Starting a BGBY Year
I’ve decided to do a big year this year. More specifically I’ve decided to do a Big Green Big Year, in which one attempts to see as many birds as one can without the use of motorized conveyances. You can use a bicycle if you like, but I figure I have a better shot in the walking category, especially since my bicycle is still in pieces in my garage. I’m located more or less between a major regional park, an Audubon wildlife refuge, and a large university with a lot of green space. If I wanted to make a long hike of it, I could even reach the shore once or twice.
I’m starting a month late, since I didn’t move out here till February but I’m still doing pretty well. Limiting myself just to what I’ve seen and heard on foot from this location so far I have 63 species:
- Royal Tern
- Swan Goose
- Canada Goose
- American Wigeon
- Mallard
- Ruddy Duck
- Horned Grebe
- Eared Grebe
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- White-faced Ibis
- American Coot
- Whimbrel
- Long-billed Curlew
- Ring-billed Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Rufous Hummingbird
- Black Phoebe
- American Crow
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Western Bluebird
- European Starling
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Gadwall
- Northern Shoveler
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Great Blue Heron
- Turkey Vulture
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Cackling Goose
- Egyptian Goose
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Osprey
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Greater Roadrunner
- Nuttall’s Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Hutton’s Vireo
- Common Raven
- Bushtit
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Townsend’s Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Spotted Towhee
- California Towhee
- White-crowned Sparrow
- House Finch
- Cinnamon Teal
- Green-winged Teal
- Bufflehead
- Black-crowned Night-Heron
- Black-necked Stilt
- American Avocet
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Tree Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Marsh Wren
- Great-tailed Grackle
I’d be about 10 up on that if I’d just walked to the Sea & Sage field trip at San Joaquin this past Sunday instead of driving over.
My goal for the year is 200, but that might be a tad ambitious. Then again, maybe not. Prospect Park gets about that many every year, and the habitat around here is a lot more diverse than back in Brooklyn.
