The summer giveth, the summer taketh away. July came and went without a single report of anything noteworthy for me to chase. No birder in Narnia found anything big this month, or if they did, they didn't share. This is a rather spectacular happening. I fully expected something huge to get reported especially in the last couple weeks--something to help build up the list. But alas, nada. July is the beginning of fall migration and usually the first big rarities start popping up--looking back I can't remember a year where something really great hasn't shown up. I'm sure there have been doldrum July's like this, but it is a bit disappointing that July 2016 was one of them.
After my big week mid month things slowed down again. Not for lack of trying though. I again hit the hills in anticipation of tracking down some of the 3 species I felt were still possible. One morning I put over 5 miles in on foot in search of just one bird. This was try number 3 this summer, and again I swung and missed. During the course of my search I could hear the distant cacophony of call from an Elevated Reviewer though--this was another one of the 3 so all was not lost. I had actually made 5 trips for that species this summer, but figured I would have one easy in September. Now I just need a photo, and I'll be good to go.
The last few days of the month I decided it was do or die time for one species that if I didn't get now I might end up missing all together. This species was one that typically I have seen 4-5 times but this point in the year. But this year one of my favorite locations to look was inaccessible when the birds are easiest to find and ID. That hadn't stopped me from checking for them every chance I got. The lack of reports by others made it near impossible to chase so it was going to be either sheer luck, or just a miss.
Someone had sent me a photo the previous week asking for help ID'ing a bird--it was from the location I couldn't access earlier in the year, so I decided to take a drive and see what I could find. Almost immediately the first stop I made there were birds to look at. I took my time checking for the missing species but couldn't find one so I moved on. As I rounded a bend I looked to my left and there were even more birds than my previous stop and some were just a few feet away for easy viewing. As I stopped my car and put my binoculars up to look at the first bird I saw I almost had to shake my head--it was my first Overlooked Sweeper of the year. Almost too easy. I had left my camera at home but managed to digiscope a few shots just to make sure I had them. And I didn't something I normally don't do--I didn't eBird it.
Why? There are two reasons--one is selfish, the other is strategic. Since I know there haven't been many seen this year, I didn't want to give any other big year birder a freebie. I've done plenty of that, and this one I was going to keep. Yes, that is my selfish reason--I am 99.99% of the time selfless in sharing what I find, but I figured this would be a secret until the end of the year. The more strategic reason would be the possible giving away in eBird for any locals who might be following the blog. That's it.
With the sweeper swept away I headed to a nearby pond to see if any shorebirds were around--there weren't any. But a couple birds flew in and I looked at them with intrigue. I realized pretty quickly that one was unlike the other and looking closely it appeared I had a a Tropical Thinker--mark that one off the list as yet another year bird! I had added 2 year birds in one day, something that from here on out won't be all that common.
After that the new birds dried up and July came to a close. It had not been quite the month I expected with only 8 new year birds added. This was a few less than I had hoped and I was still missing a few birds. I basically have come to terms with the fact there will be 3 birds I won't see this year that I saw in my previous big year--that I had fully expected to have in 2016. When you are doing the math and trying to plan a year like this, these are the birds that hurt the most. There is no way to make up for targets that seem unmissable.
I cute down my driving just a little for July, keeping it under 2,000 miles. I kept my numbers on foot up, putting on over 28 miles for the month. And I spent just under 100 hours looking for birds. I have mixed feeling for how August will be as of right now. I certainly would love to add 10 more species but am not sure how doable that is given what I've already seen and what I know will be showing up. Migration certainly will be picking up and that brings a potential abundance of possibilities. I think September is going to be the month where I do the most damage though, and while I mentioned 10 new birds, I am guessing 5 is more reasonable for the coming 31 days...
