2011 Birding Year in Review

My 2011 birding year had some truly memorable experiences, featuring excellent results in New England, 4 new ABA reportable states, and 4 new ABA lifers. 

For many years I’ve had the goal of reaching 2,000 statebirds in New England.  For the last 15 years I’ve been averaging about 30 new statebirds per year, as I slowly inch toward the magic 2,000.  But in 2011, I ended up with 50 new statebirds, the highest I’ve had in a year since 1997.  My great year was a function of more chasing than normal, plus a close brush by Hurricane Irene.  Just a day before landfall, the remnants of the hurricane were predicted to pass directly over my town, so my initial thoughts were on the safety of the house rather than birding.  But the storm’s track ended up moving a bit farther west, passing over western MA.  With everything safe at the house, and the rain already ending on our east side of the hurricane though the storm was still southwest of us, it was time to try to chase after windblown rarities.  I decided to head to the large Quabbin Reservoir in western MA as it would be the largest body of water close to the remnants of the eye of the storm.  An afternoon there along with my birding buddy David Deifik resulted in two mega-rarities – a Sooty Tern and a White-tailed Tropicbird – along with a couple Jaeger sp. and Black Terns.  The next day at dawn I was standing on the VT/NH border hoping for hurricane birds to fly down the Connecticut River.  There were no real rarities, but a small flock of Sanderlings were likely storm-related and new for my VT list.  The real highlight was watching a huge amount of debris washing down the river from the tremendous flooding that had occurred upriver especially in VT.  Storm-blown birds continued to be reported along all the New England coastlines, so later that week I headed to the RI coast along with supreme New England total ticker Denny Abbott with fingers crossed.  Within a few minutes of arriving I spotted an adult Brown Pelican, and later an immature Sooty Tern – both were not only new for me but also for Denny.  A couple days later I added Black Skimmer in ME giving me 6 statebirds in 3 states related to Hurricane Irene.

My first extended distant birding trip of the year was a short 2-day trip to western KS in March to fill numerous winter-bird gaps in my statelist.  It was a really fun trip, including finding 3 species of longspurs, and an out-of-place Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  I ended up with 28 statebirds which was more than twice what I expected. 

My big birding adventure of the year was my annual May trip to work on my statelists.  This year it was an 8-day loop through north-central and northeastern Oklahoma, southwestern Missouri, and eastern and central Kansas.  With the help of advice from some great local birders, I added 128 new statebirds - 65 in KS, 57 in OK, and 6 in MO.  That put me barely over the ABA reportable threshold in KS, and also put my total ticks over 12,000.  I had 223 species including 27 species of shorebirds and 27 species of warblers.  Probably the premier highlight of the trip was birding at Cheyenne Bottoms, KS, where one 4-square-mile impoundment was covered with at least 10,000-20,000 Long-billed Dowitchers, 5,000 Stilt Sandpipers, and 5,000 smaller peeps.  I also found or refound several rarities on the trip –

·         Neotropical Cormorant in OK

·         California Gull in KS

·         Dusky Flycatcher in KS

Another highlight of my trip - while trading e-mails with one OK birder she suggested that I start a blog for my statebirding hobby.  So with my daughter’s help, I started this blog right after the trip.  It’s been fun to prepare the posts after finding a new statebird, though I didn’t keep up with it this year as I kept racking up the New England statebirds.

A sobering part of my trip to tornado alley turned out to be the time I spent in and around Joplin, MO.  Just a couple weeks after my visit a massive EF-5 tornado devastated the area right around where I had birded.  Luckily my local birding friends all made it through the tornado OK.

During the year I also targeted reaching the reportable thresholds for MI and OH.  With 2 partial-day trips as part of business trips to each state, I exceeded the thresholds in both states, though just barely in OH.

Here’s the year by the numbers -

Lifebirds -

• 4 new ABA and Lower 48 lifebirds –
• Black-Vented Oriole (Bentsen State Park, TX), Rufous-Backed Robin (Laguna Atascosa NWR, TX), and “Mangrove” Warbler (off South Padre Island, TX) on the same day - though the warbler is not a fully recognized species (yet?)
• Yellow-Faced Grassquit (Goose Island State Park, TX) on a second trip to south TX
• Yellow-Legged Gull – Hyannis, MA
• ABA total now at 723, US at 725, and Lower 48 at 705

Statebirding -

• Newly reportable in KS, MI, OH and again in WV (after the threshold passed me by last year)
• ABA reportable in 38 states plus DC  
• 263 statebirds added in 17 states
• 50 new statebirds in New England – 1894 total ticks now in New England
• Total Ticks – now at 12,107, with 11,929 of those in the U.S.
• Added state birds in AL, MO, and IN to put a bit more room between my totals and the thresholds

My statebird totals for each state are in the map below (you might want to click on the map to expand it).

As for 2012, statebirding will continue to be my priority.  I’ll be pursuing my lifelong goal of being reportable in all 50 states plus DC – 12 more to go!  I also need to continue to add statebirds in states where I’m just a bit over the ABA threshold since those thresholds continue to inch up over the years.  I have 12 states where although reportable, my total is less than 10 over the threshold, so not very safe.  Chasing after New England statebirds will continue, though they get harder and require more chasing each year.  My goal is to get to 2,000 – with my great year in 2011 I may be just 4 or 5 years away. 

Of course I’ll still chase after lifebirds where feasible.  My big birding trip this year will be more for lifers than for statebirds – going to Barrow and Nome, AK in June as part of a group (with a short side trip to Anchorage on my own).  Although I’ve birded the AK mainland and the Pribilofs, I’ve never been to Barrow and Nome so there are a few likely lifebirds, along with any number of more remote Asian possibilities.  I’m also tentatively considering an April trip to southern NV, southwest UT, and northwest AZ if I can squeeze it in before AK.  Then there are my regular business trips to various spots around the country, including 3 planned January trips in areas where semi-reliable mega-rarity lifebirds are staked out.