This post probably won't be of much use to you as a reader. I write my annual end of the year post so I can look back on things. Usually they are filled with numbers like how many bird species I've seen or trout I've caught. Since I didn't fish much I can't give an overview of how the season went. Since I didn't keep a Rhode Island bird list I truly have no idea how many species I saw in the state.
Theme- "Go Big or Stay Home"
As I've said many times each year takes on a theme. I don't generally plan this. It just happens organically. One year I fell in love with trout fishing and fished for them all year. I kept track of how many I caught, what I caught them on, how many I caught in each state and water body. I did not start out in January planning this, it just happened. Another year, DJ and I hiked in New Hampshire every chance we could. We did multiple four thousand footers. The following year I was introduced to surf fishing and only went to New Hampshire once or twice.
This year's theme is unlike any other in my life. First off, the first half of the year was not good for me. Too much emotional stress and stress at work. April and May, two of my favorite months were awful and I actually lost fifteen pounds due to stress despite eating anything I wanted.
Once June got here, things turned around. My North Carolina trip started the last couple days of May and went into the first week of June. Never in my life did I need a vacation more than this one, I needed to get away. That trip "righted me" and things got better from there.
From the beginning of my vacation till the end of the year, my theme began. I had very major high intensity peaks followed by an extended boring status quo, then another peak, followed by more boredom, etc... In the last twenty five years, never had I done so little after work. Usually I would fish almost every night or take a trip to chase a bird. However, since I have been doing the delivery for work a couple weeknights a week, I just never had the time. I'd deliver the donuts, then have a couple days off, hang out with my friend Laurie, and it would be back to deliveries. I just never had much time after work to get out. So the theme for this year, for better or worse, really was "Go Big or Stay Home".
Make no mistake, this was my choice. Doing the delivery a couple days a week is my decision. I could have asked my boss to look for another driver. Yet, I have chosen to take the money. I want to pay off my car within a year and the extra money means that will probably happen. The above paragraph is not complaining, it is a choice.
To break up these boughts of boredom I did have a lot to look forward to. Only two weeks after coming home from North Carolina I went to Maine with my friend Sue to Machias Seal Island and saw breeding puffins. The weather was perfect and Puffins, Murres, and Razorbills were only feet from us.
I didn't do much over the early summer for fun. As I said, most afternoons were just a couple of hours in-between jobs so I could go back to work. However once mid-August came around, almost every day off was an adventure. I told my boss that with all the stress I needed things to look forward to. So I asked for three days off over the next two months so I could have some three day weekends. The first was to Philly. We spent two days in Philly and a day at Brigantine where I saw a lifer Roseate Spoonbill.
September was unbelievable. It started with a perfect weather day at the Bronx Zoo. The Skating Club of Boston hosted two international events with high quality skaters. Laurie loves skating so we went to both. I took hundreds of photos practicing shooting moving targets. Before those events we went to Robert Frost House in Derry, NH and the Wydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, MA. The week of Sept 25 I spent two nights on Block Island birding with some of my best friends. The end of the month Laurie and I went to Saratoga Battlefield followed by two days in Lake George. That trip was way more fun than I expected
October brought me to New Hampshire to a fun hike and overnight on Rogers Ledge. The following week I went to a Owl banding thanks to Barbara Seith. The week after that I caught Kokanee in Connecticut.
November I went pike fishing the first week. I struck out, but caught some Smallmouth and had a fun day anyway. Then I went to Florida for twelve days. If you've been reading, I had a great time there. After Florida, I've seen some cool birds (Cattle Egret, Tundra Swan, Snowy Owl, Clay Colored Sparrow, Western Tanager) I went to The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol at the Stadium Theater.
Like I said, a lot of down time followed by really fun days, followed by more downtime doing next to nothing. There are worse "themes" but it was a very unusual year for me indeed.
