#BIGYEAR2015 in review

Happy New Year!!! 2016, can you believe it? Wow has the time gone by fast.  This post is a recap of the year that was #BigYear2015, all the fun stuff, places visited, good times and future plans. Below are some of the highlights.

Buddy's oil painting, never finished . . .

• 13 lifers--Wow!! Not a bad year, but in 2014 I had 29 lifers, but this year was different. I did not travel as much and stayed home a lot. I am still thankful of the trips taken, birds seen, and friends I've been with making memories and good blog posts! Thank you all and God Bless.                                                                                                                    My ABA Bird of the Year is . . . .the code 2 Atlantic Puffin in Maine. I choose this bird because of the trip. It's not every day or even year that someone gets to Maine for birding. Plus, I felt the Puffin was part of my Retracing the Steps I needed to do.  My Ohio Bird of the Year, was the Brambling, an arctic rarity that popped up in Medina county December 28th. Oddly enough, the first and ONLY report of a Brambling in Ohio, was back in March of 1987, after a snow storm, where?? In Medina county 5 miles away from the 2015 bird. What a great bird, and I didn't have to travel to Alaska like most to see it. Like my father Buddy who in May 1980 saw Brambling on Attu isalnd, AK.

• 5 states--Ohio, Texas, Maine, Nevada, Washington

• 322 species--Keeping it honest. I finished with 322 for the year, that's OK, still over 300, too bad I didn't bird more in Ohio.  I missed many commons this year. This puts me at a 339 species per year average over 3 years. STATS.  In 2013 & 2014 I visited 7 states, so less travel in 2015, less birds. 

•  Rarities seen in 2015--

             Code 4 Gray-crowned Yellow Throat
             Code 3 Hook-billed Kite, Tropical Parula, Aplomado Falcon, Clay-colored Thrush, Ruff, Brambling, Black-headed Gull

• Misses--Yeah there was a lot of them, especially Ohio species. I need to bird OHIO. I missed a lot of warblers and winter birds. So in 2016, my goal will be to get them early and keep trying.  Misses included: 

        Long-tailed duck, White-winged Scooter, Greater Scaup,  Cackling Goose, Ross Goose, Broad-winged Hawk, Upland Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Buff-breasted sp., Silt, Solitary, Barids sp., Long-eared Owl, Short-eared, Snowy, Barred, Barn owls, both Cuckoo's, Bell's, Philadelphia Vireo, Pine, Yellow-throated, Hooded, Cerulean, & Connecticut Warblers, Vesper Sparrow, Dickcissel, Rusty Blackbird, Blue Grosbeak, Bank Swallow, Lapland LS, Common Nighthawk, Brown Thrasher, Orchard Oriole, and Pine Siskins

• 2016 trips--So far two planned trips, but likely some to follow. 

           1. Mid March--Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas--lifers needed include a trip to King Ranch
               Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Sprague's Pipit and other Mexican rarities & sunglasses
           2. Las Vegas/Corn Creek, Nevada-- March, right after Texas trip -- lifers needed include
               Sage Thrasher, Sagebrush Sparrow and others?
           3. Seattle, Washington--maybe? 5 years in a row out there, still could use a Northwest Crow
           4. Ohio-- I still need Iceland Gull & Thayers Gull!!  I need cold snowy ice weather.  Biggest week in American Birding--you know where to find us May 6th-15th
           5. Chase a rarity. Can this be the year of a Code 5 chase??

• show ideas/"B2B"/videos-- I did a couple of videos out in the field birding this year.  What did you think??  The Puffin boat trip and Ruff blog posts have them. How about My Youtube show "Between 2 Birds",   I need to find another birder and film show #2.  Any other ideas you suggest? Please let me know in the comments section below. 

Looks like the painting

Atlantic Puffin #570

Mr. Ohio . . .

all the way from Alaska

#T4P in 2015

Starting over in 2016

Next up: Let's start of #2016BigYear with a . . . ?

New Year's Eve Day Ohio run

Well, there is only one day left in 2015 . . . and I have some time off . . . and the weather is dry . . . and there are some rarities showing up north . . . so off to races we go for the last day of BigYear2015

Let's try one more time at that rare Code 4 Kelp Gull that's been seen off/on on Springfield Lake in Akron. We tried on Dec 13th to see the gull on roost at daybreak, and no luck that day. It had taken off for flight before daybreak. And sure enough, we got there again before daybreak, but by the time it was light enough to see, the Kelp Gull was not seen. So he remains elusive.  But we did see 2 Lesser-Black Backed Gulls for new first of year birds(FOYs).

By 8am, we where on the move north to a Medina County farmhouse on Remsen Road next to Allardale Park. Why?? Because since 12/28 a very rare Eurasian species called a . . . .

Brambling Lifer # 573

Brambling: A Eurasian species, common but irregular as a migrant in the Bering Sea region, including the Aleutians; casual in fall and winter in southern Alaska; accidental south to Canada and northwestern U.S. states. My father Buddy saw this bird on 5/18/1980 on Attu Island, Aleutain chain AK

Here is a great link about this bird being seen in Ohio.
http://www.cleveland.com/neobirding/index.ssf/2015/12/history_repeats_itself_for_2nd.html

American Tree Sparrow(left)

Also there at the farm house feeders, another FOY . . .

Purple Finch, male

PUFI with Goldfinch

 

2 FOYs down and an amazing lifer!!! Now off to the lake for some ducks & more gulls!!

We stopped by Sims Park in Euclid, OH looking for reports of the female King Eider  . . . but could not locate it. Even with 3 other birders showing up, still a miss.
So then we drove down to Cleveland and Burke Lakefront Airport, looking for Snowy Owls on the runways, but could find any white blobs, so another year bird miss.  But then we get reports from the OH listserv, gulls over at Whiskey Park/Coast Guard station. So we are off!!

Very famous bird place on Lake Erie

This is where you go if you want to practice birding if you where in Alaska.  Lots of winds, little shelter, lots of birders with scopes, starting at hundreds/thousands of gulls, looking for that one or two different gull with underside wings in blackish, or gulls with Red legs and bill . . . .

Black-headed Gull #574

see red bill pointing down?

on right, just legs and bill

A common gull of the Old World, Black-headed Gull is a rare, but regular visitor to eastern North America. Rare Code 3 bird in ABA, but seen more regularly. Again, Buddy saw this bird in breeding plumage on Attu in 1980.

 

So not a bad finish to the day. I ended up with 30 total species, 4 FOYs, with 2 Life Birds, both rare ABA Code 3's.  Very nice and thank you Ohio for being such a good state again.

My grandparents Red&Louise have never seen the Brambling, but do have BHGUL in 1982-84 when they too went to Alaska. 

Next up:   BigYear 2015 year in review.  How many? What places? Lifers? What's next?