Christmas Bird Count Info

    Hello, and welcome to my blog. As I said on Groupme, there is far too much info for me to cover on the Groupme site. I know there was a lot of interest over the winter by many people wanting to join existing CBCs. Here is my plan and answers to many questions. I apologize in advance how long this is but I wanted to put it all in one place.

  Obviously, this was a bad year to join an existing CBC. The pandemic made it so count leaders keep the teams as close to a skeleton crew as possible. One of the most fun parts of a CBC is carpooling with others on your team. You get to talk about birds and have a few laughs between stops. This year, carpooling was obviously banned so that alone changed the whole dynamic of the count.

   At the end of the count day, at least one person from each section usually goes to a meeting place where all of the birds are tallied up. For the South Kingstown count it s the South Kingstown Police Station. For the Westport Count it is a church in Tiverton. These meetings are fun and there is usually food or drink provided. This was cancelled this year due to the pandemic taking away one more fun thing about the CBC. Everyone just gave their worksheets to the leader when they were done. 

   Two other things I noticed from questions- the first was people that wanted to add their feeders to counts. Although you would think it is helpful and you are contributing, it really isn't. CBC's are important because they show year to year and decade long trends. The most important thing is consistency.  You would want the same places counted year after year. So if twenty people add their  feeders to the count this year, it would throw off the year-to year numbers of chickadees, titmouse, etc...

   The other thing I want to address is nepotism. Being on the outside looking in and wanting to contribute, it can feel like CBC's are a "who you know" event. You are kind of right but not for reasons you think. Remember, some of these counts are decades old. So the people that run them have had the same friends help out for years. As I've said, and for the reason you want to help, CBC's are fun. So the people that have done them, do them year after year. It becomes a tradition to do your part of the circle. So, if the same people don't move away or die off, it is tough to join a Count Circle. After addressing that, I will need a lot of people if I were to run a count, so getting your foot in the door will benefit me very much. More on that near the end. 

   Christmas Bird Count (CBC from now on) isn't a town or a county. According to the National Audubon Society a CBC is a fifteen mile diameter circle (or a 7.5 mile radius from a center point). So all of the locations/birds have to be in the count circle. I can not, for instance just choose to do a CBC for Providence and Cranston. The count has to be in the circle. There needs to be a center point 7.5 miles from the circumference. This is why the Westerly count spills over to Connecticut and why the South Kingstown Count covers Narragansett. The name is just the name.

    As I posted on Groupme, I would like to start a count in Providence. I spent an hour one night trying to find a center point that would cover as many good spots as possible. I could not just drop a pin in downtown Providence, say City Hall for instance. If I did, there would be too much boring birding in Rehoboth and Seekonk on one side of the circle. On the other, the circle would overlap the Scituate count and that would not be good. So in my hour of trying to figure out a pinpoint that really works, A pin in the Providence River just south of Sabin's Point would cover a lot of good birding. To the northeast Swan Point would be covered. To the east would be Warren Reservoir and Barrington. Colt State Park would be covered. To the sw, Goddard State Park is in the circle. Finally, to the west, the line would end right before the Scituate CBC circle. This could work out very well.

   If I were to start a Providence Area CBC, there are some logistical problems other counts do not have. Driving through Providence, Warwick, and Cranston can be a nightmare. Comparing those towns to the nice smooth driving on Rt 1 and Rt 2 in South Kingstown, going from Point A to B will take longer. This is also an obstacle for a central meeting place in the morning and one for a (hopeful) evening count. These are things I have plenty of time to work out.

  If I were to do a Providence Count, I can not officially add it to National Audubon's list of counts until September. To start a new count I need ten committed counters. But truthfully, I would not even consider it unless the number of people was much closer to twenty. Despite being so urban, there are some very large pockets of public land (Roger Williams Park, Colt and Goddard State Parks, Swan Point, etc. As I've already said a couple times the fun part of the counts is the comradery. Either birding with friends or meeting new ones is a big part of the count. I would want "teams" to bird locations and wouldn't want to have people bird alone. Long before September I'd like to have a list of names committed to the count. But if I do, I will be happy to register a new Providence Bird count.

