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In 2014 I undertook a Green Birding Big Year. What follows is the list of 157 species of birds that I either saw or heard without burning any fossil fuels. I only wish that I knew how many miles I walked in the process! Some of my highlights included seeing Rufous Hummingbird, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White-winged Scoter, Surf Scoter and Red-throated Loon.
Canada Goose Mute Swan Tundra Swan Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon American Black Duck Mallard Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Wild Turkey Red-throated Loon Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Coot Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Lesser Yellowlegs American Woodcock Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Black-billed Cuckoo Eastern Screech-Owl Great Horned Owl Common Nighthawk Eastern Whip=poor-will Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Rufous Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Merlin Eastern Wood-Pewee Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Common Raven Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Cliff swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper House Wren Winter Wren Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Eastern Bluebird Veery Gray-cheeked Thrush Swainson’s Thrush Hermit Thrush Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher Northern Mockingbird European Starling Cedar Waxwing Ovenbird Blue-winged Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Kentucky Warbler Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler American Redstart Cape May Warbler Northern Parula Magnolia Warbler Bay-breasted Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Palm Warbler Pine Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Prairie Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Fox Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco White-crowned Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Eastern Towhee Scarlet Tanager Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole House Finch Purple Finch Pine Siskin American Goldfinch House Sparrow
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 New York Ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis Every game is governed by a set of rules to play by and Big Years are no exception. What then are the ground rules to my Dorsey's Knob All Taxa Big Year? Since nobody likes complicated rules, I'll keep these brief. 1) The goal of this game is to locate and identify 1,000 species within a single calendar year starting at midnight on January 1st 2015. 2) Only species level identifications count toward reaching the goal of 1,000. In other words, something identified only to family or genus level does not count. 3) In an All Taxa Big Year, every living thing is countable regardless of whether it is plant, animal, fungi or something microscopic. 4) The "playing field" is the 71 acre Dorsey's Knob Park. If a bird is seen flying directly above the park, it counts. On the other hand, a bird flying outside of the park, but seen from a vantage within the park does not count. 5) Animals can be counted if they are either seen, heard, photographed via game camera, identified with a bat detector or documented through some other conclusive form of evidence. Dead animals, or parts thereof, are also countable provided that they had died within the park during the calendar year. 6) Getting help with a challenging identification is allowed. 7) Non-native species are only countable if they have become naturalized. Intentionally planted ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers do not count. 8) Have fun and learn something about biodiversity!  Eastern Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus This Gray Fox spent some time in front of my game camera late last night. Note the black tip of the tail, which distinguishes it from Red Foxes with their white tips. This is a new mammal species for my Dorsey's Knob Park inventory.
 Like many birders, I always look forward to the dropping of the ball at Times Square. Not only does it represent the flipping of the calendar year, but in the birding world, it is also the great equalizer. At the stroke of midnight, every birder's list of birds seen during the current year rolls back to zero. It is a new beginning. Like New Year's resolutions, many birders set birding goals for the upcoming year. In 2013, my birding goal was to submit over a thousand complete bird observation lists to eBird, which I did. And in 2014, I focused on local birding by pursuing a BIGBY, which is an acronym for Big Green Big Year. Unlike the conventional Big Year that involves seeing or hearing as many species of birds as possible within a defined geographic area, a birder doing a BIGBY can only count birds that are seen or heard without having to burn any fossil fuels. Basically, it means that you have to be prepared to do a lot of walking and biking. Although four days still remain in 2014, I will likely end the year at my current 149 species.
Lately I have been contemplating my birding goal for 2015. After much consideration, I have actually decided not to pursue a particular birding goal during the new year. Instead, I will be doing an All Taxa Big Year, or ATBY! In essence, an ATBY is a Big Year challenge that involves locating and identifying as many flora, fauna and fungus species as possible regardless of taxonomy. Everything counts from birds to trees to snakes to even single-celled organisms. The geographic area for my ATBY is the 71 acre Dorsey's Knob Park where I both work and live. Aside from the temporal and geographic limitations of my All Taxa Big Year, there is another very real limiting factor against which I must contend. It is the limit of my own personal knowledge of natural history. Although I feel very comfortable in locating and identifying birds, moths, trees and most mammals, I admittedly know very little about fungi, most orders of insects, almost all arthropods, lichens, mosses and a whole host of other life forms. Doing this Big Year is guaranteed to be a learning experience. And really, that's what this is all about. By the end of 2015, I hope to be much more knowledgeable of the biodiversity and ecology of this part of the world that I call home. |
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