Tuesday, August 4, 2015

2015 BIG YEAR - July Update


July 2015

This is the seventh monthly summary of my 2015 CONDO BIG YEAR!!!




Red dot is my condo building




Red mark is the blue area defined in the first map


Click for - BIG YEAR RULES


The birds! (new species in bold)-


Canada Goose - 36
Mallard - 11

Long-tailed Duck - 13
Common Merganser - 2
Horned Grebe - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 3275
Great Blue Heron - 11
Great Egret - 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Killdeer - 2
Spotted Sandpiper - 1
Lesser Yellowlegs - 3
Bonaparte's Gull - 81
Ring-billed Gull - 1575
Herring Gull - 460
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Caspian Tern - 125
Common Tern - 45
Forster's Tern - 1
Rock Pigeon - 4
Mourning Dove - 9
Chimney Swift - 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 4
American Kestrel - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Eastern Kingbird - 1
Warbling Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 8
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 8
Purple Martin - 13
Tree Swallow - 50
Bank Swallow - 270
Barn Swallow - 384
Cliff Swallow - 1
Black-capped Chickadee - 1
American Robin - 16
Gray Catbird - 2
European Starling - 605
Cedar Waxwing - 21
Yellow Warbler - 14
Chipping Sparrow - 3
Song Sparrow - 2
Northern Cardinal - 3
Red-winged Blackbird - 80
Common Grackle - 20
Brown-headed Cowbird - 65
Baltimore Oriole - 2
House Finch - 9
American Goldfinch - 23
House Sparrow - 50 

Total species - 55

Total ebird checklists - 12

Best birds of the month: Forster's Tern, Lesser Black-backed Gull

Useless seasonal rarities: Juvenile Bonaparte's Gull on July 30th was very early for the HSA

Highlight "big year" birds: Forster's Tern was an awesome pick-up 

Checklists of the month:


#1 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24314944 (actually quite good)
#2 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24324282 (dull)
#3 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24417509 (worse)

Total species added to the big year this month: 1

Big year total to date: 169


Target species going forwards: By the end of the month I'd like 2 species of Jaeger, 5 more species of Shorebird, 1 new passerine and a rarity that ISN'T a Neotropic Cormorant... 

eBird needs alerts - The same as before House Wren, Swamp Sparrow, Veery, Canada Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Field Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Ovenbird, and more... 

KM driven: 0
KM flown: 0
KM by boat: 0
KM by train: 0
KM by helicopter: 0

(1 Kilometer = 0.621371192237334 Miles)


Previous summaries: January | February | March | April | May | June


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Thoughts:

After a total write-off in June, I was actually home a bit in July. The birding was dull, I was busy, and I didn't even manage to submit a complete checklist (only 12 incomplete in total). The fact that I scored a new year bird in FORSTER'S TERN (a good bird at any time of year 'round here) is nothing short of a miracle.

It would have been nice to score some more shorebirds - but they're tough from the condo - and I presume I'll have better opportunities in August and September (esp when the juveniles start moving).

I've had Long-tailed Jaeger at the condo on August 18th before - so we're darn close to lakewatch season. In these parts, jaeger watching is hard to beat for excitement. I can't wait!

Late August is also (easily) one of the very best times of year for something stupid-rare to arrive, so I'll have to make sure i'm taking things seriously if I want to max out the list. Recent years have had things like Manx Shearwater and Long-billed Curlew; that presumably flew right past this condo before I lived here!




July 14th


July 17th


July 19th 


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