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Green Birding Big Year

12/31/2014

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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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The Rules of the Big Year Game

12/29/2014

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PictureNew 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!

Picture
Eastern Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus
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Gray Fox at Dorsey's Knob Park

12/27/2014

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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.
Picture
Gray Fox at Dorsey's Knob Park
Picture
The tail of a Gray Fox is tipped in black.

I had put some turkey drippings and bones out in front of the camera as bait. The first night the fox spent about 8 minutes at the camera, but did not take any bait. It came back the next night and grabbed some bones. It is being very cautious. This fox knows that finding a roast turkey in the woods is simply not normal. By analogy, I would be cautious too if I were to happen upon a Papa Johns pizza sitting in the forest.
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A Different Sort of Big Year

12/27/2014

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Picture
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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  • Home
  • Birds
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    • WV Micromoths
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  • Butterflies
  • WV Moths
    • Family Tortricidae
    • Misc Micromoths
    • Family Limacodidae
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    • Family Crambidae
    • Family Depranidae
    • Family Uraniidae
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    • Family Lasiocampidae
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