2016 Birding Year in Review

2016 was once again filled with lots of exciting birding, featuring stops in 16 states and 3 provinces over the year.  My longest birding trip was a 10-day trek through Alberta and British Columbia, an example of how my total tick focus has evolved to include more birding in Canada.  Back in the states, I continued to make progress toward reaching my “Reportable Plus 15” goal throughout the Lower 48, facilitated by a number of short trips to focus on individual state lists.  The highlight of many of these trips was discovering quite a number of rarities – likely more than in any other year of birding.  And speaking of rarities, I continued to chase after new birds for my New England lists, including a lot of state firsts.  On all my trips I received tremendous help from local birders.  Many thanks to all who gave me great advice! 

Here is a summary of my 2016 birding year.

Alberta and British Columbia Total Ticks Trip

In past annual summaries I’ve talked about big statebirding trips.  But in 2016 I’ve called this a “Total Ticks Trip”, since this year I went to Canada instead of the US.  This year’s trip was to Alberta and British Columbia, as an extension to a business trip in Calgary.  I had never been in AB, and my BC list was only 144, so I had lots of potential total ticks in front of me.  As a result I added a week of vacation to the business trip, and birded all or part of 5 days each in AB and BC, birding in many diverse habitats along the way. 

Highlights for the AB portion of the trip included -

• Finding a rare Wood Thrush at the Weaselhead Natural Area in Calgary.
• Seeing somewhat unexpected “eastern” birds like Cape May Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak near the western limit of their range in the foothills in the Water Valley northwest of Calgary.
• Wet prairie birding at Frank Lake with 8 species of waterfowl and 6 species of shorebirds (many including broods of baby birds).  And in the surrounding prairies I found nesting LeConte’s and Nelson’s Sparrows, and a flyover Short-eared Owl.  Look at these cute Stilt chicks.

• Birding in native prairie southeast of Brook featuring breeding Chestnut-collared Longspurs, Brewer’s Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Sprague’s Pipits, and Bobolinks.
• Badlands birding at Dinosaur National Park with Rock Wrens, Prairie Falcons, and Lark Sparrows.
• Birding in the mountains at beautiful Banff National Park featuring boreal species such as Varied Thrush, Pacific Wren, Fox Sparrow, Townsend’s Warbler, and Clark’s Nutcrackers.  Not to mention this pair of nearby Black Bears thankfully seen from the safety of my car.

• Birding above treeline southwest of Calgary where I found Gray-crowned Rosy-finch and American Pipit.  And I spotted this most cooperative Rufous Hummingbird in route to the mountains.

 

I ended the AB half of my trip with 172 species – much better than my hoped for 150 species.  Plus I fondly remember the beautiful scenery such as this shot from Moraine Lake in Banff National Park.

For the BC portion of my trip I covered a lot of ground focused on filling gaps in my BC list.  I can’t thank Blaeberry birder Douglas Leighton enough – he gave me excellent advice for many of my birding locations.  BC highlights included -

• Yoho National Park where boreal birding featured Barrow’s Goldeneye, 3 different Three-toed Woodpeckers, an unexpected Blackpoll Warbler, Fox Sparrows, and the only Pine Grosbeak of the trip. 
• Kootenay National Park where a short visit on the Floes Creek trail yielded a booming Dusky Grouse.
• Blaeberry where a morning of birding in excellent diverse habitats yielded local specialties like Magnolia Warbler, White-throated Sparrow, Broad-winged Hawk, and only my third ever Black Swifts, plus finding a rare Black-and-white Warbler.
• Stops near Parson included hummingbird watching which netted the expected Black-chinned along with a very rare Ruby-throated.  Plus a rare Indigo x Lazuli Bunting hybrid.
• Two quick stops in Donald yielded an expected Say’s Phoebe.  What was unexpected was that it was this extremely pale leucistic bird.

• A stop at the Glenmore Landfill in Kelowna yielded Black-necked Stilts and Wilson’s Phalaropes, along with a very rare Marbled Godwit. 
• Vaseux Cliffs where I added a Golden Eagle, a covey of Chukars, nesting Lewis’s Woodpeckers, and a Rock Wren.
• White/Green Lake Loop in sagebrush country with key target Sage Thrashers along with Lark Sparrows, and Brewer’s Sparrows.  Check out this singing Sage Thrasher cooperatively perched on top of sagebrush.

