#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 . . . ?