   Here is the thing for me, to pull this off  I will need to do a lot of work. In my vision, I'd like to count every possible public access. In addition to those large places I mentioned above, a public access spot can be a pull off by a lake where you can count ducks. Barrington has a Land Trust with many tracks. Providence has small parks. East Providence and Warwick have bike paths and all these towns have parks and places to fish. All can be counted. This will take A LOT of scouting by me and any of my friends I drag along. I don't mind this scouting, but it will take many evenings after work and/or days off to scout these spots for access. I DO NOT MIND DOING THIS AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE CHALLENGE, I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE IT IS NOT IN VAIN AND WILL HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE TO MAKE THE COUNT A SUCCESS. In addition to Groupme, I plan on inviting members of the Ocean State Bird Club. 

  We all know there "is no I in Team" but I can assure you, there is an "I" in "contribute". There are few things in birding more rewarding than contributing to a CBC. In my first count while waiting for Mike Tucker while it was still dark, I heard killdeer at Pardon Gray. When Mike got there I made him listen. It turned out they were the only Killdeer found during the entire count. Last year after I separated from Jan St Jean to find the Kestrel in the fields near Trustom I found a Chat. This South Kingston count after three of us failing to find a Saltmarsh Sparrow in Succotash Marsh I stopped near the blue house where I found five Greater Yellowlegs. Scott Tsagarakis was a few minutes behind me I waved him down to show him. The point is, anyone can contribute to a count. And I welcome anyone that wants to help.

  Lastly, and I was upfront about this on Groupme, It will be impossible to do a count on a Saturday  and very unlikely on a Sunday. The counts have to be done within a certain timeframe I believe Dec 13-Jan 4. All those Saturdays and some Sundays are filled up with existing counts. Secondly, I work every Sunday. Though I'm no one special, I can't just call out. Four different employees get Sunday's off while I cover for them. So I'd have to change four different people's schedule just to get one day off, which is unlikely during the holidays. So a Providence count would most likely be on a Friday. This is obviously not a problem for retired people, but I understand this is a problem for 9 to fivers. If you have a leftover vacation/personal/or sick days you can't carry over, maybe a Friday CBC would be a nice start of a long weekend. I wish weekend days were ore of an option but with all the other counts and my schedule, it is very unlikely.

   So, here is your mission if you choose to accept it. If you really think you can join the count please DM me on the Groupme site. Please send a message that says you can do or not do both a Friday or Sunday. It would look something like this

Friday yes

Sunday no

   Or whatever days you are available. If you have any other questions you can DM me those also. Like I said the timeframe would be mid-December to the first week of January. Please only reply if you are 90% confident this is something you can do. I don't want to scout all these places thinking I'll have twenty five helpers but twenty back out the last minute. Luckily for me, I have access to a lot of advice. Dan Berard, who runs the Scituate Count is the president of the bird club which I am a board member. Also, Scott Tsagarakis who runs the South Kingstown Count is one of birding buddies and has been very helpful so far in giving me advice. I'm sure having them to guide me can and will help make the count a success. As I mentioned above, the point of CBC's are to see year to year trends. So a one time count is worthless. Assuming I have enough participants, I plan on doing this count for many years. So if you help out, your foot won't just be in the door, you will be in the count year after year if you want. 

If nothing else, thanks for reading this and your interest in a Providence Area CBC is appreciated. 

 

A Couple Pics from Yesterday

Adventures Chasing Winter Finches in Massachusetts

   

Common Redpoll

   Laurie hadn't done anything fun lately and wanted to get away. We had talked about New Hampshire, but all we could think of fun was dropping me off at a trailhead to go snowshoeing while she went and bought coffee or something. When I threw it out there we spend a night in Newburyport, and go birding Plum Island, I was surprised she said yes. 

   Before I go on to birding, here is my review of the room. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Amesbury. It is right off of I-95 and I-495. The cost after taxes and fees was only $77. The room was spotlessly clean. The night guy at the desk, Brian, was awesome as was the morning woman we checked out with, Marianne. I give it five stars. They had grab and go breakfast that consisted of pastry, cereal, yogurt, and bananas.  

   Despite it being spotless I took precautions. I walked in with a giant bottle of sanitizer and rags. I soaked the rags and wiped everything we would touch down from the bathroom, to microwave handles. I also brought my own blankets and pillow. I was careful when I got up in the morning not to let the part of my blanket that touched my bed touch my pillow or other blanket. On to birding...

