Wednesday, September 2, 2015

2015 BIG YEAR - August Update

August 2015

This is the eighty 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 - 81
Gadwall - 9
American Black Duck - 3
Mallard - 75
Blue-winged Teal - 8
Northern Shoveler - 3
Green-winged Teal - 15
Redhead - 5
Lesser Scaup - 1
Surf Scoter - 1
White-winged Scoter - 44
Long-tailed Duck - 169
Hooded Merganser - 1
Common Merganser - 26
Red-breasted Merganser - 2
Common Loon - 22
Horned Grebe - 1
Red-necked Grebe - 4
Double-crested Cormorant - 12550
Great Blue Heron - 14
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 3
Osprey - 2
Killdeer - 17
Spotted Sandpiper - 4
Solitary Sandpiper - 1
Whimbrel - 1
Least Sandpiper - 1
Short-billed Dowitcher - 1
Red-necked Phalarope - 18
Parasitic Jaeger - 1
Long-tailed Jaeger - 1
Sabine's Gull - 1
Bonaparte's Gull - 237
Little Gull - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 2775
Herring Gull - 850
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 4
Caspian Tern - 310
Common Tern - 215
Rock Pigeon - 52
Mourning Dove - 17
Chimney Swift - 274
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 8
Downy Woodpecker - 9
Hairy Woodpecker - 4
Northern Flicker - 6
American Kestrel - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 6
Eastern Kingbird - 4
Warbling Vireo - 3
Blue Jay - 14
American Crow - 10
Purple Martin - 40
Tree Swallow - 162
Bank Swallow - 479
Barn Swallow - 1160
Cliff Swallow - 197
Black-capped Chickadee - 12
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 2
American Robin - 25
Gray Catbird - 3
European Starling - 537
Cedar Waxwing - 134
Tennessee Warbler - 1
American Redstart - 2
Yellow Warbler - 29
Chipping Sparrow - 7
Song Sparrow - 4
Northern Cardinal - 7
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 13
Common Grackle - 56
Brown-headed Cowbird - 65
Baltimore Oriole - 30
House Finch - 19
American Goldfinch - 46
House Sparrow - 86

Total species - 80

Total ebird checklists - 25

Best birds of the month: Sabine's Gull, Long-tailed Jaeger, Little Gull

Useless seasonal rarities: Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter (October birds)

Highlight "big year" birds: Glad to get Long-tailed Jaeger and Sabine's out of the way, but Least Sandpiper and Blue-winged Teal count just the same (and may be harder to get!)

Checklists of the month:

#1 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24624685
#2 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24666131
#3 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24799590

Total species added to the big year this month: 6

Big year total to date: 175


Target species going forwards: September is the "poor man's" May. There is a huge number of birds moving; so the potential is there for several big year additions. I need a number of passerines, my shorebird list is still full of holes, and there are some "unusual" birds that I expect (Pomarine!). Stay tuned.

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 | July


Thoughts:

I wanted 5 new shorebirds, 2 Jaegers and a rarity that wasn't a NECO... I failed. Sure, I scored 2 Jaegers, and had some great additions (Sabine's Gull, Red-necked Phalarope, etc) but I managed to see some shorebirds for a "second" time in 2015 - like Short-billed Dowitcher or Whimbrel...  Can I trade those for a Golden Plover? Or a Greater Yellowlegs? Stilt Sand? Pec? Turnstone? Godwit? eh? eh?!

I think September will involve playing a game with the weather. Late August provided several days of really boring weather-birding with a cutoff low bringing the same thing day after day. I could use some really good storms - from any direction - to whip up some action along the lake for just about any family. With lots of birds around, it will be fun to check back in October and see if I was able to plug any holes.

I don't typically think of September as a big "rarity month" (although the last week of September can be great); yet I only need moderate rare. I also happen to be sitting at 199 *all time* for my condo; so it would be nice to get #200 as a real highlight bird, rather than something overdue. I'm thinking Western Kingbird or American Avocet.... Instead of Canada Warbler or Ruddy Turnstone... 



Aug 10


Aug 4


Aug 5


1 comment:

  1. I just learned today that Steven O'Donnell from South River just got his #200 yard bird. It was a Baird's Sandpiper. Just one more and you will tie him.

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