2015 BIG YEAR - October Update

October 2015

This is the tenth 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 - 176
Mute Swan - 1
Trumpeter Swan - 1

Tundra Swan - 353

Gadwall - 2

American Wigeon - 275

American Black Duck - 69
Mallard - 421

Northern Shoveler - 55

Northern Pintail - 738

Green-winged Teal - 88

Redhead - 20

Greater Scaup - 295
Lesser Scaup - 50

Surf Scoter - 6070
White-winged Scoter - 7965
Black Scoter - 254
Long-tailed Duck - 20,550
Bufflehead - 152
Common Goldeneye - 417

Common Merganser - 8
Red-breasted Merganser - 307

Red-throated Loon - 12
Common Loon - 101
Horned Grebe - 2

Red-necked Grebe - 2

Double-crested Cormorant - 1160

Great Blue Heron - 3

Turkey Vulture - 1

Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1

Cooper's Hawk - 1
Bald Eagle - 2

Red-tailed Hawk - 7

Black-bellied Plover - 1

Killdeer - 1

White-rumped Sandpiper - 2

Parasitic Jaeger - 1

Sabine's Gull - 1

Bonaparte's Gull - 110

Ring-billed Gull - 1210
Hering Gull - 368

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 6

Great Black-backed Gull - 36

Common Tern - 61
Rock Pigeon - 8
Mourning Dove - 85

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 3

Hairy Woodpecker - 1

Northern Flicker - 3
American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 6

Peregrine Falcon - 7

Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1

Eastern Phoebe - 1

Blue-headed Vireo - 5

Blue Jay - 15
American Crow - 3

Black-capped Chickadee - 13

White-breasted Nuthatch - 1

Brown Creeper - 34

Winter Wren - 2

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 134

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 36

Hermit Thrush - 4American Robin - 34

European Starling - 279

Cedar Waxwing - 2

Snow Bunting - 1

Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Magnolia Warbler - 1

Palm Warbler - 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 34

Black-throated Green Warbler - 1

Chipping Sparrow - 11

Dark-eyed Junco - 124

White-crowned Sparrow - 38

White-throated Sparrow - 290

Song Sparrow - 3
Northern Cardinal - 3

Red-winged Blackbird - 152

Common Grackle - 3

Brown-headed Cowbird - 4
House Finch - 35

Common Redpoll - 40

Pine Siskin - 42
American Goldfinch - 38
House Sparrow - 105

Total species - 86

Total ebird checklists - 27

Best birds of the month: Sabine's Gull... Not much really

Useless seasonal rarities: Common Redpoll, Eastern Wood-Pewee

Highlight "big year" birds: rarities aside - Orange-crowned Warbler, Winter Wren, Hermit Thrush, White-rumped Sandpiper

Checklists of the month:


#1 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25253928

#2 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25374594
#3 - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25283645 (notable for intense disappointment)

Total species added to the big year this month: 6

Big year total to date: 194



Target species going forwards:  pretty much rares at this point. Snow Goose, Brant, Purple Sandpiper, Cave Swallow, Gannet, Harlequin Duck, Barrow's Gold, Pacific Loon, Black-legged Kittiwake... A few sorta-not-rares available though like Greater Yellowlegs, Short-eared Owl

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 |August | September | 


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Thoughts:

I was guns blazing at the start of October. 50-70kph NE winds were in the forecast for days. DAYS I tell you. And there were no good waterbirds to show for it. I eventually scored 2 White-rumped Sandpipers (new for the condo, all time list now at 209), which were a tiny part of the "event" that grounded them in southern Ontario... But instead of basking in Kittiwake goodness, it was the passerines that kept me entertained (5 passerines new for the big year, including some previously notable admissions like Blue-headed Vireo, Hermit Thrush etc). 

After the torrid pace I was adding big-year-birds in late September and early October had me thinking that 200 was maybe slightly possible. Now my last new "year bird" for the big year was on Oct 11th... Since that time, the weather and birding have been decidedly dull around the condo... It could well be a vicious cycle where I start to lose interest in looking, and therefore see even less... I may need some motivation... Motivate me!!!

As the "target species" list shows above, the only birds I can score are genuine notable species around here, with perhaps greater odds of finding rarities (Kittiwake, Harlequin, Gannet, Cave Swallow) than any of the more common species in our region. Hopefully the weather cooperates and a few more "big" checklists are in store!

Oct 1

Oct 3

Oct 15