Pine Grosbeak in a snow flurry

   I left work a few hours early on Thursday so I could enjoy a couple of hours of daylight before checking into the hotel. On our way up I-495 we stopped in Bolton where Pine Grosbeaks had been feeding on crabapple trees all winter. Pine Grosbeaks are one of those winter finches that come down from northern Canada when there is a bad food year. They are one of the rarer finches to make it our way. However, they are not a lifebird for me. DJ and I saw them in Montana in 2010. I didn't know what they were but we got some photos. When we got to Bolton it was snowing. Luckily, the Grosbeaks were around. They let you get pretty close, but the white/grey cloudy sky was awful. I got a couple decent shots of them on the ground in the snow.

   The snow stopped about twenty minutes later and we had a clear run to Salisbury. Before checking into the hotel we went to Salisbury Beach. I was hoping to see Crossbills but we ended up seeing a flock of Common Redpolls that hung around for half an hour. When it got close to dark, we stopped at a sub shop and picked up some supper to bring back to motel. Laurie and I watched Jeopardy where she beat me by one point.

Common Redpoll

Friday- My main goal was to see a White Winged Crossbill which would be a lifer for me. At least one was hanging around Salisbury Beach. Laurie wanted to see a Snowy Owl, up to four had been hanging around Plum Island. Our plan was to go to each place a couple of times. We started at Salisbury just before 8am. It was still cold and the birds hadn't warmed up. So we went to Parker NWR on Plum. There wasn't much at all. We walked a couple trails and birded the road. The best we could do was a Peregrine 3/4 of a mile away. 

   After a couple hours we went back to Salisbury. The sun was out and it warmed some. If we were going to get birds it was late morning. We ran into a mixed flock in the campground. It had Red Crossbills, Common Redpolls, American Tree Sparrows, Chickadees, and Red Breasted Nuthatch. I concentrated on the Red Crossbills. I wanted photo upgrades and hoped to run across the White Winged mixed in. For about forty five minutes it was wild with all the birds. You could stand in one spot and birds would be all around for ten minutes, then they'd move a couple trees down and you'd follow and repeat.

Red Crossbill

   After it ended we went up by the beach where I hoped Crossbills would be in the trees. Sure enough I put my binoculars on a bird right out in the open and it was my White Winged Crossbill. Laurie was close so I called her over. By the time I got her on the bird, about ten seconds, it flew. So I never got a photo. But it was a lifer.

  After an hour of trying to relocate it we went back to Plum for Laurie's Snowy Owl. Despite our best efforts and four hours or more of looking we never found one. Plum was really slow, we only saw about ten species. Our best birds were a Hermit Thrush and Horned Larks. Around dark we left for home.

Saturday

   After a pleasant day and a half of birding, I still had Saturday off. I wasn't sure what the plan was. The "Saturday Group" wasn't getting together. Though four of them did decide to look for Tufted Duck at Trustom. Realizing I'd have full sun most of the day, I wanted a second chance at the Grosbeaks. Happily for me, so did Sue Palmer. 

Pine Grosbeak

   Sue and I met up in Bolton at 9 am. We only had a short wait before the Pine Grosbeaks came in. It was freezing out so we took photos from inside and outside the car. The birds never stopped moving. I took a ton of pictures but most got deleted in the first round of looking at them on the computer. I got a couple good ones, but man, was it tough. 

   After the Pine Grosbeaks got their fill and left us, Sue and I went and staked out a Yellow Throated Warbler. There had been one coming to a feeder in Lancaster for a while. The problem is it was in someone's backyard. The people don't mind visitors. I, on the other hand feel uncomfortable stalking birds at private residences. Luckily, Sue doesn't mind and is much friendlier than me. We pulled up and had the bird within ten minutes. It left and came back again for another ten minutes. After it left we took off. The family wasn't home so we didn't bother anyone. The Yellow Throated Warbler was another lifer for me. This one I got (not great) photos of. I owe Sue for this one, because I wouldn't have gone alone.

   After we left the Warbler, we went back to the Pine Grosbeaks to regroup. Th

Not great, but a life photo of a lifebird
Yellow Throated Warbler

e birds never came back, We tried to figure out where to go next. We went to a WMA near Lake Chauncy. Hoary Redpolls had been reported. But no luck for us. We didn't see any Redpolls nor very many birds at all. 

   All in all I had an amazing two and a half days. I got two lifers (White Winged Crossbills and Yellow Throated Warbler). I got to watch and photograph Common Redpolls and Red Crossbills for an hour sometimes from feet away. I got photo upgrades of Common Redpolls and Red Crossbills and a new upgrade of Snow Buntings and American Tree Sparrows. Pine Grosbeaks were not a lifer, but I'd only seen them once before ten years ago. I got to watch and photograph them on two different days in two different weather conditions. 