I had 166 species for the BC portion of my trip, 81 of which were new for my province list - way over my goal of at least 50 species.  That gives me 225 for my BC list – my first province with more than 200.

Trip Summary by the Numbers -

• 210 species for the entire trip
• 47 new species for Canada, putting my Canada list 356 - the old ABA reportable threshold for Canada was 350
• 1,147 ticks in Canada exceeding the old threshold of 1,000
• Plus I got total tick #14,000 on the trip

Smaller Statebirding and Provincebirding Trips

In addition to my big total ticks trip I made several relatively smaller trips to work on various US state and Canadian province lists.  Although I didn’t add any new ABA reportable states in 2016, I did reach my “Reportable Plus 15” goal in 4 new states.  This is my somewhat arbitrary goal of at least 15 over the old ABA threshold.  And on some trips I was just trying to fill in gaps in my statelist, frequently using eBird Needs Alerts as an invaluable tool.  Highlights included –

Nebraska, January – I added a couple vacation days to a trip to Denver to bird in western NE, where my list had been 7 over the ABA threshold.  I had an excellent 2 partial days of birding, including several stakeout rarities like Iceland Gull, White-winged Dove, Barrow’s Goldeneye, and Long-tailed Duck, among my amazing 15 “write-ins” in eBird.  I ended up with 13 new NE statebirds, giving me 20 over the old ABA threshold.

Oregon I, February – A trip to southwestern OR was a nice extension to a business trip to San Francisco to try to add species I wouldn’t likely see in a future summer trip to eastern OR.  In 2 full days of birding, and with invaluable help from local birder Frank Lospalluto, I tallied 110 species including 17 that were new for my OR list.  One of the highlights was this most cooperative Pygmy Owl.

And on the drive back to the Bay Area I literally happened to drive right by this stakeout, though completely unexpected, Great Gray Owl in northern CA.  I first spotted it on the roadside when I drove by at 40 mph, and I was able to back up and get this phonescoped photo.

British Columbia, May - My BC list was only 81 when a short business trip to Vancouver came up.  Needless to say there were many possible species I could add to my province list, especially if I added some vacation time to the trip.  But since I was planning a trip to both BC and AB the next month, including birding in eastern and southcentral BC, I couldn’t quite justify taking more vacation time on this trip.  Instead I squeezed in a bit of birding in two early mornings before work and 2 evenings after work, focused on species that would not be feasible on my inland trip in June.  I finished the trip with 112 species, including 21 of my 30 coastal targets, and 63 new species for my BC province list.  That included finding a singing Least Flycatcher as a rarity.  Not bad given my limited available birding time.  And not only was I happy with finding so many coastal species, but adding the additional non-coastal birds would end up helping me focus my birding efforts when I would come back to BC in June.

Quebec I, June – I’ve been working on my QC list quite a bit of late, and the last group of “low-hanging fruit” I still needed for that province list were nesting species in southwestern QC.  With a lot of eBird research I came up with a list of 49 possible targets.  Not surprisingly this included a number of long shots, but quite a number would be very likely with enough time and effort including 31 with rather specific staked out locations.  Although I initially thought I might need 4 days in the field to pursue all these possibilities, I decided on a 3-day route starting in the southwestern corner of QC (just outside NY and Ontario) mostly in grassland habitat, then working north through south-central QC stopping in woodlands and wetlands, then heading southeast with additional woodland stops before exiting the province into VT.  With one of my most successful total ticks trips ever, I covered that itinerary in just two partial days of birding, adding 38 new province birds including 30 of my 31 stakeout targets, and 112 species total.  I was successful on stakeout rarities like Clay-colored Sparrow, Prothonotary Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, and Mockingbird, local specialties like Cerulean Warbler and Yellow-throated Vireo, and found rarities like Gnatcatcher and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, July – I added 2 ½ days of Midwest birding to a late summer business trip to Minneapolis.  In MN, eBird Needs Alerts helped me in adding 9 new statebirds, allowing me to reach my Reportable Plus 15 goal, including stakeout rarity Yellow-throated Warbler.  My first day in Iowa was in the northwestern part of the state where I birded with local birders Lee Schoenewe and Joe Jungers.  With their help I added 22 new birds in northwestern IA, getting all but one of my target stakeouts, including stakeouts like nesting Red-necked and Western Grebes.  The next day in eastern IA I added 8 more birds, mostly “eastern” woodland species near the western edge of their breeding ranges.  I ended up with a statelist of 208, just 3 shy of the ABA threshold.  Plus with a tiny window of available time I crossed into WI and added a singing Kentucky Warbler, an eBird write-in to raise my WI total to exactly Reportable Plus 15.

