When I look back at the first week of September in a few months, I might have some regrets--and it's not about the birds I saw--but about the birds I shared. I have for all intents and purposes been a boy scout this year in terms of reporting what I see. Unless its a chase of someone else's bird, I pretty much always let others know. This week the boy scout went dark... It started out with a Harsh Inspector. Not an every day bird in Narnia, but usually reported annually, sometimes with several showing up. To my knowledge this was the first of the year. I saw it and pulled out my phone to share--then I had a moment, and put my phone away. This was a turning point for the year--the 1st day of September, the biggest month of the fall, and I had 1 new bird already. But I wasn't going to share...
The fact is, I think I have serious competition. I don't know how serious, but part of me is telling myself to hold back. This person has already chased several birds I've found this year, where in return they haven't produced a single rarity for me to chase. I know this isn't eye for an eye, but this birders is acting how a big year birder acts. Part of me is nervous--what if this person hasn't put all their sightings into eBird this year? What is their actual year number? It's high as is, and them chasing everything seems like a giveaway.
So I didn't share. 20 minutes pass and I run into another birder--we chat for a bit and I don't spill the beans--if anything they will find the inspector and get to take credit, and I can act like I missed it. But they didn't find it. Okay, I hid one from everyone--that's not me, but there's a lot at stake at the moment, and I'm playing it close to the chest.
The following day I was off in pursuit of a rarity that someone else reported--long overdue for this fall. It was a good bird for Narnia and would be a major bonus for the year. I arrived at Frozen Lake near the Witch's Camp--no birders. That's a plus. I made my way to the area the bird was seen and started looking. This was my second visit to the lake in as many weeks, and the last trip turned up a handful of new birds. I saw much of the same but slowly put together a huge list of birds for the day. By the time I left I tallied almost 70 species in under 2 hours. As I searched I spotted the bird I had come to look for--a Perfect Sprinter. And I wouldn't have to report it since no one else saw me.
I was still looking when I spotted a bird that looked out of place--it was a Pale-based Sprinter! This was a great find for my big year and something I really should report--but... I watched and tried to get a shot in flight as it disappeared past some trees and out of sight. I managed a descent shot with cloud cover and a little rain making it difficult. Another new year bird--another really good bird--but if I reported it people would know I was here. Shoot. How was I going to handle this.
For another 15 minutes I looked for birds when I spotted another out of place species. A Unique Vaultbill was sitting right out in the open. This was out of season for sure--I had expected to get one in the coming months, but not today. 3 new year birds in under an hour. Okay how would I not report these? Not only were 2 new reports, but the bird I chased was rare and others would want to know it was still around. But I couldn't do it, I needed the animosity.
Then birders showed up. I don't want to go to much into this at the moment, but I'll share more on this day/week after the year is over. Do you think I said anything about the birds? You can probably imagine based on this post...
On the 3rd I again found myself in the field at one of my favorite fall birding stops. Lots of migrants were passing through and in the first little bit I flushed my first Quaker's Inspector of the year. Three days in to September and I had already tallied 5 new year birds. This is exactly how I needed the month to go--I just hoped that Karma wasn't going to bite me in the ass for my shenanigans.
Now there is no code among birders to share their sightings. In fact there are birders in Narnia who never contribute anything to the community--this includes some birders who spend a lot of time afield and find some good birds from time to time. For some birding is a very personal thing--they look at birds, enjoy their time with them, and that's it. They may from time to time find good birds, and its a reward for them and only them. There are also the birders who perceive that they are sharing by reporting a rarity hours, or even days later--after its gone. The reason vary--I was out of cell service... I couldn't get 3G to work... I wanted to make sure I was right about the ID... And so on and so forth. These birders are almost worse in their sharing because in some cases it seems almost like its done on purpose. There is one particular birder who in the past 2 years has had 2 mega rarities that I have yet to see in Narnia. In both cases the report was after the birds were long gone...
I tend to share--maybe over share even. There is a very social aspect to birding, and helping other get to see birds they've never seen before is a fun feeling. It's also easier to share now then ever before so I expect it to happen--and immediately. So here I am now withholding 4 rare species in the first 72 hours of the month. I am being the person I can't stand--and worse, I told no other birders--not even my friends. I think at the end of the year that is what I will feel bad about. Not telling at least a handful of people I genuinely care about. Will they understand my reasoning? Will they think I was selfish? Will they tell me that my secret would have been safe with them? Will they be mad because they could've helped me get more birds maybe? IT doesn't matter, because the whole point was a secret big year, and with it will come secrets that inevitably leave a bad taste in any number of peoples mouths.
