Winter Wrap-up

It is now March and winter is over. While the rest of society still has another 21 days of winter to endure, for birders spring officially starts on March 1st. It’s no secret that birding customs are odd, so the fact that birders don’t follow the Gregorian calendar should not come as a surprise. For birders, winter spans the period from December 1^st to February 28^th and equally as fascinating as the birder’s calendar is the ‘winter’ list.

I did not understand winter listing during my initial forays in to the mysterious world of birding. I wondered why spring lists or lists for any other season were not kept? At the time, a mentor offered the explanation that since winter days are short and there isn’t much daily turnover in the bird community, winter listing is more manageable compared to hectic migrations. At the time this seemed like a reasonable explanation, however it took moving to Alberta to discover the real reason behind winter listing. 

Living on the coast we sometimes forget that much of the rest of the country gets blanketed with that gross white stuff, temperatures plunge below subzero and bird life is largely absent during the winter months. At times like these, additional motivation is often necessary to get outside and look for the few birds that are regretting the decision they made in November when instead of migrating they thought, “this isn’t so bad, I think I’ll stay.”

Townsend's Warbler - 31 Jan 15 - Shoreline Park, Port Moody. One of the relatively few TOWAs reported locally this winter. It represents a good 'winter bird' and anybody who went to Port Moody specifically to see it needs help; I was looking for redpolls at the time, so I'm ok. 

But I digress. For me the significance of winter’s end is the relief it represents by marking the end of my mistake of participating in a “big 2/3 winter” list (January 1 to February 28) competition, which up until now had caused me undue stress. But now, with just a flip of the calendar I no longer need to worry about searching for trivial things that will become common at the appropriate season. There will be no more prowling around suburban areas for Mourning Doves or walking along stagnant ditches for Wilson’s Snipe. I can now leave common birds to be common birds and get back to birding, pausing to chase only significant year birds along the way. Naturally, with such an attitude I lost the little competition I was in, and by quite a significant margin too. Final score: ILPO 165 vs. MITO 170. Not a bad haul for two months of winter birding, I suppose. Equally as impressive is that at least three other birders tallied Metro Vancouver lists in excess of 160 for the same last two thirds of winter. For perspective, the two biggest Metro Vancouver winter lists (i.e., three whole months) I was previously aware of were 173 and 162. But then, I never paid much attention to winter listing and probably never will again. Or at least certainly not for another nine months.

White-throated Sparrow - 21 Feb 15 - Windjammer Slough, Ladner. Giving me that same look that I always get from non-birders. 

Count update: 165 as of Feb 28