Operation 365!!!

 Since January 1 I have been on a quest. I've told very few people about it and even most of my close birding friends don't know. I have spent the last six and a half months trying to see 365 species of vertebrates in New England this year. I chose 365 because that would mean getting an average one species a day for the year. I originally had hoped for 350, but I got that the end of June so I knew 365 was very doable. 

  Today I hit the magical 365 with a very magical bird. The first ever American Flamingo to land in RI since records of such things were kept was my three hundred and sixty fifth vertebrate species this year! This Flamingo has been hanging around the Northeast for a month now. It touched down on a Cape Cod Beach twice but has spent most of its time on Long Island. Today it showed up in Little Compton. I got to see it along with very few other birders because it was at a private beach. I got very lucky.

   I've actually been at 364 since July 9th. I could have ended it very easily by catching a very common Brown Bullhead catfish. I didn't try because I didn't want Brown Bullhead to be the winning species. I wanted it to be something special. I got a Common Galinule a few days ago but I had to take a Boat Tailed Grackle off of my list the same day. I'd say Flamingo counts as special. 

   This journey required a lot of research but more than that it required planning. The most important factor was staying true to nature's calendar. For example, birding as much as I could in May was a no-brainer. But there were many other much smaller windows to get specific targets. Herring only run upstream in the spring. My only chance to see Sea Lamprey was at a fish ladder in Manchester in late May. The easiest Spotted Salamanders would be during a rainy night in March. Wood Frogs are in vernal pools for a short time. The list goes on. 

   I planned as many of these events as I could. If I felt the urge to go trout fishing but the weather was good for looking for snakes, I looked for snakes. I purposely took off the six weeks after May from birding to look for herps, go seining, and day trips. Since May, Laurie and I took a trip to Boston to see Italian Wall Lizards, went up to Maine on a Puffin Cruise (got four targets) and went to NH for NH specialty birds, Eastern Newt, and fish. 

 

 One thing I tried to do was bundle. I wanted to keep my driving/gas expenses down as much as possible. I would spend an entire day off in nature. I'd bird in the morning, go seining in the late morning, and try for herps around lunch time into the afternoon. I went to New Hampshire trying to get all of my species in one trip, but my car radiator and a couple of dips foiled that plan. Still, I had very productive days getting a large variety of species.

    I also put myself in places where I had a good chance to see things I couldn't easily see. At Bioblitz I got ten species most of them were fish. The reason was that RI DEM used a hundred foot seine to haul in a lot of species. They also set out lobster pots and when they brought them in, I got Sea Bass and Scup. My Puffin boat had four species. The whale watch I went in April had seven mammal and two birds. The whale watch I went on last week had the other two Shearwaters I needed.

If I was going to chase a single species, I wanted it to be either a lifer vertebrate or a state bird. I wanted to see many new species as I could. This meant I had to get off of my butt when a rarity showed up in Rhode Island. This has worked out far better than I could have hoped. I've gotten ten lifer birds so far this year and one state bird for RI (Black Necked Stilt).  For the sake of records the lifer birds I've seen so far this year are- MacGillivary Warbler, Northern Shrike, Little Gull, Hermit Warbler, Swainson's Warbler, White Winged Dove, Mottled Duck, Swallow Tailed Kite, South Polar Skua, and the Flamingo. 

Eastern Chubsucker

 
 


I knew going in that the wildcard would be fish. I know that I would get somewhere between 250-280 birds. I know what mammals, reptiles, and amphibians I could get within ten. Fish were the wildcard. I've caught in my best year 33 species in New England, I knew that would be an impossible number. To catch that many, I'd have to take too much time away from other animals. I couldn't spend days trying for a Bowfin when I could get five or more birds in that time. However, I have a new weapon, a seine. This allows me to catch small little fish I could never get on a hook. With the seine or with RI DEM I've seen twenty three fish species. I've also caught sixteen while fishing. There are certainly a lot more species out there so fish will still be the great variable (along with winter birds I missed) on what I end up with. Five of the fish are lifers (Smallmouth Flounder, Rainwater Killifish, Four Spined Stickleback, Sheepshead Minnow, and Eastern Chubsucker). All but the Smallmouth Flounder were in my seine. The flounder was at BioBlitz.

By the numbers... 

   Birds    276  (240 in RI, the other 36 in other states but not RI)

   Mammals 21 (one lifer Red Backed Vole)

   Reptiles     12

   Amphibians   11

   Fish               45

   Total lifers    15

Dips...

    Obviously, on a quest like this you are not going to bat 1.000. There are going to be dips. For fish, my biggest dip was American Shad. I tried for them at the Merrimack River and a fish ladder but never saw one. I tried for Northern Pike but since I had never caught one, I really don't look at it as a failure. For herps, I've tried for Green Snake a dozen times without success.  For mammals, I have very few rodents and didn't see a moose or bear in NH, I got very lucky on whale watches and even saw my only coyote from the deck of a whale watch boat.  

  I didn't get a chance to try for Bicknell's Thrush in NH. While I was in New Hampshire Merlin picked up Ruffed Grouse in the place I was looking for them. Despite my best concentration, I did not here them so I didn't count it. At that place (Pondicherry) I did get Mourning Warbler, Alder Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Purple Finch, and Yellow Bellied Flycatcher, so I'm not complaining.

   The one person that I talked extensively about my gameplan was Charles Avenego. I bounced ideas off of him multiple times a week for the last few months on  Messenger. I explained gameplans and listened to advice. I didn't always follow his advice. Even when I didn't, he has always been supportive and congratulated me on my victories. Thanks buddy!

Easy ones left...

   By far the easiest species left would be Brown Bullhead. There are other easy fish like Yellow Bullhead and White Catfish. I'd probably see Cod and other bottom fish on a Cod Boat and the Cape Cod Canal usually has a run of Mackerel in the summer and another in winter. I also haven't seen Bay Anchovies or Menhaden.

  I've got most of the easy herps, but I'd like to chase some of the harder ones but they require long drive to Connecticut or the Berkshires. Most of those would be lifers. I can get Leopard Frog at Great Meadows in August. I also need Diamondback Terrapins which will require a special trip but should be pretty easy. I'll keep plugging away at Green Snake

The easiest birds left are shorebirds. I should be able to pick up another five between shorebirds and terns. More if I get lucky. I missed a few winter birds, so I'll be doing this up until December 31. 

 You can't really predict mammals. I was told where otters live but haven't gone to look yet. I want to buy a small mammal live trap to try to catch different small rodents. That would be the biggest variable on adding to my number. Other than that, I am going on a bat walk on Saturday. So I could get lucky and see a species with people capable of identifying them.