   Laurie and I got away, something we hadn't done in ages. The motel as I said above was nice. My quick meals were good and birding was awesome other than Laurie not seeing the Snowy. The only downside was losing at Jeopardy!! A few more photos below

Female Pine Grosbeak

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Snow Bunting

Female Red Crossbill

Juvenile Red Crossbill

Juvenile Red Crossbill

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeak

One last one of the
Yellow Throated Warbler

Life without Autofocus

   

Not a perfect photo, but a 
Northern Shoveler shot is Aperture Priority

 
A few months back, as I was watching online photography courses learning the functions of my camera I made a few posts about stuff I had learned. The posts had a bunch of photos to support them, but honestly they were not very good. The photos were only there to show how to blur the background or to freeze moving water in a photo. However, my photography passion is wildlife, birds being a big percentage of the wildlife pie.

   Once I learned my camera's functions I started to use them more and more and autofocus less. Now, I have to be honest with you I have made a lot of mistakes. For starters, the one I have done the most is change settings for one situation and forget to change them back when I was done. Countless times I've used a setting for shadows or low light and forget about it and when I have the opportunity to get a good shot in bright sunlight I blow out the highlights. Fortunately, I am getting much better at remembering this.

   Another mistake I have made is forgetting everything I've learned when I am rushing to take a photo of a bird that is moving away. I've "panicked" and set my aperture in the wrong direction a couple of times. I've set the brightness to the wrong side of zero occasionally. Again, these are things I am doing far more infrequently as I get used to life without autofocus.

   After one of my posts, my friend Bill Thompson whom is a great/ethical/patient photographer told me he usually shoots in Aperture Priority with the shutter opened right up. This means there is a lot of light getting into the lens. What you are focused on will be in focus while the background is blurry. And truthfully, this is how I shoot "most" of the time. However, I have noticed where there are exemptions. Last week I saw some Snow Buntings are Scarborough Beach on the rocks. They really blended in with the rocks and the rocks were colorful. I wanted to show them in the photos as well. So I went in the opposite direction and moved my F-stop as high as I could. This way, when I took the photo everything was in focus including the colorful rocks.

   One thing I've learned, there is more than one way to get the photo you want. Four different photographers standing side by side could get the same photo or close to it in four different modes of their cameras. There isn't "one perfect setting". I have not gone into full manual mode where I set the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. I don't feel comfortable with ISO and I don't think I would want to play with the settings that much.

   I stay in Aperture Priority and Shutter Speed Priority all the time now. As I said above I usually leave my Aperture wide open. But I am using shutter speed priority more and more for moving birds. Swimming ducks on the water have been driving me crazy. They look like they are barely moving but so many photos come out blurry. So now, if I have good light, I'll shoot a duck at a crazy fast speed like 1/1000 of a second. That way it is sure to be in focus. However I need a lot of light for this. With the shutter only open .001 of a second not a lot of light can reach the inside of the camera. So I have to pick my moments. 

   I am also adjusting my modes when I have a lot of time. For instance when I was watching Iceland Gulls last week, I took pictures in different modes. Not only different modes but I set the "stop" on my brightness at different levels. The first photos I took the brightness was too high and the gulls looked like blown out ghosts. After I got that right I took photos in Aperture and Shutter speed priority until my little heart was content.

   Now, here is where truth and statistics collide, I have to tell you, not every photo is a winner. As a matter of fact my batting average for getting a "good photo" is way down. However, there seems to be some rewards too. Here is the stats as best I can tell. Lets say I'm at a good bird that I can photograph for a while and I take fifty photos. If I were in autofocus, maybe 10-15 of those photos would be junk and deleted instantly. Bird moves, the bird is blurry, or the camera focuses too late, etc. Of the thirty five left almost all are clear. The subject is in focus. Maybe four or five of the fifty, I could hopefully rate an A- and use on my blog or save. Hopefully over the course of a year I will get 4-5 wall hangers where everything is perfect.

   Now that I shoot in different modes the make up of those fifty photos is much different. Right off the bat I will easily delete thirty five. The bird will be out of focus. The camera will have focused on a twig in front of the bird, etc. This leaves me fifteen good photos compared to thirty five in autofocus. But here is the thing, it seems like at every photo shoot I am getting one or two "perfect" photos. Where as I was hoping to get four or five a year, I may get that in a day. It just seems that despite 35 garbage photos, that one or two great photo makes it all worth it. 

