my quest to see it all...

In April I sought out a quest to see it all. Or at least to see thirty-one new species of birds to reach two hundred life birds. As of Christmas Eve I am at 181. I’ve seen twelve new species since the end of April. Six of those species were quickly picked up in May during my first bird-a-thon experience where I birded with people who are much better birders than I am for twenty-four hours. A seventh was picked up at my trip to Mt. Auburn that I wrote about in June. The last five I saw this fall including three over Thanksgiving weekend. All in all I’ve seen nineteen new species for the year.

The Christmas Bird Count is still to come, but I don’t expect to see any more life birds. And although I didn’t reach two hundred life birds it has been a spectacular year for birding. I got to see my first Snowy Owl. I also saw my first Eastern Meadowlark and Horned Lark that I have been searching for, for a couple years now. Interesting enough I first correctly identified the Horned Lark in early November in a farm field by its call. A month later I got to see my first Horned Lark in a different location.

The biggest thing I learned this year was understanding the size of birds better. As I began getting interested in birding and for anyone that does, one of the first things you learn quickly is to generalize the size of a bird. For example, “that bird is the size of a sparrow or that bird is the size of a robin”. They are quick general identifiers to quickly understand what kind of bird you are looking at. This year I have been able to understand that concept and use it more thoroughly. For example the Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse frequent together in winter. They are all a sparrow-sized bird. But when you get down to it, the chickadee is a much smaller bird and the titmouse can some times look huge next to the chickadee.

Subsequently, where can I improve? I can improve in finding the unseen bird. As a birder this is pretty common. Birds are often found high in trees or blending in with rocks, grass or trees and often can be heard but not seen. Many people not searching for birds will never see many birds that are right in front of them. For me it will be learning more about finding birds that I know could be somewhere and finding them. This year on one of our annual trips to Cuttyhunk, a small island off of Cape Cod, we did not find any warblers. And although most of the migration had moved through already the likelihood that there was at least one warbler there was good and yet we did not see one. For me it will be learning more about bird behavior and techniques to find these often quiet and overlooked birds.

In my next blog I hope to share what birds I would like to see in 2013 and a recap of the Christmas Bird Count.