ebird
Showing posts with label ebird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebird. Show all posts

Day 23 - Jumping to Conclusions

This morning I was surprised to see a sharp increase in page hits on my blog this weekend.  I thought maybe the east-coasters who are bogged down at home during snow-pocalypse were taking a keen interest in my big year.  But that idea was quickly dissuaded when I found a neat tool on my blogger dashboard that lets me know where people are visiting from.  To my surprise somebody on a birding forum I will not mention by name started talking about my big year.  I had tried to join this forum earlier in the year, but my account was deleted since I mentioned that I had another account on the service--and this was strictly against their rules.  Bah hum bug.  Needless to say, it was interesting to see my year brought up, and how in less than 48 hours the detective/birders there had sliced and diced their way through various states, and birds to try and determine who and where I am.

It was fun to read their comments and see what they had come up with.  Some conclusions were well put together and spot on.  Others were expectedly off  as intended through the ambiguity in my posts, and species names.  But reading through these posts, and some of the comments I've received via my contact page, I thought I would clarify one main point that several people have jumped on.  In my initial post I said the following:

On an annual basis between 350-400 species are recorded in this state providing plenty of targets to chase.

Several detective have taken this very literally and used eBird to narrow the options.  The problem is eBird is useless for long term averages, and most birders seem to only look at the last decade.  But looking at a 50 year history of my state, the average # of birds recorded annually falls in this range--some years it may be higher, other years lower. The reason is that in the last 10 years the numbers of birds generally seen in any state trends higher than the 10 before that, and the 10 before that.  I did some math to come up with my total based on a cumulative history that takes into account a great deal of years with "less than" average combined with a recent history of "higher" than average.  350-400 might mean that over the last 50 years, total ranges anywhere from 250 to 450 species reported in any given year.

This means that narrowing things down to a handful of states doesn't necessarily rule out the outliers with higher or lower seemingly annual totals.  Confusing?  Damn right. :) It's supposed to be.  Guessing who I am in the 1st month and getting it right would be in my opinion a leap of faith, combined with sheer luck. That's not to say the clues aren't there to do it.


But at this stage in the year, it might just be a game of jumping to conclusions.  Wait, follow, and see what clues I provide as the months drag on.  Is it more fun to know who I am in the first 30 days, or to be on the edge of your seat wondering?  That was one of the main reasons I did this--a state big year generally doesn't intrigue a lot of people.  Mainly the folks who know you're doing it, and have an interest in your states listing.  But if it could be any one of 48 states (or 45, or 40 if you've already ruled out a few) it becomes more interesting.  The possibility that I might be one of your friends, or someone you see from time to time while birding certainly adds to the plot.

I hope this keeps everyone interested at some level.  I will help narrow things down as the year goes on, but won't fully reveal myself till the time is right.

I did manage to get in some birding today.  Some weekends aren't meant for birding--whether its because of the weather, or other obligations I won't get out every weekend.  So a couple hours today was a nice way to add 2 more birds to my year list.  The Diminutive Jerk and a wonderful Camouflaged Marauder were today's reward for taking the time to look carefully at every bird I could find.  The Jerk saves me a longer trip later in the year, or a chase when one shows up closer to home than usual.  Neither species are all that uncommon, but every new bird seen makes the path to a new big year record more clear.

New birds today: 2
Year List: 141

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Day 22 - A Trill, a Whistle, and a Glide


After yesterday's missteps I needed some good karma to come my direction.  I clasped my hands and asked the birding gods for mercy.  Let today be a good day.  I opted not to set out first thing in search of year birds, instead I took some time and did some eBirding.  I ran a few queries, looked at some maps, and decided I had 3-4 potential year birds with a 20 mile drive to the Edge of the Conifers.  This quaint village leads into a forest where several specialty birds dwell.  Even in mid-winter I felt that I could squeeze at least one out for sure.

I made the drive and found a spot that looked ideal.  All was quiet--deathly quiet.  I stood out in the clean air taking in the gorgeous scenery around me.  Narnia is a spectacular place to live, and on any given day you can have an amazing view that was different from the last.  I decided to take a stroll up an old road and see if anything sprung up.  Then I heard the trill of the villainous bird I was here for.  I quickly burst into my best owl imitation and the creature fluttered into view--posting on a limb just 10' away.  I took the best photos I ever have of the Repeating Signaler before it retreated into the forest.

Unfortunately, I can't show you those photos today--luckily you only have to wait about 340 days to see them :)

As I started to walk away I heard a familiar whistle.  I turned and there peering down at me was my second target bird of the day, a Lonely Rambler.  We stared at each other for a few seconds before it lifted off and disappeared into the trees.  A moment later, I heard it burst into its spectacular song; 3-4 times it repeated the jovial tune.  Then all was quiet again.  My trip to The Edge had been successful.  There was one other species I might come across heading out of the area, but it didn't show.