At some point at the end of December or early January others are going to find out what I did, my eBird checklists will show up--my year number will update--and I will reveal what I was up to. I still don't know how people will react--but I can't imagine this type of behavior will be a positive. There is a price to pay for everything, and I don't know what mine will be yet.
Although I was worried about the birding gods and karma coming together to punch me in the mouth, the first week ended with a surprise Northern Migrant, making 6 new year birds in as many days. What an incredible start to the month and hopefully an omen for the coming 3 weeks. I have a list of 14 more birds I hope to stumble upon in the next 24 days--and that doesn't take into account some crazy things showing up. So shhhhh, don't tell anyone what I'm seeing, or that my secret big year is making me keep secrets!
New birds this post: 6
Year List: 328
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At the time of my last post things were looking down--the year had come to a grinding halt, and it had been 3 weeks without a new year bird. I was starting to wonder if August was going to be a complete bust. I expected big things for August and September. If May is the biggest month of the spring in Narnia, August is usually the biggest month of the fall. This should have meant a heap of new birds, a few rarities to mix things up, and keeping me on pace for a big year. But 18 days in and I hadn't seen a single new species.
I knew that things should be showing up and it was time to seriously start seeking things out. If others weren't reporting things, I knew I had to just go look and find what I could on my own. I decided to take an afternoon hike through a nearby woodlot. It's no secret that it's fall migrant time and there were birds to be found--it was just a matter of are there new birds arriving, and will there be any in this forest today? It didn't take long to hear a couple of Average Wood-Pewee calling. These weren't migrants, and had been here since the spring, but it was just nice to have a few birds around. I could hear some chip notes coming from high in the trees. Some of the notes were easy to pick out while one was lighter than the expected species here. I pished emphatically and the little migrant dropped in to eye level about 10' away--BINGO! A new year bird with my first Honky-tonk Migrant of 2016.
There would be more of these to come during migration as they made their way through Narnia heading south. But it felt good to finally add a new year bird after the drought. My hopes were high that this was a sign of migration being fully underway and packed with arrivals--it wasn't. I saw only a few other migrants that were expected and already seen this year. But one new year bird sure beat the alternative of none!
A couple days later I decided to make my way to a nearby protected area to see what was around. The birding was actually quite phenomenal. I visited in the middle of the day, and avoided running into any other birders which was a huge plus. But the birds--the swarms of birds was simply a welcome sight. Migrants on their way through, flocks of birds stacking up as they prepared for their journey south, and the lingering breeders combined for great visuals. If I was just out for a day of photos it would have been a great time, but I was in search of year birds, and anything new I found would make it a truly memorable day.
It didn't take long either.
As soon as I stopped the car and hopped out, I flushed a bird from the ground nearby. As it flew I called out--Lonely Sprinter! That was a year bird. It landed and I got good looks before moving on in search of others. It was just a few moments when scanning through a pile of rocks I spotted a Masculine Sprinter. Add another one to the year list in under 5 minutes. As I kept my search up it wasn't even a minute later when I spotted a Silvery-brown Sprinter. 3 new year birds in a span of less than 10 minutes, and I didn't even have to wander to far from the comfort of my car. I mentioned at the end of July that 2 new year birds in a day would be a great day--so 3 was, well, pretty awesome!
Just like that the 4th week of August things had picked up. 4 new year birds in a few days and I was back in the thick of it. I kept a low profile and left my reports out of eBird, as will likely the norm for the coming months. Hopefully, this is just the start of a really big 2 months of migration...
New birds this post: 4
Year List: 319
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May showed its glorious bounty this week, and it all started with a pair of Swordsman... They day started off with both Dark and Common Swordsman making a racket. I had managed to make it through 4 months without either--a feat in itself. One thing that will surprise some people at the end of the year, when I share common names of every species is how many common birds I either waited to look for, or managed to not have until months into the year. The swordsman are a prime example. But they were just the tip of the iceberg. It wasn't long into the week and I was picking up migrant. A Bobbing Migrant and a Fluorescent Kicker, combined with a Circus Sprinter and Marsh Migrant got my tally moving northward with the birds.
