veagle
Well-known member
Well, I am getting started a bit late this year. I have been doing this documentation since 2009, and I guess I would be less than honest if I didn't say that doing the routine January birds in South Dakota is less than very exciting, particularly this year. All the finches that visited last year are long gone. No Redpolls this year, and very few Pine Siskins.
But the larger issue is to come up with my birding goals for 2014. It all depends on perspective. I will no doubt see more species this year than I have ever seen in a single year. In a couple of weeks, my wife and I will spend a week in Panama, our first birding in the Neotropics. In April, we will visit Texas, and in October, we have a week scheduled in Ecuador. So I am expecting a boat-load of lifers. I am thinking that the two overseas trips could add 400 lifers to my list, and maybe 500 species total. Other travel will include New Mexico in the summer, a possible quick trip to Boston in April, and eastern South Dakota in May, and this might be a pretty good year, from an ABA perspective. I guess I will look again at a goal of 400 ABA species, but it won't be easy. World total of 800 would be outstanding.
Lastly, I am looking to work on my county lists in South Dakota, along with some local birding friends. I want to increase the number of counties in which I have seen 100 species.
I know all these quantitative goals seem pretty anal, but I do also really, really, love to just get out there, often by myself, and enjoy the process.
The birding of 2014 got off to a decent start on the 1st of the year. After finding the Pacific Wren the day before, I re-found it today. Also had an American Dipper in the local creek, which is highly unusual, and also added two birds that seem to be wintering here this year, a Great Blue Heron, and a Pied-billed Grebe.
January 1 - Rapid City, SD
1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Eurasian Collared-Dove
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. Red-breasted Nuthatch
6. White-breasted Nuthatch
7. House Finch
8. House Sparrow
9. Canada Goose
10. Gadwall
11. Mallard
12. Redhead
13. Bufflehead
14. Common Goldeneye
15. Pied-billed Grebe
16. Great Blue Heron
17. American Coot
18. Rock Pigeon
19. Belted Kingfisher
20. Northern Flicker
21. American Crow
22. Pacific Wren
23. American Dipper
24. Townsend's Solitaire
25. American Robin
26. Northern Harrier
January 1 - Hermosa, SD
27. Red-tailed Hawk
January 1 - Custer County, SD
28. Wild Turkey
29. Bald Eagle
But the larger issue is to come up with my birding goals for 2014. It all depends on perspective. I will no doubt see more species this year than I have ever seen in a single year. In a couple of weeks, my wife and I will spend a week in Panama, our first birding in the Neotropics. In April, we will visit Texas, and in October, we have a week scheduled in Ecuador. So I am expecting a boat-load of lifers. I am thinking that the two overseas trips could add 400 lifers to my list, and maybe 500 species total. Other travel will include New Mexico in the summer, a possible quick trip to Boston in April, and eastern South Dakota in May, and this might be a pretty good year, from an ABA perspective. I guess I will look again at a goal of 400 ABA species, but it won't be easy. World total of 800 would be outstanding.
Lastly, I am looking to work on my county lists in South Dakota, along with some local birding friends. I want to increase the number of counties in which I have seen 100 species.
I know all these quantitative goals seem pretty anal, but I do also really, really, love to just get out there, often by myself, and enjoy the process.
The birding of 2014 got off to a decent start on the 1st of the year. After finding the Pacific Wren the day before, I re-found it today. Also had an American Dipper in the local creek, which is highly unusual, and also added two birds that seem to be wintering here this year, a Great Blue Heron, and a Pied-billed Grebe.
January 1 - Rapid City, SD
1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Eurasian Collared-Dove
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. Red-breasted Nuthatch
6. White-breasted Nuthatch
7. House Finch
8. House Sparrow
9. Canada Goose
10. Gadwall
11. Mallard
12. Redhead
13. Bufflehead
14. Common Goldeneye
15. Pied-billed Grebe
16. Great Blue Heron
17. American Coot
18. Rock Pigeon
19. Belted Kingfisher
20. Northern Flicker
21. American Crow
22. Pacific Wren
23. American Dipper
24. Townsend's Solitaire
25. American Robin
26. Northern Harrier
January 1 - Hermosa, SD
27. Red-tailed Hawk
January 1 - Custer County, SD
28. Wild Turkey
29. Bald Eagle
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