The 4th possibility was possible the entire drive back to civilization.  I had all but given up hope when over a hill I saw a wonderful Miner's Pilot glide along the horizon, before dipping out of view.  24 hours earlier I had been in a state of disbelief that my targets were all coming up as misses.  What a different a day makes.  With a trill, a whistle, and a glide I added 3 new year birds and felt like things were back on track.  I don't have to add new year birds every day to feel this way, but when I make an excursion for a target, it feels a lot better coming home knowing you got your bird!

New birds today: 3
Year List: 139

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Day 1 - And We're Off... Hiccups Included


Before the sun graced the surface of my great state this morning I was off in the dark.  My goal was to avoid a boring first bird for the year.  No House Sparrows. No Starlings. No Rock Pigeons.  If I could avoid those 3 I would be happy.  I contemplated an early owl outing but decided it was a waste of energy.  With a Big Year like this pacing ones-self is necessary, and quite difficult.  I find that most birders who have any competitive spirit want to sprint out of the gates each year.  The eBird Top 100 has facilitated this immensely in recent years, stoking the flames of competitive local birding. Today I wasn't worried about jumping to the top of that list--in fact I will intentionally make sure I don't rise to the top.  If my numbers here are at the top of the pack, then figuring out my identity will be even easier.

Complete disclosure--I intentionally left several birds off my eBird checklists, that I will go back and add later.  This is more of an issue now and near the end of the year, but I will play it by ear and see what I need to do to keep off the radar.

Anyways, I pulled into the parking lot at my first stop and couldn't avoid a flock of Fluorescent Hopper that were actually gliding across the road.  I soon found quite a few of these subtle beauties.  It wasn't the bird I had hoped would be my first bird of the year, but at least it wasn't a junk bird.

I soon found myself checking off new year birds--on day 1 everything is new.  In less than 20 minutes, I was 20 species in, and had picked up a few mainstays for the year including: Mallard, Northern Flicker, Canada Goose, and American Robin.  I held off on seeing a starling until bird #18.

Average Yolk-sac, Painter's Relic, and Cone-spotted Curler were expected and quickly ticked off.  The best bird of the first hour was a unexpected Basic Top-side.  This species is usually not here this time of year, and I would have picked on up in a few months, but it's out of the way.

As the morning wore on I scored the Motley Whistelbird that I spoke of yesterday.  It was reliable and I will probably revisit it in the coming days since it's just a stones throw from my home.

The day wasn't without hiccups, I made a wrong turn and spent an hour in traffic, and on rough roads.  The end of the day came all too quickly but not before a pair of Confusing Migrants visited my yard.  And here's  a freebie folks--the only photo I'm sharing today and at the top of this post is of the common and widespread Carolina-capped Chickadee.  You didn't really think I was gonna give that one away for free did you?

New birds today: 45
Year List: 45

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Day -1: Planning for Day 1

Blueprint for a Big Year...

The weather her to day is just--well something.  There is sun, blue sky, some clouds, and it's sitting somewhere between 65-75° Fahrenheit.  I don't have built in temp gauges on me so I can't say exactly what the temperature is.  I am inside as well; no idea what it's like outside, it could be anywhere between 10° and 80° I suppose... Oh well, that's not important.

Today is the last day of 2015 and I am busy trying to get the word out about my big year. I had been thinking about it for a few weeks, but didn't make the decision till the middle of the night a few days ago. So literally no on knows about my quest!  Simultaneously, I am trying to plan tomorrows New Year Birding, because without birding there is no Big Year!

There are  a handful of good birds in my neck of the woods right now.  Besides the regular Mallards, the everyday European Starlings, and the what seems like over abundance of overwintering Pink-smooshed Sweepers, there are some really good state birds present at the moment.  A quick look through the eBird alerts for my state and I count no less than 10 great state birds for the year.  Of those 10 there are 4 I didn't get on my previous Big Year, which is a good sign.

There is just 1 bird I think I have to get tomorrow and its a vagrant Motley Whistlebird just a few miles from home. Aside from the whistlebird there are another 3-4 rarities I might try to track down in the first full day of the year.  I plan to spend a good chunk of the day in the field, checking river, lakes, wetlands, fields, forest edges, a couple feeders, and maybe even a state park or two.  A big day one might mean 50-100 species of birds right out the gates.  That means a lot of naming conventions to come up with and being ever so clever as to not give up my location.

As for right now, time to go bid farewell to this glorious year. As for birding, well check back tomorrow night and see how things went...

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Day -2: The Undercover Big Year


In less than 48 hours 2016 will have rang in across the continental United States. That means a new year, new lists, new birds, and new challenges.  As a previous Big Year Birder I always have that itch to get out, see as many birds as possible, and possibly give another Big Year a shot.  It's a temptation that since my last Big Year I have managed to stave off and let sleeping giants rest.  But as 2016 approached that Big Year itch hit me hard and I decided I had to give it a shot again.  That mean 2016 was going to be another Big Year.

Here is a little background about me, and my previous Big Year.  I don't want to give away my identity, and I don't want other birders to know I am doing a Big Year.  This is quite the opposite of my last attempt--where I made no secrets of my intentions to topple the previous record, and talked at length with others about my adventure.  This year will be different.  I plan on telling no one.  Not a single soul.  Not my significant other, my family, my friends (non-birders and birders alike)--NO ONE! This after all is my Undercover Big Year.

