2014 Birding Year in Review

2014 was another exciting birding year, featuring a very strong year of statebirding, 2 new ABA reportable states, an excellent year of statebirding in New England putting me just shy of my goal of 2,000, and 3 new ABA lifers. 

My big statebirding trip in 2014 was to ND and MT (my last 2 states with small lists) and SD to inch closer to the old ABA reportable threshold.  Another key objective was to clean-up a species I had on my life list, Baird’s Sparrow, which was based solely from a winter sighting in AZ in 1994 which I now question.  The good news is that I saw numerous Baird’s in all 3 states, so I definitely cleaned that one up.  See my phonescoped photo below of a most cooperative bird in Montana.

But I added another bird to my life list that will require some clean-up down the road – Spotted Redshank.  I got a fleeting glimpse of a breeding plumaged bird in the northern edge of ND during a big shorebird fallout.  The bird was with 2 yellowlegs, was similar sized, all black below, long dark bill and long pointed wings, and seen at a distance of less than 20 feet.  That description alone might sound pretty good for a Spotted Redshank.  But the problem is that I only saw it in flight and I was driving at the time.  Like I said, I’ll need to clean that one up in the future.  Sure didn’t expect a life bird on this trip!

My statebirding highlights included -

•  North Dakota.  In 3 full days and 2 partial days of birding in central and western parts of the state I saw 201 species, adding 126 to my statelist - much better than I ever expected.  That gives me 205 for my ND statelist – 6 over reportable.  ND is now my 44^th reportable state, and the 46th state with at least 200 species.  Included in my totals were several rarities – a female MacGillivray’s Warbler during a major passerine fallout at Willow Lake, a male Black-throated Gray Warbler at Lostwood NWR, not to mention the Redshank. 
• Montana.  I birded eastern MT in 2 full days and 2 partial days, tallying 161 species, adding 106 to my statelist giving me 175 on my MT list.  I was lucky enough to find 2 rarities on this part of the trip, both at the same spot – a Broad-winged Hawk and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the Wildwood Park migrant trap in Plentywood.
• South Dakota.  I spent 2 half-days birding in northwestern SD in the ponderosas and grasslands.  My best birding highlight was seeing Saw-whet Owls nesting in boxes built by local birder Charley Miller.  I saw 111 species, adding 22 to my statelist.  My new total is now 203, just 13 shy of reportable, and my 45th state over 200.

Perhaps the part of my trip I enjoyed the most was my visit to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.  Not only were there great birds, but the scenery was amazing –

And the herds of buffalo, along with numerous cowbirds, made me wonder what the area might have been like a couple hundred years ago.
 

And while birding along the northern edge of ND I realized I was very close to Manitoba one day and Saskatchewan on another day.  Since I had never birded in either province, I decided to make brief 1-hour stops in both locations, getting 40 species in MB and 48 in SK.  Later in the year I made a 1-day foray into Quebec seeing my first 63 species for that province.  Maybe this will be the beginning of an interest in growing my province lists.  I still have only 415 ticks in 6 provinces and just 237 total species throughout Canada.  Now that I have significant lists in all US states (except HI), I'll have to do more statebirding in the Canadian provinces if I want to significantly increase my total ticks tally.

Another focus in 2014 was to work on my WV list, with several trips to eastern WV near Morgantown.  When the year started I had just 178 birds on my WV list, which was exactly at the ABA reportable total.  With help from local birder Terry Bronson, I added 25 birds to my list giving me 202 for the state.  This was my 47^th state over 200 (only DC, IA, MT, and HI are below 200).  And of course that will put me over the threshold to stay.  Several of my new birds were rarities for WV like Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls, Marsh Wren, and Nelson’s Sparrow – all 4 of which I found myself.  See my phonescoped photo of the Lesser Black-backed Gull below.

In August I added a day to a San Francisco business trip for some statebirding in the Reno/Carson City, NV area.  My first key focus area was the thin sliver of NV in the Sierras, where I was successful in adding birds like Pileated Woodpecker, Willamson’s Sapsucker and Pacific Wren which are very difficult in NV.  I filled a number of other gaps in my statelist, and ended the day at Pyramid Lake salt flats searching for migrant shorebirds.  With a severe thunderstorm on the way, I was able to stay just long enough to get 3 more species for my list.  Check out the ominous clouds at this desert location.

That gave me 242 which is the old ABA threshold – my 45^th state.  However, with a bit of research I found that the official NV list as of 12/27/13 was at 492.  So if the ABA was still publishing thresholds at half the state total, the present threshold would be 246.  So somewhat of a hollow victory, and the reason I want to be at least 15 over the old ABA threshold in each state.

And speaking of the “reportable plus 15 goal”, that was my target on a September trip to southwestern LA.  I was 11 over threshold at the beginning of the year, so I added a day to a Houston trip to try to get at least 4 more.  Although I had lots of possibilities, I only added 4 new statebirds – but that met my target of reportable plus 15.

Another state where I had considerable success in 2014 was CA.  I travel to CA regularly for business, and got 7 of 8 targets on 3 different trips.  Unfortunately target #8 was a stakeout Falcated Duck which I tried for twice with no luck.  My nemesis bird! 

On all my trips I have received tremendous help from local birders.  Many thanks to all who gave me great advice! 

And of course there’s my New England birding, where I had a great year adding 39 new statebirds.  One of my more successful New England birding trips this year was to the boreal forests of ME and NH where I got all 4 of my targets – Three-toed Woodpecker, Spruce Grouse, and Bicknell’s Thrush in ME, and Spruce Grouse in NH.  I’m now at 1,993, hopefully just a few months away from my 20-year goal of reaching 2,000 in New England.

Here’s the year by the numbers -

Lifebirds -

• 3 new ABA lifebirds –
• Spotted Redshank – Bottineau, ND
• Yellow-Green Vireo – Corpus Christi, TX
• Ridgeway’s Rail – split from Clapper Rail
• But I removed Tropical Mockingbird from my lifelist which I saw in 2012 but was not accepted by the Texas review committee.
•  Plus I “sanitized” Baird’s Sparrow on my lifelist

• ABA total now at 741, US at 743, and Lower 48 at 719

Statebirding (my statebird map below with totals for each state) -

• Newly reportable in ND and NV
• ABA reportable now in 44 states plus DC 
• “Reportable plus 15” in 33 states
• 496 new statebirds – my highest annual total since 1994.  New statebirds in 17 states and 3 provinces.
• 39 new statebirds in New England – 1,993 total ticks now in New England
• Total Ticks – now at 13,197, with 12,789 of those in the U.S. 

 

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

• Northern NV, eastern OR, and eastern WA;
• Western MT and the panhandle of ID; and
• Eastern NE, eastern SD, eastern ND, western MN, and western IA.

So although I likely won’t take a big statebirding trip in 2015 due to home commitments this coming spring, maybe I’m just a few more years away from the reportable plus 15 goal in all the lower 48 states.

And with no spring trip to plan for, I’m hoping to be able to really concentrate on New England statebirding in 2015.  With 1,993 total ticks, I can almost taste that long-term goal of 2,000.  Finally, with a lot of business travel across the country, I’ll likely continue to do some chasing of lifers when I can go after them with an extra vacation day here or there.  I’m just 9 short of 750 in the ABA region – a nice goal to pursue.