New birds this post: 3
Year List: 315
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Tick tock. Tick Tock. Tick tock. The clock approached noon on my secret big year. Every second, minute, hour, and day that passes, the pressure is on to fill in the missing pieces of the big year puzzle. My leg is shaking as I type this, in the back of my mind I'm constantly thinking about this damn year and how it is going. I'm happy with my progress and the year I have had will be great, even if it ends up falling short of a new record. So much focus on that record. At the end of the day it's just a number, but the whole point of this is to top it. And as the clock tick tocks, the finish line gets closer, and I feel the pressure. Tick tock. Tick Tock.
After the small success in the middle of last week, I still had holes that needed immediate attention. I took the weekend to work on pinning down a few. I had a list of just 7 possible species. 7. Think about that. 6 months ago I had a list of 400 some odd birds to choose from. As the year winds on that has narrowed. And every trip I take has an ever shrinking list of targets. Now, saying I had 7 targets is a stretch. Realistically, I had 3 birds to get. The other 4 were long shots They are rare at best, and accidental in some cases--perhaps under reported or detected? Still, this meant I had 3 birds I had to get.
The first bird I set out to find was a species of Cloak. In Narnia this cloak has been known to occur for some time. The extent of it being either a vagrant/accidental or a regular but restricted breeder remains unclear. Some recent evidence seems to point to the latter making it one of a handful of very difficult to get breeders. Narnia has a short list of suspected breeders with limited range. In recent years the number of reports has increased, and there seems to be one area where the bird has been seen repeatedly. However there have been no reports in 2016. I set off for a walk along the area the birds were known to occur, but despite several hours of searching I failed to turn up the cloak, or very many other birds for that matter. The cloak was not one of the 3 expected, so it wasn't a huge miss. Had I found one, it would have been a huge addition...
A few hours later near where I looked for the cloak I was walking and listening for a couple of birds that were starting to get active. A little help from some playback and in less than 15 minutes I had both. Two out of the three birds I needed were added. A Secretive Cougher and a Rookie Thinker were both odds and ends I should have seen by now. I resorted to using playback as a last resort, not knowing when I'd be in there habitat again, or if this would be my last shot at either. Neither are all that rare, but they tend to go undetected by most birders due to their secretive nature.
As the day came to an end it was time to look for one of several owls that are still missing from my year list. I've seen/heard all the common and expected, but have 2 species that are much more uncommon, limited in range, and needed for my year. It was so quiet when I stepped out of my car to start playing for the target this night. I played the tape and another species responded. I tried again a couple times an nothing. I moved on to another spot and ran through the same process. Again, another species called out from the woods, but not my target. It was late, and I had potentially waited to long to start trying. I should have started earlier. Although this species is not typically expected on a big year, I had planned on it for mine, so was quite disappointed.
The next morning I was out in search of anything new. My plan for the day was to bird my way to a nearby gorge where I could check for the last somewhat expected target. I had little hope for anything new where I started my day. It was late in the breeding season, migration is long over, and I'd already gotten every single species I could from the area in previous visits. So it was a complete surprise when a Benefiting Sentinel popped into view--this was my later in the day target bird. Surprise! Holy crap, I had my 3rd main target of the trip. This was good news. I actually worried that this may just go down as a miss this year--I knew there were a few around, but I thought I might be spending the better part of 2 days looking for one. What luck!
I made the decision to wrap up my birding for the day and head home. I had been on so many of these little outings this year, I felt it was worth calling it a weekend. I potentially could have tried again for 2-3 species that might be around. I'll never know if I would have got them, because I pulled the plug and opted to get out of the field and relax. So not a big year mentality, but some days you just have to hang up the binoculars and focus on the other important things in life. If it comes down to December 31, and I am 2-3 birds shy of a new record, I can point to this weekend as a reason why. Or any number of other outings I suppose.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. The clock doesn't stop. At least for today though, I am happy with my 6 new year birds in the past 10 days. Perhaps I'll kick my feet up, enjoy a cold beer, and clear my mind of all this secret insanity...
New birds this post: 3
Year List: 307
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