My previous attempt was actually a 2nd Big Year attempt and happened in the last decade.  If it were a North American Big Year you would know by now who I was--but I'm not that guy.

I'm also not that other guy who just destroyed the World Big Year record.  Sorry, I meant to say annihilated...  I have no grand plans to see 6,000+ species of birds this year.  I don't have the time, flexibility, money, or to be honest the drive to do it.  Let's be honest, it takes a special kind of crazy birder to do that.

I'm not doing a quirky, environmentally friendly big year, like that delightful cuckoo who biked 15,000 17,830 some odd miles (correction via a Facebook Post) around the United States in 2014 to set a biking big year record.  I don't ride a bike all that often, and I'm grounded to a full time, good paying, pretty freaking awesome career that I can't and won't walk away from.

Getting to the point I am doing a State Big Year.  I have a target number of species I know exists from my previous attempt.  Sometime between 2001 and 2014, I set a new State Big Year record in the state of... Well that would make it too easy.  I'll help narrow things a little more I guess.  My record is/was between 300-400 species for the year.  It was one of the lower 48 states, and has a great variety of habitats.  On an annual basis between 350-400 species are recorded in this state providing plenty of targets to chase.

That is to say that looking at a 50 year history of my state the average # of birds recorded annually falls in the range--some years it may be higher, other years lower, and if you are looking at eBird for your annual totals, this won't be helpful because in general the last 10 years have the highest totals for every state due to the sheer number of users.  Typical state totals fell well below the 10 year trend if you look at historical numbers for states.

If I gave any more details, you might be able to figure out which state I am from, who I am, and then this wouldn't be nearly as fun as I am trying to make it.  I have been birding more than 1/2 my life, and that's about as much detail as I am going to share about who I am.

So how is this going to work?  Let's be honest for just a second and point out that if I were to share my sightings via eBird, you would be able to eventually figure me out.  If I were to share locations I went birding, you would again be able to narrow down the options.  I have to be very generic about how I share the information I share--what photos I allow you to see, and how I go about keeping my list and making sure no one figures things out to quickly.

This is where things get interesting--and where I hope I don't lose you.  Although I will use some of the most common bird names during the year, and to help keep things somewhat recognizable--I will be coming up with code names for every species I see.  This means that instead of for instance me reporting a Rock Wren.  I might call it something like a Granite Babbler.  Or instead of a Western Meadowlark it might instead be called the Melodious Occidental.  These are just examples, but ones that will give this game a bit of intrigue.  It will also cover my tracks enough to hopefully stave off my identity till the end of 2016.

The same thing goes for the names of other birders and places I go birding.  The only way this works is if I can do a good enough job at being secretive that the clues I leave don't give it away too soon.  And I'm aware there are some sleuth birders out there, and that if I were to use eBird to track my state list and keep it up to date, then someone would connect the dots.  I will use eBird, but I am not going to share a percentage of my checklists till later in the year to make sure my actual year total doesn't match what is in eBird.

Phew, now that I have the background on how, the real question is... Why?  It's a two fold endeavor for me.  The first part is that by keeping it so secret, I can fly under the radar, and don't have to admit to anyone I am actually doing another Big Year.  My family notably. I think I can probably get pretty close to my previous record without making a big hub bub about it. In recent years I haven't been as excited about chasing birds, and seeing certain things; this year I want to see as much as possible and this will help drive that.

The 2nd reason is that turning it into a game where  the places and names aren't familiar turns it into an interactive game with the readers.  Who can figure me out by years end? And how will they do it?  It makes for a great story, and the blog will read like a piece of Non-fiction fiction.  It's real, but it's also glossed over with a cover story that no one is familiar with.  I guess we'll see who plays and how interesting it is to anyone besides me...

With that said here are my ground rules for my year:
  1. The Big Year shall start at 12:00 AM on 1 January and end at 11:59 PM, 31 December of 2016. 
  2. Each species counted must have been encountered in accordance with the ABA Recording Rules 
  3. Each species counted must have been on the ABA Checklist during the Big Year
  4. Species can be heard and/or seen to count towards year total
  5. I will keep a photo log of all species that I can for the year, to share at years end
  6. I will have fun... Will you play along?
That's it.  I will keep a daily total for the year list and include new day birds each day on each post.  Some posts will be short and have little in terms of details, or new birds, and in a state big year 1/2 the species are often seen in the 1st month, and the final 6 months are often a long drawn out process of picking up the remaining oddities.  That being said, I will try to make some of the slower days posts into pieces of the puzzle that may or may not help determine my identity.

Lastly I will include a link where you can guess who I am and explain how you came to your conclusion.  Guesses will not be made public right away, and I am yet to decide if I will reveal who I am if enough people guess correctly.

With that I bid adieu to 2015, and have my fingers crossed that 2016 will be a Undercover Big Year for me!

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