It is fun to come home and put my memory card in the computer while having supper. Normally one finger is on the "delete" key. And all of the sudden a photo stops me and I go "whoa!" That is happening on a daily bases. So despite my percentage of good photos going way down while experimenting with settings, my blow you away photo percentage is going up. I'd much rather have one great photo than thirty decent ones. This certainly saves me storage space on my external hard drive.

   So there you have it, the good and the bad. Learning to use my settings has had some ups and downs. I am nowhere near the end of my learning curve. I'm sure I'll still forget everything as I'm rushing for a photo. When it gets nice out, I'm sure my fish photos will be in Autofocus. I am not going to make a suffocating fish wait for me to play with my Aperture. Autofocus and release. However for birding, I think Aperture and Shutter Priority are where I'm going to stay. For one, adjusting the settings and getting it right is fun in itself. When that great photo stops me in my tracks it makes all those deleted photos totally worth it. 

The Last Two Days were Awesome!

   

Orange Crowed Warbler

   It has only been a few days and my decision not to worry about a list is already paying off. First off, I have gotten a surprising amount of positive feedback from my birding buddies about not listing. I had the last two days off from work and birded pretty much from dawn till dark both days. Both days I had a great time. 

    I started yesterday at a place my friend Jess found an Orange Crowned Warbler last Saturday. I didn't see it early, but I knew I was going to go back multiple times during the day. While I was there, I had three Iceland Gulls walking and feeding around me. Iceland Gulls are a rare species that will show up in the winter. However, these ones were easy marks and photographing them felt like picking low hanging fruit. I also got some photos of Sanderlings, they are a common little shorebird, but dang, they won't stand still!

   Then I dipped on a few birds. I went to Quonny to look for the King Eider, no luck. Then I went to Perryville and did not see a Winter Wren. Nor did I see everyone's favorite Lesser Black Backed Gull, Lester. No worries, I'm not keeping a list!

   About 10 am, I went back to where the Orange Crowned (OC) was. I waited about twenty minutes and all of the sudden it started catching flies. I watched it feed for around fifteen minutes before it decided to hide in the brush again. Some people have gotten amazing photos of this bird. It didn't come quite as close to me, but I had some decent light and could crop my photos a lot. Very much a photo upgrade from what I had.

   After I left the OC, my friend Sue met me and we walked the South Kingstown Land Trust. There wasn't anything there. From there I went for some more low hanging fruit and watched the Northern Shoveler almost until dark. I have never seen a Shoveler so close, and they are rare for this area to begin with. I will happily take advantage of watching this duck until it decides to head for bluer water.

   Today's plan was to take the Block Island Ferry with some of my friends. The hope is to see species you can not see from land. Species in the puffin family are known as Alcids. We have some of those species that winter in Block Island Sound. There were not a lot of birds today. However we saw a Common Murre on the way to the island and another on the way back. We had about a dozen Razorbills. Ducks and Gulls were pretty scarce. Still I was more than happy to see and especially photograph the Murre. 

   

Black Headed Gull

   After we got back, Sue, Tim and I went to Scarborough Beach to see the Black Headed Gull. We found it on the rocks at the Sheepspen. It was standing still, and being a gull, didn't care about our presence at all. We got lucky, besides the Black Headed Gull we found some more cool species. There was an Iceland Gull mixed with the gulls. Since I was basically petting Iceland Gulls yesterday, I only took a couple of photos. We also had a flock of Snow Buntings fly in. They were feeding and walking on the baseball sized rocks near the beach. We watched them for a few minutes until they were spooked by a dog. Finally, on our way out, Sue walked up a path through the brush and found an out of season Palm Warbler. 

   In my last post, I wrote down all the pros to not keeping a list this year. In my first weekend since making this monumental decision (that may be a tad dramatic, but only slightly) all of those things happened. I got to spend as much time as I wanted watching and photographing cool birds like the Shoveler and the two gulls. I waited for the Orange Crowned Warbler to show itself without worrying about rushing off because of time constraints. I got to spend time on the ferry with some of my friends. I got some really good photos of many different species because I had the time to enjoy them.

    Most importantly, I wasn't stressed. I was happy to see the Common Murre, not disappointed that I didn't see Kittiwake. Dipping on the Winter Wren gives me an excuse to walk the road at Perryville again.

