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!!!

Another Crazy Lifer

 

 Another crazy rare bird is in Rhode Island. This time it is a Varied Thrush. This is a bird that summers in western Canada and Alaska. Some don't migrate at all, but those that do hover around the U.S. west coast. This is the fourth sighting in RI. The first was in 1966.

 

  One of these birds showed up in Glocester RI under some ladies bird feeder. She posted photos on ebird and Facebook and that was all that was needed for the stampede to start.  The bird feeders can be seen from the road with very little invasion of privacy. The woman loves birds and was okay with birders stopping by anyway.

   I went late this morning because the roads were still icy early. I got there about 10:15. Many of my friends had seen the bird between 8-9am and I hoped this would be a quick one and I'd be back home to do some chores at 11 am.

   No such luck. A fellow birder had been there since 9:30 and hadn't seen it. He had missed it by fifteen minutes. We waited, he left, other birders came, we waited some came, some of them left, and so on... You get the picture. I have to work tomorrow so I didn't want to leave. Finally just before 2 pm the bird showed itself. What a beauty. It is a male with a bright orange chest. Very pretty. It hung out for ten minutes and flew off. That was my que to warm up my toes and go home. 

#292- My friend Jess Bishop hit 300 birds today and I think another friend Linda Gardrel also did Congrats! Nice bird for 300th

 

291!!!

   

Clay Colored Sparrow
My 291st bird of the year and a lifer. 

If you read my blog from last year, you couldn't get away from the fact I was doing a Rhode Island Big Year. The goal was to see how many species I could see in Rhode Island in 2019. I not so secretly wanted to reach 250. My previous high was two hundred and thirty-two. When I reached that on June 1, the number I next wanted and hoped for was 263. Why such a strange number? My friend Marge Bradley had retired the year before and her husband Dick had already retired. They got to spend the 2018 birding whenever they wanted. They ended up with 262. I figured if I could reach one more bird than that I knew I had a good year. Dick and Marge are very good birders, so to surpass good birders that were retired the following year just meant I was trying hard. I passed 263 and chased everything right till the end and ended up with 290 species. 

   Also if you read my blog in December of last year and January of this year, you read a broken record about how I had no plans to do it again. I put thousands of miles on my car, went through a set of tires, and may have blown a head gasket. The more likely reason I wasn't going to get anywhere 290 again was I had too many things planned in 2020 that had nothing to do with birding in RI. I was going to do eleven overnight trips plus take a vacation to Florida in November. Between hiking in NH, birding in Maine, and whale watches out of Gloucester, getting anywhere near my previous high was not only unrealistic but not even a goal.

   Here is the thing, just because I didn't have plans for a big list did not mean I stopped liking birding. January was fairly mild so I went birding on all of my days off. I ended January 2020 with one hundred and twenty five species which was more than I got in January 2019. Still, this meant nothing. Getting all those birds in January just meant there wouldn't be much to look for until early migrants showed up in mid-March.

   Then, as we all know, things got ugly and everything shut down. So, like everyone else, my plans got cancelled. So I did what I always do on my days off, I went birding. Spring birding was good and I missed very few species. I ended up getting my 250th bird on May 31. One day sooner than the previous year. Up till this point, I stuck to my plan of keeping miles off of my car. I would bird far from home on days off but stay close to home on work nights. I would not "chase" birds after work. I only broke this rule to see a White Pelican in Tiverton, but for god's sake its a pelican in Rhode Island so give me some slack.

   During the summer I missed some tough but getable birds including Marbled Godwit, Baird's Sandpiper, and the bane of my existence, Royal Tern. However four mega-rare birds that I have wrote about often showed up between June 28- Nov 1. I was lucky enough to see all four. I managed to see most of the expected shorebirds and terns highlighted by Black Skimmers that flew right by me the day after I bought my new camera.

   Throughout the fall I was still getting birds. I went on a pelagic on Sept 8 that went one hundred miles south. I got four birds on that trip.  Last month someone found a Dovkie in Trustom Pond. I was close by and got a very unexpected lifer. That bird put me at #290 and I tied my previous personal best.

   The last couple of weeks I have alternated my time looking for the very rare Pacific Loon and the beautiful Evening Grosbeak and Snowy Owl. Those three species were my best chance of getting a species that is "expected" in RI. No luck. 

  On Sunday my friends Jan and Jess found a Clay Colored Sparrow in Portsmouth. I couldn't go because I worked. Today I went there and looked for it. Jan came down and we spent another two and a half hours looking for it but dipped. We left.

Thirty minutes later Jess was there and the bird popped up for her in the same spot as Sunday. So I turned around and went back. I ran out to Jess. She moved down the path looking for other birds. She told me where it was and I waited. The bird popped up within five minutes!!! Not only was it #291 but it was a lifer! Great way to break my PB. 

Stats- 

If there is one thing birders like as much as birds it is numbers. Here are some- Last year I ended up seeing the forth most birds in RI. I was second in the entire state for people with a job (tough to compete with retired folk, especially retired people that are among the best birders in the country). 

This year I am fifth on "the list" but realistically I think I am eleventh between people whose numbers I know and people that I know that are better, retired, work from home, and obsessed. Also, and this is surely true, there are a lot more people birding this year than last. Yes, this is due to the pandemic. When a good bird used to show up the same ten people would rush down to see it. I knew all of their cars. Then, the next day or two a few stragglers would hope it was still there. Now, thanks to amazing networking and unselfishness forty or fifty people will go look for the bird in the next few days.

