294)
58 species that  didn't see in 2018
32 lifebirds
June 1 the day I reached my goal of 250
8 trips on boats
      3 whale watches (2 in RI, 1 from Gloucester, MA)
      2 Dedicated Pelagics (1 RI, 1 MA)
      2 Trips on a Cod Boat
      1 Trip on the Block Island Ferry looking specifically for winter pelagic species
       1 overnight trip for two days on Block Island

There were 10 species I chased and dipped on. Some were "one day wonders" others like Purple Finch are year round residents in low numbers. I spent the most hours looking for  Purple Finch and Clay-Colored Sparrow for birds I missed. Three of the ten birds I chased but missed in Rhode Island but I saw in Florida (Painted Bunting, Royal Tern, and Black Skimmer)

Of the 10 species I dipped on, I thought two of them would be slam dunk no brainers, Tundra Swan and Black Skimmer. Other than the Purple Finch (only because of the time spent) these bothered me the most.

There were only two species I couldn't go after at all, both because of work (Red and Red Necked Pharalope). Given the choice, I'd much rather miss the bird, then not be able to go at all.

2 other species in Mass that I didn't see n RI (Tropical Kingbird and Trumpeter Swan)
19 species seen in Florida
12 of them were lifers

Total number of species for the year 311

What's next? Well, I'm not chasing every bird after work. That is for sure. I love birding and it is pretty much all I think about. When I'm home I'm studying books on birds or planning trips to exotic destinations. I wrote an article for our bird club newspaper and plan on leading a walk. I won't stop birding. I will be spending more nights fishing close to home as opposed to driving to Trustom four afternoons straight for White Eyed Vireo. So I will not hit 290 for sure.

I want to do more birding out of state. I am going back to Florida again in November. I want to go to Plum Island more than once. I plan on doing some non-bird overnight getaways that will certainly cost me a bird or two. I wanted to go pike fishing in NH and salmon fishing in CT this October this year. I blew off both trips. I didn't get any new birds those two weekends, next year I am going to choose pike fishing.

My main birding goal is to get life photos of birds I don't have photos of and upgrade crappy photos. I have in the neighborhood of 278 species I have photos of. Maybe I can get close to 300 by the end of the year. If I go birding most of my days off and fish most nights, I still think 250 species is a reasonable goal to set, if I were to set a goal. I have seen almost every species that lives in Rhode Island, so other than vagrants I can't get too many lifebirds in RI. I can name almost every bird I need for my "state list". There are about 18 "possible" birds but realistically only about five could/would show up in a year, so I'll be lucky to get a handful of lifers next year as opposed to the 33 this year.

I don't know when I will do another "big year" maybe 2021, maybe years from now (doubtful) but I do love looking for birds. I love hanging out with my birding buddies. There are a few hardcore birders that are out all of the time. I have become close with many of them. I have thanked them on multiple posts numerous times. None of us could see all those birds without reporting and sharing info.

I have far more friends now than I did a year ago. I have way more good acquaintances also. I'm glad Rhode Island has so many good birders that are good people. It is the only state where no matter where a rare bird is everyone can go chase it the same day. Because of that fact, the same hardcore birders show up to see all the rare birds. So for the last time a huge thank you for the help, memories, and friendship to the following-


Jan, Sue, Matt, Alex, Jess B, Mike T, Dick and Marge, Carlos P, Kevin R, Patrick F, Ed H, Linda G, Scott, Richard T, Don H, Barbara G, Barbara S,  Danielle C, John M, Bill T, Amanda P, Dianne A, Dian K,Catherine B, Greg N, Jen L, Dan B, Jenn S, Peter C, Anna Faith, Tom Y, Louise R, Joe K, Wayne M, Dan/Sue, , Wendy, Chances are, if any of you on this list are reading this, we shared at east one memory this year. Thank you

Special Thanks to Laurie Devine, for letting me drag her to chase birds on so many Sundays. She had no idea that was the plan for the day when she would come over and off we would go.

Lapland Longspur  Bird #288

This Western Kingbird was seen four days into my
trip to Florida. To everyone's surprise it hung around
for a while. I went for it 13 hours after
getting home from my flight ( landed in the dark)
Bird #284