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Black Headed Gull

Really cropped Common Murre from
the Block Island Ferry

Great Cormorant

Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

Horned Grebe

Sanderling

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

No List for Me

   

Marbled Godwit

   Many of my posts over the last four years have had two things in common: lists and stats. Every end of the year review has a paragraph about how many species I've seen and how I compare to other birders. This year will be different, I will not be doing a year list.

   I spent the past three weeks soul searching about what I want most out of a hobby I am obsessed with. I broke down birding into categories. They are listing (trying to see as many species as you can), photography, socializing, and chasing rare species. Breaking it down made me realize what is most important to me. What I realized, if I did not list this year, I could enjoy everything else more.

  Many of the best listers in the state are approaching 125 species of birds already for the new year. If I spent every weekend chasing all the birds around, I would probably get very close to 125. That is the exact number that I got in January 2020. But I realized, it is too much of a cost. Instead of enjoying birds, birding with friends, and patiently waiting for nice photo ops, I'd be rushing to the next bird.  I just don't want to do that this year. 

   Not doing a year list in Rhode Island will allow me to go look for rare birds in MA. If I feel like going to the Cape Cod Canal or Plum Island, I won't feel guilty that I'm not in Rhode Island. I have already proven to myself that this is a good decision. On Sunday I went to Westport, MA to look for a Ross's Goose. I didn't get it, but I was happy to try.

   A bunch of my friends go birding together every Saturday. We/they are known as the Saturday group. I can not keep up with them if I bird with them. To get "my birds" I need to go find birds they already have. This happened on Saturday. I had it off from work. Instead of birding with them, I went to East Bay and tried to get some winter specialties there. I had a rough day dipping on most of them. Meanwhile, they found some good birds and I could have been having fun with them laughing and chatting. It really has to be one or the other, I don't have time to catch up and socialize. 

   Not keeping a year list means I won't have to feel rushed when I'm getting pictures of a good bird. For example, Pintails are my favorite freshwater duck. I don't have any pictures of them I'd classify as very good. So, next time I see them, if I have good light, I may stay and watch them for an hour. There won't be any pressure to move on and find other birds I haven't seen yet this year. 

   Lastly, not keeping a year list will take the pressure off. When there is an alert of a good bird that I haven't seen this year but have seen for the last ten, I won't need to go get it. An example species is Marbled Godwit. Godwits are a really cool shorebird. I missed it in 2020, but usually see them every year. I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time despite putting  in a lot of time at places they hang out. The truth is, I probably can't improve my photos of them. I had one day in 2019 where they came very close to me feeding. I'd love to see them if they show up while I'm birding anyway. But if there is a report while I'm working, I won't get anxiety that I'll miss it. Yes, I and other listers do take it that seriously!

Summer Tanager

 I really will not keep a year list so I won't know my overall number in December. I have accepted that. I'll still chase birds that would be lifers and state birds. I'll still go birding with the hopes of seeing the 'good birds". I'll spend more time looking at birds I want to see than I will looking for birds just to see them. There are two huge different philosophies in that last sentence. Also, if I don't keep a year list, instead of chasing a Summer Tanager at the end of April, I'll be fly-fishing a local trout pond instead of making the one hundred and ten mile round trip to Trustom. And when the text comes in that the Tanager is there, I can relax knowing I don't need to chase it.

End of the Year Review

I think this is my favorite photo of the year. I know I have better ones, 
but this is the only one that is on my wall.

   Somehow, as I start writing this, I feel this is going to be my shortest end of the year review in ten years writing this blog. Obviously, just like everyone else, I didn't do a hell of a lot. You've read all my stats about birds multiple times and quite frankly I'm bored with them too. none the less I'll leave them at the bottom of this post so I will be able to reference them in the future. 

  So here we go... One trip to NH. I hiked one mountain. Mt Tremont in September during peak foliage. I saw a bear on that trip 

   Surprisingly, I crossed one thing off of my bucket list. I saw and photographed a breaching whale. I went on three whale watches and one pelagic six pack out to a hundred miles.

   I also took the BI Ferry once specifically to look at ocean birds and once to get Tundra Swans on BI on January 2nd. Despite the world being turned upside down I did have some things that I will never forget- May 16th was probably the best day in the history of Rhode Island birding For the first time ever I completed the Bradley Challenge and saw all of the expected species of waterfowl in RI.

