Monday, January 30, 2017

2016 in Birding Highlights - A Small Year?



Birding continues to be fantastic hobby for me. I absolutely love being outside, walking in nature, viewing birds, butterflies and plants. But this year, I just didn't grind it out as hard as I have been in the past. My love of the hobby hasn't changed, but I guess I really have tried to find a healthy balance between birding and the other important aspects of my life which are family, bbq, home renovation, work, schooling etc. From June 2015 to June 2016 I took four university courses, plus worked full time, finished a basement, installed a fence, sprinkler system, vacationed... You get it - I was busy balancing too many things.

I only had two birding lifers this year: Harlequin Duck and Gyrfalcon. I think my life list at stuck at 399 species (Canada & US). I saw a swallow species at Point Pelee back in November while birding with Jeremy Bensette, but I didn't get diagnostic plumage details for me to count it as anything beyond "Swallow Sp.". What will be my 400th species? (I'm hoping for Scissor tailed Flycatcher)...

I'm not sure that I even hit 200 species this year in Essex. Which begs the question: Was 2016 a Small Year Record?

It might amaze readers that I think my best birding moment of the year was seeing a third Scarlet Tanager in my back yard during this past fall. Its just a tier 1 bird - common in many peoples eyes. But seeing it while sitting on my back deck - a new yard bird - was a great experience. I actually saw three different tanagers that week.

I have just posted a few of my personal birding highlights this year in no particular order.













Back yard bird?










Love this Warbler
Snowy Egret
Fall Phily... Just by chance while waiting for the tram...











Good birding in 2017!
Dwayne



Sanctuary Pond Sunrise the morning after Alan Wormington passed awayRest in Peace Alan!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a busy and productive year, Dwayne, congrats! Looking forward to seeing you at Pelee this spring.

    Josh

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  2. Hi Dwayne,

    Thanks for this post, I enjoyed reading it!

    You do sure seem busy--that's a lot to take on. There was a time in my life where I had a University night class and 55 hours of work per week and was driving out to Ohio every other weekend. I found that extremely challenging. I can't imagine doing some of that now that I have kids, though!

    Oh, and I find it sort of funny that your both your North American life list and the eBird total for Essex County are stuck at 399! What will be bird #400 for you and Essex County?

    I'm on species #50 for the year and my lifelist is at 119.

    Happy birding!

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