Technical Difficulties-
To make things even more unusual both my computer and big camera lens broke this summer. My computer broke during the early summer. I was so busy I didn't end up getting one until the first week of September. I took the new one with me to Block Island expecting to write a bunch of blog posts. The LCD ended up breaking on the trip (I don't know how, I was careful with it) so I had to send it to the manufacturer for repairs while I was in Florida.
My lens was much more disheartening. It broke the week I came home from North Carolina. I brought it to be fixed immediately. Due to back ordered parts, it took over two months for it to be repaired. This was a crushing circumstance for me. I really wanted it for Machias Seal Island, but luckily the birds were so close my 300 mm was fine. I was miserable at Brigantine without it though. I could have gotten great photos of the Spoonbill, Skimmers, and Gull Billed Terns if I would have had it. I probably didn't do much this summer because I was cameraless.
Birding
Unlike most years, there will be very few stats. I didn't keep a list and really don't know how many species I saw. Consequently, I also have no idea where I finished in Rhode Island, though I'm sure it is not in the top 15. Nor do I care. Not keeping a list had the desired affect of keeping the tension off. I did not chase many birds after work. I kept thousands of miles off of my car. I did bird almost all the weekends I wasn't away, but I did all those day trips in the above paragraphs on my days off.
I did miss some birds I usually see every year. I know I didn't see any Cape May, Blackburnian, or Bay-Breasted Warblers. For shorebirds, I missed Marbled Godwit, Baird's and Buff Breasted Sandpiper. I'm sure I missed a lot more than that, but I do not plan on going over the master list to check. I am quite sure not keeping a year list was the right decision and may never keep one again.
Despite the noted misses, I had a really good year birding. Though I never found a mega-rarity, I found a lot of good birds on my own. In Rhode Island I found Acadian Flycatcher, summer Eastern Meadowlarks, I found Yellow Billed Cuckoo in Rhode Island and three other states (FL, NC, and ME)
In other states I found Black Backed Woodpecker, Leach's Storm Petrel, nesting Alder Flycatchers, Ruffed Grouse, Pileated Woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadee, Brown Headed Nuthatch, Gull Billed Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Yellow Throated Warbler, White Winged Crossbill, White Crowned Pigeons, Crested Caracara, Limpkins, Wood Storks, and I'm sure others I haven't thought of.
I did keep track of lifers- I ended up with an unbelievable 26 species. I will list all of them here, not to bore you, but so I have them listed in a place that won't burn in a fire
RI- Black Bellied Whistling Duck, Rufus Hummingbird, Barn Owl
ME- Arctic Tern, Redwing
MA- White Winged Crossbill, Long Eared Owl, Yellow Throated Warbler, Townsend's Warbler
NC- (from land) Bobwhite, Henslow Sparrow, Carolina Chickadee, Brown Headed Nuthatch, Cinnamon Teal, Gull Billed Tern,
NC- (from pelagic) Masked Booby, Black Capped Petrel, Band Rumped Storm Petrel, Audubon's Shearwater
NJ- Roseate Spoonbill
FL- Muscovy Duck, White Crowned Pigeon, Common Myna, Magnificent Frigatebird, Grey Headed Swamphen, Crested Caracara
I got a photo of all species except the Swamphen and the White Winged Crossbill.
I did miss two "very big deal" birds in RI. The first was a Brown Booby in Narragansett Bay. The other was a first ever Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper. I also missed White Winged Crossbill and Hoary Redpoll last winter. Of course, the big news was the Steller's Sea Eagle in MA, which I did not see.
I also ended up with photo upgrades of 47 species. I won't list them all here. But since I did not have my big lens for over two months, I am very happy with that number. Some species I will never be able to improve upon because they were so cooperative. Hudsonian Godwit, Rusty Blackbird, Puffins, American Bittern, and Pink Footed Goose are just a few that put on a spectacular show for me.