      I had a lot of fun on Sue Palmer's boat exploring Sandy Point and quahogging.  

  One of the most fun days of the year The whale watch where I saw them breach was incredible the whole time. Whales feeding, fin slapping and deep diving. I caught the largest fish of my life a 55 pound Albacore.

      Eating Oyster's at Jess's house was really fun with my friends.

  I got dozens of photo upgrades of birds. Birding 293 species out of a total of 318 seen in RI. My previous best was 291. I came in 9th for the state. Six of the eight ahead of me were retired. The other two worked their ass off to get the birds they got. The leader Carlos Pedro broke the RI yearbird record (as if you didn't already read that in the last post) he got 309. I saw 92% of all species seen and 95% of what the leader saw. My best birds I found on my own were Screech Owl and Wilson's Pharalope..

   Despite beating my old personal best, that was never my intention this year. When all of my plans got cancelled I birded on my days off. I spent many of my days off "playing catch up" Trying to find birds that had been previously seen while I was at work during the week. I really didn't enjoy this and took a lot of the fun away from birding. I found myself getting more and more frustrated throughout the summer as I put in a lot of time trying to see Marbled Godwit, Baird's Sandpiper and Royal Tern. The tipping point came a couple months later when I spent well over ten hours waiting for but never seeing a Connecticut Warbler to show. Over the next two weeks I am going to do some soul searching and try to figure out what I want most out of birding. I love seeing birds, but I had too many frustrating days last year and have to figure out my priorities. I'm sure there will be a future blogpost about it. 

    To sum up-      Like everyone else, I tried to make the best out of the year. I saw lots of birds and that was the highlight. All of my friends are healthy which is far more important than seeing a Connecticut Warbler. I did make many memories despite my plans going to hell in a handbasket. Birding was great, my one trip to New Hampshire was epic. So were my six pack trip, quahogging with Sue, and one of the whale watches. All in all I'll take it.

Rhode Island Record for most Species seen in a year broken!

   

Carlos Pedro looking through Linda Gardrel's scope at
the Magnificent Frigatebird on Dec 28th to break the
Rhode Island Yearbird record 309! Photo courtesy of Sue Palmer

Since this is my blog, most everything I write about are experiences I've had. Whether I have a bad day birding, a great day fishing, or feel like writing one of my boring posts about a thought, most everything I write is from my perspective. There is a whole lot of "me, I, and we" in my posts.

   So it is actually refreshing to write a post about one of my friends instead. Carlos Pedro one of Rhode Island's top birders broke the record for the most species of birds seen in Rhode Island in a calendar year. Carlos ended the year with 309 species. He beat the previous record holder Jan StJean by one bird (308 in 2012).

Carlos worked his tail off to claim the record. He was out birding five or six days a week. Sunday's were reserved for spending time for his wife. Unfortunately, most of the really rare birds were found on Sundays. So Carlos, just like everyone else, stopped whatever he was doing and went for Little Stint, Terek Sandpiper, Common Cukoo, and many other rare birds on the Sabath. 

   On top of birding, Carlos also picks up a hobby each year. When birding was slow one summer he photographed dragonflies, collecting over a hundred species. He is also addicted to mushroom hunting. When he finds a delicious specimen he will show you a picture like a proud papa would show you a picture of their child. Luckily for the bird group Carlos shares those mushrooms with them. 

   This year Carlos took up walking. For the first six months of the year he was averaging 40-60 miles a week (that is not a typo!). You cover a lot of birding territory walking that much. He picked up many species of shorebirds and migrants on these long walks.

Five of the species Carlos got were on a boat trip one hundred miles from Galilee. He sets up a six pack trip every year ( It is called a six pack because it is a fairly small boat that only holds six paying customers.) I was lucky enough to be invited on that trip. I had a great time and got to take home some tuna steaks to boot!

On December 18th Carlos along with a bunch of other birders got a Varied Thrush in Glocester. This tied him for the record. Still needing Snowy Owl and Eared Grebe he constantly went to Napatree and any other place with possibility of either bird. Finally on December 28th, after ten days of wondering if he could get one more bird, a Magnificent Frigatebird showed up off the West Wall. He rushed down and with other birders and saw the Frigatebird! 309!   

With three more days till the end of the year he tried for more birds. He spent seven hours stalking a Painted Bunting but it never popped up that day. None the less, 309 is a huge reason to celebrate.  

Congratulations my friend!!!