By no means is this making excuses. If  #291puts me in eleventh place when all I wanted to do was see birds, then Que Sera. I'm more than happy to hold down that number. This has been a great year for rare birds and many birds. The RI record is in jeopardy. I have four friends that have reached 300 and others within a bird or two. I don't think before this year there were ever three birders in the same year to reach three hundred. Congrats to them!!

291

9 lifebirds (plus one in MA-Ruff) Thick Billed Murre, Tennessee Warbler, Terek's Sandpiper, Red Necked Stint, Little Stint, Pomarine Jaeger, Common Cukoo, Dovkie, Clay Colored Sparrow

2 other State birds Lark Sparrow and Wilson's Pharalope

The best bird I found myself- Wilson's Pharalope

  

Things I am Grateful For in the Outdoors

 

The best photo I got of any of the 
mega-rare birds, Little Stint

Yikes, this is not an easy year to write my annual Thanksgiving Day post but I will give it a try

1. First, although no one close to me has died, I am not going to give thanks for that, at least not here.. Many others have suffered because of this virus, and I feel awful for them. I have not known anyone personally to die. However, someone I worked with lost a father, and someone I went to school with lost a father-in-law. I don't feel "blessed" this virus hasn't hit home for me, I feel lucky.

2. This has been the best year of birding in Rhode Island possibly ever. Four Mega-rarities from across oceans landed in RI. These birds no one would ever expect to show up from half way around the world gave thousands of birders a chance to see them. Besides the crazy rare birds, many other great birds showed up this year such as Wilson's Plover and Red Headed Woodpecker. I had seen those species before, but I have gotten eight lifebirds so far this year. I never would have dreamed that possible.

3. I am thankful that Dave is still my friend despite the fact I bird way more than I fish. I appreciate his phone calls and catching up for more than he knows. He is a good friend.

4. I am amazed I actually crossed something off of my bucket list this year. For the first time, I saw whales breach and I got to photograph it. What an absolutely unbelievable memory I will never forget.

5. I am grateful I live near the ocean and mountains. 

6. I don't get political on here often, and this will be my only comment about politics... I am looking forward to the new administration fixing many of the environmental rollbacks of the last few years. Many of them affected me personally. National Monuments have been shrunk that I have visited. The Migratory Bird Treaty that survived presidents from both parties for over 100 years had been watered down as was the Endangered Species Act. I like clean water and clean air and I am happy those regulations will be restored.

7. I am happy for my birder friends. We are pretty close knit and talk most every day. Many of them get to bird everyday. Most of the time I'm not jealous they are out birding, I'm jealous I can't be with them. You all know who you are, and you're probably the only ones still reading after #6

8.  I am happy I made one trip to New Hampshire. Though I only spent two days there all year, I packed in a lot. I hiked Mt. Tremont to a gorgeous summit view, I saw a bear, went birding, and took tons of photos of peak foliage. I've said it before, it is nice that the mountains are close by.

9. I am grateful for May 16, 2020. For ten days the east side of the country was pummeled with north winds. This held back millions of birds heading north. When the winds shifted the night of May 15 all of these birds that had been bottlenecked took flight. Then around 10 pm it started to rain. This forced the birds down. When we woke up the next morning birds were everywhere. I went to Miantonomi Park in Newport as did almost every other birder. The place was dripping with birds. Every tree had multiple good beautiful birds. It was an incredible experience.

10. I am grateful that I was asked to go on the dedicated pelagic on Sept 8. We saw a lot of good birds, Pilot Whales, and Atlantic White Sided Dolphins. I also got to catch a Mahi-mahi and my largest fish yet a Yellowfin Tuna. Thank you Carlos.

11. Of course, thanks to Laurie for not complaining too much when she comes over on Sunday's unsuspecting that she will be dragged on another bird chase. 

12. Lastly, as always, I love living in this country. The amazing scenery, wildlife, and history are all thing I cherish. Without these things, I would have no purpose in life. But because of them I have an entire notebook of bucket list ideas that range from catching a Peacock Bass to hiking trails in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. 

Another MEGA- RARE Bird Comes to Rhode Island

 A few months back I wrote a post entitled "The Rarest bird I am ever going to see in Rhode Island.

http://southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-rarest-bird-i-am-ever-going-to-see.html

It turns out I was wrong. A bird just as rare as June's Terek Sandpiper showed up at Snake Den today. The bird that showed up is a Common Cuckoo. Common in Europe and common in Africa where it winters, but not common in the USA. Common Cuckoo has only been seen twice in the United States before today. One in 2012 and the other in 1981! Al Schenck found it this morning and reported it after he realized what it could be. Within an hour Snake Den was a zoo. Dozens of birders descended on the small parking lot. 

I got to see the bird today for about an hour. This is about fifty nine minutes and twenty seconds longer than I got to see the Terek's Sandpiper in June. I took what turned out to be 220 photos. I easily deleted three quarters of them when I went through them. I got lucky with a couple of dozen or so.

From what I have learned, the Common Cuckoo prefers open country. It does summer in Europe where the population is rising in Scotland and it winters in Africa. How it got here is anyone's guess. The poor bird was exhausted. The good news is it ate throughout the day. I personally saw it eat a huge nightcrawler and caterpillars. I don't know what the fate of this bird will be. If it can tolerate Scotland in the spring, then the weather this week should be tolerable. I can only hope for the best.

Many more photos below-