286!!!

Ok, I hit my un-official goal of 286 on Dec 28th. I had to do a work survey, and picked up a Snowy Owl north of Guelph in the afternoon. Why is this so much fun?

Well, to recap, every single year I've been birding, I've seen more species the previous year than the last. 2009 was 285. 2008 was 282 (in Ontario).  Which is all fun and games, but also consider that I was in Newfoundland for almost all of January and February! And I ended up having one of my worst "May" periods of my birding career, seemingly missing "regular" species at every turn. By June 15th, I knew there was no chance to repeat 2009's totals.

Not only because of the poor start to 2010, but also the fact that 2009 was an amazing birding year for me. (and I don't really chase birds, so this isn't a result of driving more kilometers to get a higher list)...  Anyways - I think everyone gets the point, so I won't talk about this again until next December.

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Another year in review fact: I mentioned a week or two ago about Ken Burrells drive to get 300 species in Ontario for the first time - and he reached his goal with some Bohemian Waxwings on Christmas day. Congrats to Ken!

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Old photo

Happy 2011!