Revised 2011 bird total:
437 species

Monday, May 23, 2011

Slowing Down after 300

You all may notice that I'm not posting as much as I used to.  My new birds aren't coming in as easy as they were before.

The first half of the year, even without the "big trips" I was still getting big numbers of new birds migrating into my home area and now that the migration is slowing down, I've basically picked up all of the eastern warblers and most of the other birds.  And this shows, I got 300 in less than half a year, and now 75 more is what I expect in the rest of the year.  That's part of the fun though!  It makes every new bird so much more exciting!

I'm down to four "easy" non warbler visitors in my home area: Summer Tanager, Common Nighthawk, Chuck-Will's-Widdow, and Willow Flycatcher.  They will take some work, especially the first and forth on the list, but I will get them.  Other birds too, but those are the most easy.  I'm also down to only seven eastern warblers that I don't have: Golden-winged, Blue-winged, Kirtland's, Swainson's, Connecticut, Mourning, and Yellow-breasted Chat.  Kirtland's is out of the picture.  There's nearly no chance I'm making it to Michigan and where else am I going to see a Kirtland's?  If I were going to see a Kirtland's this year, it would have been at Magee and none have been seen there this year.  Swainson's, not too tough.  Somewhat, but I'm likely going to make it to the Great Dismal Swamp where I'll be able to fairly easily pick up Swainson's.  Golden-winged and Chat, they're the easiest, it's very likely I'll be able to pick both of them up around home without a problem.  Blue-winged, Mourning, and Connecticut, they're purely hit or miss.  If one shows up in the area, I'll try to chase it.  But it's pure luck.  More than Blue-wing was at someplace just an hour away a couple of days ago but has not since been reported.  A Mourning was at a park just 40 minutes away about a week ago and spent a couple of days but by the time I could get out it was gone.  Connecticuts are the hardest and are PURELY hit or miss.  My biggest numbers will come on the big trips by far.  Ontario, Alaska, and Arizona as well as smaller trips will bring me the big numbers and that's what will get me to 375!

Just an update.

KestrelSwan

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