250 Birds in 5 Months

Not a great photo
Laughing Gull,
Bird #250 in 2020

   As I've said ten thousand times since the end of last year, I didn't have any birding goals for 2020. I did my "RI Big Year" last year and didn't plan on repeating it. I had plenty of other things I wanted to do this year. I had multiple getaways planned and knew I would miss some birds because of them. But, as we all know, the world turned upside down this spring. I didn't get to go to Race Point to see migrating Right Whales in the beginning of April. At the end of April I planned on backpacking to wilderness waterfalls in NH swollen by snowmelt. Lastly, I had a trip to Plum Island for a weekend in May that of course didn't happen. Not to mention many more to come. My only real hope was to hit 250 species for the year. If I didn't reach that goal, it didn't matter since I had so much other fun planned

   So I did what I always do on my days off, I birded. That said, Mother Nature was not kind to me this winter and spring. If we had two days a week of bad weather, they fell on my days off. None the less, I persisted. There really isn't much else to do in the winter, so I chased birds. I had a fantastic January. I ended up seeing 125 birds by the end of the month.

Last year I chased every single bird I could. If a good bird was reported while I was at work, I'd go as soon as I got out. That was great, but I didn't need the stress of that pressure this year. Not to mention I went through  a set of tires in a year and put tens of thousands of miles on my car.  I realized, that if I just birded on my days off during the first four months and birded like a banshee during May I should see most of the birds. I figured by not chasing birds after work and only on weekends I'd still see 90%of the species seen.  I stayed true to this experiment. From January to April I only chased 3 species after work, a White Pelican, Blue Winged Teal, and Wilson's Plover

As of April 30 I had 171 species. May is the big month for migration so that number was going to sky rocket just like all of the other birders. May is a whirlwind for birders. It is filled with color, excitement, and exhaustion (you can sleep in June). On May 24 I had seen 246 species. I realized I could get 250 if I got lucky before the end of the month. I got my 250th bird last year on June 1, and it sort of aggravated me that I couldn't have gotten it in May. Two hundred and fifty species in the first 5 months (50/birds/month) has a nice ring to it.  

Looking at my list, there were two easy birds I could get. They were Seaside and Saltmarsh Sparrows. I set up a kayak trip with a couple of friends for Wednesday night at the Charlestown Breachway. We had fun and saw a bunch of birds. Happily, we saw the two species of sparrows. This meant I only had two to go and gave me a fighting chance.

   Well, Mother Nature or the Weather Gods did not make life easy. There weren't any more easy birds left to chase. But I knew where two hard birds were. There was a Least Bittern at Trustom. It had been seen or heard the last few days. I woke up Friday morning to some heavy rain. None the less, I went to Trustom. For two hours I stood soaked from sporadic rain showers until the Bittern finally decided I suffered enough and made a grunt call as I was about to leave...one to go. I tried the rest of the day to find another new bird. I went to Great Swamp with my friend Sue among other places. 

   The other bird I knew about was a Mississippi Kite. This is a really rare bird in New England. For some reason, one pair decided to nest in Rhode Island last year. They were the first known MS Kites to nest in the state. They are back again this year. Unfortunately, the nest is on private property and can not be seen from the road. Still, when they soar or fly, you can see them. Most of my friends had seen them already. I tried multiple times to see these Kites. In the last week I tried three times for a total of six hours hoping for a glimpse of them. Nada.

All was not lost, Sports fans. A Laughing Gull had been seen at Brenton Point State Park Thursday and Friday. I was looking for the Kite on Friday when I found out it was still there. I couldn't bring myself to drive from Richmond to Newport at 5 pm. So, when I woke up at 5:30 am today, that is where I went. When I got to Newport the fog was so thick I could see maybe fifty feet. I walked up an down Ocean Drive, but the gull wasn't on the rocks. If it was out to sea, there was no way I could see through the fog. After two hours I gave up. 

I headed to Napatree where some of my friends were birding. I decided my best bet for one more bird was to make the long walk out. You never know whats out there. Sue and I were fifteen minutes behind some other good friends.  When we got out to the lagoon we saw our first of the year Laughing Gull. Bird #250 (and 259 for Sue).

Wilson's Pharalope

After Napatree we walked the mudflats of the Charlestown Breachway. I found a Wilson's Pharalope that was very cooperative and walked almost right up to us. After we left the Breachway, Jess Bishop talked me into stalking the Mississippi Kite again. I had no desire to spend any more time in the neighborhood. Plus I has hungry and tired. Instead of arguing, I took the path of least resistance and went along. About 30 minutes into our stakeout the Kite made three passes over us. One of them, it was quite low and we had a great look at its tail pattern and could see all of its colors. It was incredible. Bird #251

Usually I end a post like this with "what's next". Truthfully, I don't care. I'm not going to guess how many species I might end up with. I'm not going to look over the list of species that haven't been seen and try to figure out how many I could see. Now that May is over, I'm not going birding after work unless it is a close walk in the woods for exercise. I'm not going to South County to chase birds after work.  

As for my experiment to see if I could still see 90% of the birds only going two days a week, and going hard in May here are the stats (these are based off of Paul L's site and not ebird).

The leader to this point is Sue Palmer she has seen 259 to my 251. So I have seen 97% of the birds the leader has.

There have been 264 species seen so far in 2020. I have seen 95% of them. 

All that said, even though I am only 8 species behind the leader. I have absolutely zero chance of catching up.   The birds that she has that I don't are what are known as"blocker birds". These are birds that are very rare and won't show up again this year. They could potentially block me from taking the lead. So I really have no chance of finishing in the top 3, nor do I care. I'm not shooting for forth, or fifth, or whatever. I just want to  have fun, which is what I'm doing. Today was awesome!

  Lastly, as always, I am truly awestruck that I have fallen into a group of fantastic birders way better than me, that are so unselfish caring people. It blows me away they consider me a friend. One of them is celebrating a birthday today. Happy Birthday Jan.

Photo stolen without permission, but I'm in it
so oh well. Me, Jan, and Sue
smiling under our masks.