A Chukar sneaking around our campsite in S. Utah.

Quick stops in New Mexico California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona (not in that order) and now Im in Oregon. New birds latley for the year in Oregon have been Red-naped and Williamson's Sapsuckers, Greater Sage Grouse, Yellow-headed Blackbird and others. Other interesting birds have been Gray Vireo, Northern Goshawk, Chukar, Virginia's Warbler, Grace's Warbler, Plumbeous Vireo, Black Terns, Sage Thrasher, Calliope Hummingbird, Mountain Bluebird, Lazuli Bunting and Golden Eagle.

New stuff from Texas

New birds this year from Texas for the US this year include Mississipi Kite, Groove-billed Ani and Monk Parakeet. I had a few additional new birds for the US in Arizona in February as well. Those include Northern Jacana, Yellow-eyed Junco, Abert's Towhee and Arizona Woodpecker. The really exciting new thing this year is my new camera. In an effort to improve bird picture taking and to help Jill realize her dream of being in Nat. Geographic I bought some nice camera equipment: a canon digital SLR and a really nice wildlife lens (500mm focal length). pics Monk Parakeet and a Black-bellied Whistling Duck

2008 Year List off to a good start

There have been some great birds in Humboldt County this winter. An Adult Slaty-backed Gull made a brief appearance in Hiller Park in McKinleyville a few weeks ago. I was fortunate enought to get good looks at this eurasian vagrant. The other great bird of the winter has been an Arctic Loon on Stone Lagoon in Humboldt Lagoons State Park. As well as these very rare vagrant species, I've had the good fortune to spot several other birds, that while not quiet as rare are still very good finds.

Lots of owls so far this winter. First up Short-eared Owl, then Western Screech, Great Horned, Barn, Northern-pygmy, and Burrowing Owls. Its pretty good with raptors too so far Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, Rough-legged, Ferruginous, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, Bald Eagle, White-tailed Kite, Osprey, Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.

A good start with gulls as well: Bonaparte's, Herring, Ring-billed, Mew, Thayer's, Glaucous, Glaucous-winged, Western, and Slaty-backed. Sparrows so far include: Song, Savannah, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Harris' and Fox and Dark-eyed Junco and Spotted Towhee.

I expect to get a lot of sparrows in the next few days on my way down to Texas ( I leave Wednesday) including Canyon, Green-tailed, California and possibly Abert's Towhees, Yellow-eyed Junco, Brewer's, Sage, Vesper, Lark, Cassin's, Chipping, Rufous-crowned, Rufous-winged, Black-throated and possibly Black-chinned Sparrows. I'm aiming to get all four gnatcatchers: California, Black-tailed, Black-capped and Blue-gray.

Not a lot of finches yet this year, but I think I should be able to remedy that on the trip. So far the only finches I've seen are House, Purple, Lesser Gold and American Gold, I think I should be able to get without too much hassle, Pine Siskin, Red-crossbill, Gray-crowned Rosy-finch, Black Rosy-finch, and Brown-capped Rosy-finch with a possibilty of Cassin's Finch.

Duck wise this year I've got all the common ones (except wood duck for some reason) the only glaring omissions are Redhead, Barrow's Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck and Harelequin Duck. I don't have any Eider's at this point either.

Woodpeckers have been few and far between so far. I've got only two! Hairy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker. I hope to get at least several more in the next week or two including Downy, Arizona, Gila, Ladder-backed, Nuttall's, Golden-fronted and Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Early in the season I'd like to head over to east Texas and get Pileated, Red-bellied and Red-headed Woodpeckers as well.

Over the course of the about 1 week long trip I hope to get at least 50-60 year birds.

Here are some pictures i've taken the last few weeks while birding. They are 1. Burrowing Owl on the South Spit of Humboldt Bay, Some Harbor Seals lazing on the beach, and an bull Elk with the biggest rack I've seen in long time

Ahhh, stretching my birding legs!

I was going to do a winter Big Day yesterday, but it was pouring rain in the morning so it didn't end up happening. It stopped raining at about 11:30, and I went with Aaron down to Hookton Slough, the South Jetty of Humboldt Bay, Loleta Bottoms, Ferndale Bottoms, Bear River Ridge and the along the coast north of Petrolia, then looped through Humboldt Redwoods State Park after it got dark. I ended up with about 10 year birds making for a total of about 30 or so on the week. The best birds of the day yesterday were an overwintering Caspian Tern at Hookton Slough and a first winter plumaged Glaucous Gull along the coast. It was really birdy at Hookton Slough. There were several tundra swans, wigeons, gadwall, Bufflehead, coots, gulls, cackling geese, two greater scaup, and a handfull of shorebirds as well. South Jetty was hopping, lots of Brant, Red-breasted Mergansers, a few loons, some shorebirds and a Merlin. Most of the bottomland birding was a bust. Nothing much of note other than an obliging sharp-shinned sitting directly in front of us on a post. The weather had gotten a little gnarly by the time we got to Bear River Ridge, and we didn't see any Golden-eagles or much in the way of passerines, but we had great looks at four different Rough-legged Hawks cruising the ridges. The coast had lots of gulls, there are a lot of creeks and streams that run into the ocean along that section of coast and the freshwater attracts a lot of gulls for bathing and drinking. The Glaucous Gull was a great find, I spotted it from the road and made Aaron slam on the breaks. He also almost ran over a Thayer's Gull while trying to get a better look at one in the road.