Oregon II, September – This second trip to OR was almost completely limited to southern coastal targets.  I finished the short 2-day trip with 101 species, 14 of which were new for my OR statelist, way more than the 5 I expected.  My OR statelist is now at 249, which is just 10 short of the old ABA threshold.  By far the highlight of the trip was discovering an immature Emperor Goose that many others were able to see in subsequent days, even though it was not a new statebird for me. 

Quebec II, September – With a planned VT “pelagic trip” on Lake Champlain I tacked on a day of birding at Baie Missisquoi just across the Canadian border to pursue a number of shorebirds that had been spotted there quite reliably.  Although many of the shorebirds had moved on the day before I arrived (ugh), I still added 6 species to my QC list, including finding a rare Western Sandpiper.  However the postscript to this trip is a negative one – the VT pelagic was cancelled, and I missed a target VT statebird (Orange-crowned Warbler) by just minutes.  And most importantly I didn’t realize that there was a Common Ringed Plover (which would have been a life bird) seen all day long at Baie Missisquoi while I birded just across border in VT.  A bittersweet trip…

Washington, November – With a business trip to Seattle, I was able to add 2 ½ birding days along coastal WA.  This included a full day at Neah Bay at the northwestern “tip” of WA especially focused on the potential to find rarities.  I had a total of 122 species for the trip, including 18 new birds for my WA statebird list.  That gives me 269 in WA, which is 21 over the old ABA threshold.  Although ordinarily the highlights of my statebirding trips are related to reaching new levels in my statelists, for this trip the key highlights were all the rarities I was able to see.  By far the standout was a Prothonotary Warbler that I found on my own – only the 4^th WA state record.  Overall there were 12 species for which details were required in eBird –

• Pink-footed Shearwater – found on my own
• Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel – found on my own, new for my Lower 48 list
• Snowy Egret – stakeout, WA review species
• Bar-tailed Godwit – stakeout
• Red Knot - stakeout
• Prairie Falcon – found on my own
• Tropical Kingbird – up to 6 stakeouts
• Palm Warbler - stakeout
• Prothonotary Warbler – WA review species found on my own, 4^th WA state record
• Common Yellowthroat – found on my own
• Harris’s Sparrow – stakeout (but not new for my WA list)
• Orchard Oriole – WA review species, 1 found on my own and 1 stakeout

Several of these birds were quite photogenic –

California – my work travels took me to CA several times during the year.  I added 4 CA statebirds during the year including Indigo Bunting as a stakeout rarity.  And in November I added a vacation day to participate in a day-long seawatch in Monterey where I added Short-tailed Shearwater as a new bird for my Lower 48 list. 

Texas - I have business trips to Houston at least once a month, and as in previous years, I added an extension to one trip to head to the Lower Rio Grande Valley to chase after a life bird.  This year it was my nemesis Blue Bunting at the Frontera Audubon sanctuary.  But for the third time I missed this elusive target, even though at one point it was seen less than 50 feet from me.  Despite this painful miss I did add 7 new birds to my TX list on other trips during the year.  In March I added 3 birds including this stakeout rarity Heermann’s Gull (photo taken just with my phone).

And on my April trip I added a day looking for migrants in Galveston where I added 4 statebirds even though migration was slow that day. 

New England Birding

Even though I’m now safely over my goal of 2,000 total ticks in New England, I continued to spend a lot of time chasing after rarities in the 6 New England states.  I was successful in finding 21 of the 25 the birds I chased after (84%), plus one other I found on my own.  But despite the high success rate, my 22 new birds in New England was my lowest total in any year since I moved to MA in 1993.  Is this the beginning of a downward trend for annual additions to my New England list?  But as I always say – “it’s quality not quantity”.  No less than 6 of my new birds were first state records.  And 2 were lifers – Redwing in NH and Graylag Goose in RI (yes I decided to count it).