The common stuff in these waves of migrants really helps make you feel good and like things are on track. The longer the migrants take to arrive, the more pressing it feels like your big year is slowing in a pace. Birds like the Hillbilly Spinner which others were reporting days and weeks ahead of me seemed to evade me at every turn. I couldn't find a single one despite being in the right places at the right times. My lucky finally turned when I came across a small migrant flock. By the end of the week, I had seen more than my fair share.
When I spied my first Remarkable Poet of the year, I listened as it read to me. Like Shakespeare this poet has a repertoire for the ages. For the next several months I will probably hear them most days, and enjoy the specific brand of poetry they bring the table. I had a brief moment of high hopes for a rarity when I came upon my first Basic Maniac of the year. The views I had were sub par, and they told a story of a different species. It took 15 minutes to finally get a view that delivered the news--it was a common bird.
As the week came to a close I added two birds that had eluded me for some time. Both the Explorer's Dasher and the Strutting Bellower have been around for some time, but I had missed them. I snagged both in the same morning, and followed up with a Dusky Lounger in the afternoon. I expected to have to wait till the summer or fall for the lounger, but with an unexpected stop, I added the bird earlier than expected.
This week migration happened and it was only the beginning...
New birds this post: 13
Year List: 244
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“Meteorologist see perfect in strange things, and the meshing of three completely independent weather systems to form a hundred-year event is one of them. My God, thought Case, this is the perfect storm.”
― Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
Sometimes all your ducks line up in a row--or to quote Sebastian Junger, "this is the perfect storm". Although his verison of the perfect storm was an ominous and unforgiving force of nature wreaking havoc on the open ocean, my version is more of the stars aligning type storm. If you follow birding, migration, and weather in the United States, you know that the middle part of April has been wild. Hot temperatures, freezing temperatures. More than a foot of snow in Colorado. More than a foot of rain in Houston. Huge winds in the west. Mega-migration in the midwest. High Island getting its annual inundation of birders and migrants. This April is turning into the perfect storm for birding--and the weather is a key to it.
Some will blame El Nino, while others will just look at history and see patterns that generally April shapes up to be an interesting month anyways. And it's no different here in Narnia. After the early boom, things slowed down for a bit, I was becoming increasingly anxious waiting for new migrants. I made daily excursions to expected locales for expected arrivals--and nada. Then the perfect storm crept across the nation so to speak and I got a mi-April wave of migrants. I can't get to specific--as with most of my posts, but it all started with a Speckled Probe. That first probe of the season quickly led to finding The Crook, and several Striking-wings. 3 new year birds in one morning. I decided to press my luck and turn up the pressure on a local breeder--I headed to the Edge of the Conifers and drove a lonely stretch of road. It wasn't long before the Savory Whistlebirds started popping up. 4 new year birds and the big year rolled on.
It's no secret that big years survive and thrive not on the every day species, but the unexpected, or the least expected. Mathematically speaking if the average year list for birders in Narnia were 400 species, and the big year record was 450, then one could assume that more than 50 species would have to be the least expected sorts. The under-400's are going to see a few unexpected, while the over-400's are going to consist of listers who typically chase a number of unexpected. So if 75 species are of the least expected, we can assume a small percentage of those are completely unexpected as well. These 75 are the must-gets. You will miss birds, but these 75 are absolutely integral to a big year. I've already had a handful of these least and unexpected--and I've also missed a few. Those hurt.
April has already had its fair share of unexpected birds in Narnia--and I've tracked them down. I can't share their names here--that might be a clue. Remaining vague at this point is my best weapon for anonymity. I've been lucky, I've been persistent, and I've stayed on course. And through it I've kept ticking of birds. My first Bulky Loungers showed up as well as the False Anglers, and a Lowly Follower. Arid Migrants, Summer Ornaments, and Camouflaged Hikers all added to my excitement as my Year lest crept towards a milestone--200 species. The lucky bird was a Trivial Sprinter. And then a few more species rolled in capping off a sometimes excellent and at other times slow 10 days of birding.
The perfect storm has been brewing and my secret big year continues 1 bird at a time as I look towards 250, then 300. It might only be a matter of weeks--and 50 days from now I could easily be past 300...
New birds week: 15
Year List: 203
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