the plan for 08

Here's how I'm going to try to do the year list for 08. Most of the travel is squeezed in on my trips between texas and california, the states I live and work in (about half the year in each).

1. Lots of NW Cal birding. I don't have much of choice here. Its where I live. I'll just try to stay on top of birding here, and be sure to get whatever I can get.
2. Lots N Cal birding. Stopping down in the bay area adds opportunity to bird some highly covered areas to pick up some good stuff, along with California speciality stuff.
3. So Cal. Should have invested more effort in this area. I'd like to get out on an LA audubon society pelagic. I missed several storm-petrels and black-vented shearwater in 07. Also could use a California Gnatcatcher, Abert's Towhee and Yellow-footed Gull.
4. Stay vigilant on the AZ stuff. Birding southern AZ is a must. Last years' trip was with a female friend and I didn't bird as crazily or as long as I would have if I were alone or with another serious birder. This year I will be doing a late winter and a early summer trip to ensure as many birds as possible.
5. Cover texas as well as possible. Spring means bird Texas all out. try at least 2 trips to LRGV, High Island, Big Thicket, Bolivar Penninsula, Big Bend, Davis Mountains, Padre, and of course Hill Country.
6. A summer Florida trip, everglades/miami area.
7. Alaska or N. Manitoba, one or the other is going to have to happen this year.
8. What about the east coast??? I don't want to miss the east coast/ mid atlantic again this year. Last year was the first year I didn't get to bird NY, VA, PA or New Jersey at all, which definately cost me some ticks. A fall migration trip to the east coast would probably add some late year birds.

There are some places I'd like to bird this year, but I don't know if I'll be able to find the time.
- Machias Seal Island and Acadia NP in Maine.
- I'd love a Montana Trip
- More great basin stuff just for the hell of it.
- Northern part of lower penninsula of Michigan.

427

Its 2008. Obviously this means that my 2007 ABA year list has come to an end. The final total was 427 which is not bad really. Its not fantastic by any stretch either. I missed a lot of eastern birds, northern birds, Alaksa birds, Florida birds, easy birds, hard birds... basically I missed a lot of birds. I did well with Texas, Arizona and California specialties, plus a few south east birds and poorly with just about everything else. Here's the list of my top ten favorite birds this year and the ten biggest misses.
First the tops:
1. Spotted Redshank: best bird of my life and it was self found. Mad River, Arcata, CA
2. White-eared Hummingbird: Miller Canyon, AZ
3. Flame-colored Tanager: Madera Canyon, AZ
4. White-collered Seedeater: Awesome lifer in Zapata, TX
5. Colima Warbler: I love Big Bend! Big Bend National Park, TX
6. White-headed Woodpecker: my new favorite Woodpecker Tahoe National Forest, CA
7. Ferruginous Pygmy-owl: Cool mexican style owl. Bensen Rio Grande State Park, Mission, TX
8. South Polar Skua: Pelagic out of Eureka, CA
9. Gray-crowned Rosy-finch: I had just such a great time tracking these guys down on a beautiful hike through Lassen, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA
10. Long-tailed Jaeger: another awesome pelagic bird, Pelagic out of Eureka, CA

Now the misses:
1. Golden Eagle: How the hell did I miss this?
2. Gray Jay: again, what am I lazy? There are resident Gray Jays at the arcata community forest 2 minutes from where I go to school.
3. Red Crossbill
4. Purple Gallinule
5. Black Rail
6. American Dipper
7. Red-headed Woodpecker
8. Bachman's Sparrow: I spent so much time playing tapes in long leaf pine savannah. You just got be there in the spring.
9. Black-headed Gull: I looked through so many freaking Bonaparte's Gulls for nada.
10. Northern beardless Tyrannulet: I spent way too much time looking not to find one. I even staked out a nest site and failed.

Lifer at Nick and Lucy's

I got out of the shower on Saturday morning to see that my friend and coworker Aaron had left me a message on my cell phone. "Hey man, Nick has what he think's is a Harris' Sparrow in his back yard." 15 minutes later I was standing in Nick's backyard (which is just up the street a few blocks). After 20 minutes or so of looking we relocated what was absolutely 100% a Harris' Sparrow. First good bird of the new year, first ABA lifer in a while too.