Total Ticks

With 360 ticks in Canada and another 136 ticks in the US in 2016, that increased my total ticks to 14,175.  And with just shy of 1,500 new ticks over the last 3 years, my ABA total ticks tally has climbed significantly during that time.  As of January 1^st my list continues to be the highest reported on the ABA website on January 1st – nearly 600 over Thomas Heatley in second place.  (Is there a new goal around the corner?)

2016 by the Numbers

Lifebirds -

• 3 new ABA lifebirds –
• Redwing – Hollis, NH
• Graylag Goose – East Providence, RI
• ABA split of Woodhouse’s and California Scrub-Jay
• Though I removed my 2015 Striped Sparrow from my lifelist since that bird was not accepted by the TX rare bird committee
• 2 additional Lower 48 Birds –
• Fort-tailed Storm-Petrel – Neah Bay, WA
• Short-tailed Shearwater – Monterey, CA
• ABA total now at 748, US at 750, Lower 48 at 728, and Canada at 357

State and province birding (see my statebird map below with totals for each state) -

• ABA reportable in 44 states plus DC
• “Reportable Plus 15” in 39 states (with 4 new states added in 2016)
• 496 new state birds and province birds.  New statebirds in 16 states and 3 provinces.
• 22 new statebirds in New England – 2,044 total ticks now in New England
• Total Ticks – now at 14,175, with 13,021 of those in the U.S.

2017 and Beyond

Looking ahead, I think I may be only about 3 big trips away from reaching most all of my statebirding goals –

• Eastern OR and southern ID;
• Western MT and the panhandle of ID; and
• Eastern SD, eastern ND, and western IA.

I might well take the OR/ID trip this year.  Then again I may do a combined state and province birding trip with a possible business trip to Calgary – birding in AB, MT, and ID perhaps. 

What’s next for birding in Maritime Canada?  In the Maritimes my totals for NB, PEI, and NS are still less than half of the old ABA reporting threshold, so there are lots of pretty easy birds yet in all 3 provinces.  For instance a breeding season trip with a couple days in each province could net maybe 50 per province.  Plus I have never birded in Newfoundland and St. Pierre et Miguelon.  Maybe at least some of that will happen in 2017.

Plus of course I’ll still concentrate on New England statebirding in 2017.  Since there are less potential new statebirds as my list gets larger, I’ll be happy if I can continue to get at least 20 new New England ticks each year for now.  Though, given my reduced totals in 2016, perhaps to reach that goal in 2017 I will need to expand my self-imposed 2-hour limit for driving time to search for new ticks.  (For instance as of Jan. 1 there are 2 reliable New England targets each 3½ hours away.) 

And now for a new target – since I reached the 14,000 total tick threshold in 2016, I’m tempted to start pursuing a new goal of reaching 15,000 total ticks.  Here’s a path that could yield the 825 ticks I would need to reach 15,000 -

• Reportable Plus 15 - I only have 10 states left in the Lower 48 where I haven’t reached Reportable Plus 15.  Reaching that goal in each of those states would add 164 ticks (I only need an average of 16 birds per state). 
• New England – I think I can realistically get at least 15 new ticks per year.
• Canada – I have quite low totals in 7 southern provinces.  If I got to 125 in PEI and SM; and 150 each in NB, NS, MB, SK, and NF; that would give me 620 more ticks. 

If I could reach all these goals, likely over the next 5 years, that would give me 844 new ticks, or 15,034 total ticks.  Not to mention I’ll undoubtedly add a few additional ticks here and there.  All in all quite feasible with a little travel.

Finally, with a lot of business travel across the country, I’ll likely continue to do some opportunistic chasing of lifers when I can go after them with an extra vacation day or two.  Additionally, in 2016 I almost went on a trip dedicated to pursing Himalayan Snowcock in the Ruby Mountains.  Perhaps that will happen this year instead.  I’m just 2 short of 750 in the ABA region – maybe I can reach that milestone this year.  Though with any lumps and splits that may be announced in 2017, perhaps I’ve already seen my 750^th species.