I got four RI state birds, the three lifers above and a Painted Bunting
Bucket List-
Since much of my time was taken up with a crazy stressful year at work and very little "me" time after work, it is not a coincidence that I fit as many adventures as I could in the second half of the year. when I wasn't working. I wiped as many things off of my drivable bucket list as I possibly could. Much of this is parroting what I wrote above, so I'll just write it in list form. The top two things were the things I most wanted to do east of the Mississippi. Doing them in the same year was amazing
1. Machias Seal Island Boat Trip
2. North Carolina Pelagic on the Patterson's Boat
3. Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge
4. Rogers Ledge Hike (there were 8 hikes in NH I really want to do, this was one of them)
5. Catch a Kokanee Salmon
6. See a Roseate Spoonbill (the number one species I wanted to see in the U.S.A.)
7. Saratoga Battlefield (been wanting to go there for years)
8. Brownfield Bog, ME birding
9. Bronx Zoo
Less adventurous things, but still were on my list
10. Get a photo upgrade of Rusty Blackbird
11. Find a Winter Wren (without the use of playback)
12. Robert Frost Farm
13. Whydah Pirate Museum
Doing thirteen things off a bucket list, nine of them pretty big adventures is more than I could have ever expected. After 2020 and once I was vaccinated, I was ready to begin life again. When the year started, I had my reservation for my boat trip to Machias Seal Island and the NC Patterson's Pelagic. Everything else just came as events fell into place
Lasting Memories
Such a strange year doing so many things off of my bucket list but also having so much down time (or really, too busy to have fun time) However, I did manage to find time to do some other cool daytrips. I understand this is not high drama reading, and I understand if you have better things to do than read that I went to Plum Island in January. But I did not keep a very good journal this year. Add to that that I was without a camera and computer for months, I'd like to have some concrete back up to my memories.
Besides the above bucket list items
Sue and I went to ME to see the Redwing and on the way back we got a Long Eared Owl (lifer). We also had a very nice Dickcissel
Laurie and I did an overnight to Plum Island and Salisbury Beach in January. White Winged Crossbill
Sue and I met up to see Pine Grosbeaks then went to stake out a Yellow Throated Warbler
Seeing the Townsends Warbler in a snow flurry
Rusty Blackbirds put on an amazing show in Cranston. Watched them for hours
The skating events in August and Sept were fun. We saw countless Olympians and met a few also. People we saw included Vincent Zhou, Jimmy Ma, Hubble and Donahue, Pate and Bye, Alysa Liu, Gracie Gold, Alexa Knerim and Brendan Frazier, Russian medalists, Todd Eldredge, Chris Knerim, and more.
Block Island overnight birding with friends. I got to see a Barn Owl thanks to Tim and Sue.
Rhode Island Whale Watch, saw literally thousands of Common Short Beaked Dolphins
Cape Ann Whale Watch wasn't as good.
Two ghost tours. Newport and Plymouth
Rhode Island Philharmonic and Fireworks at Slater Park
The Nutcracker at the Stadium Theater
Redwing, Dickcissel, Hudsonian Godwit, Pink Footed Goose, Clay Colored Sparrow, Black Bear, American Bittern, Machias Seal Island, Pileated Woodpecker, Snowy Owl, Western Kingbird, Rufus Hummingbird Photoshoots
I couldn't have done North Carolina, and my pelagic without Scott's support, Carlos's planning, and Wayne's knowledge of amphibian sounds
Lake George Boat trips and the Natural Cave were fun. Lake George is a beautiful lake.
In Florida my favorite moments were seeing the Cottonmouths. My favorite part of the trip were the two days in the Everglades. Flamingo was awesome with the Manatees, Crocs and all the birds. Ding Darling, the Crocs, Anhinga Trail, Purple Galinule, Croczilla, Bowman Beach (shells, Dolphins, Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns) were all so much fun to photograph. Wastewater 5/6, Corkscrew, and not getting out to a Coral Reef were disappointments. Almost drowning at Fort Zachary Taylor is something I'll never forget. The food in Key West is great. The best KLP is at Sloppy Joe's. Bahia Honda is one of the most beautiful places I've been.
With a little luck, a fun, healthy, birdy, fishy, 2022 is in all of our future.
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