Day 366 + 1 - 0 Species Today

In 2016 in the first few moments of light I saw my first species of the year--a Black-billed Magpie.  It was better than a starling or House Sparrow, but I had hoped for a waterbird--the 4th species I saw was a Common Loon, which would have been a pretty great first bird of the year in Utah.  I would end up seeing 100's of both species before the year ended so in the end it didn't even matter.

I spent the majority of the first day of 2017 bed ridden.  The flu hit me hard yesterday.  I may have exacerbated the oncoming cold on Friday when I opted to try and track down Long-eared Owl for a photo op.  The mile and a half in the cold in a light jacket probably did me in.  No owls, so no photos.  Yesterday, for the last day of the year, I only made one birding stop.  The same pond where I started my year off with that magpie 365 days earlier.  It was 95% frozen, and a far cry from the what is had been almost a year earlier.  That was the cap on my 2016 birding, leading into a 2017 where I didn't leave the bed more than a handful of times today.  I kept away from windows, and decided my FOY bird this year would be no bird.  Going a day without seeing anything was somewhat soothing,

So today I posted my 2016 Utah Year List--it includes 361 species.  3 of which I didn't count given their likely status as escapees and/or not established.  That left 358 countable species

2016 Year List: 358

This final list will soon include links to photos, and or audio of the 335 some odd species I managed to document this year.  For now it's just a list.  Hopefully, as I feel better I'll feel more like writing and looking back on 2016, and getting into those details.  I'm not in a terrible hurry as I have no grand plans for anything in 2017.  Just birding as usual.

FOLLOW ALONG:

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