It's certainly been a long hiatus from blog updates, but the overwhelming number of fan letters enquiring about the progress of my big year have finally prompted me to update this derelict blog. "Are you still doing a big year? What's your number?" said no one.
Well, the lack of updates stems primarily from being out of town for most of May. In fact, due to work and personal travel, I have been in Vancouver for only three full days since May 5. Formerly I used to announce a rare bird moratorium when leaving town, but eventually learned that it only encouraged my "friends" to look especially hard for rarities in my absence. Now I prefer to slip away on the sly, which still works only sometimes.
Fortunately, the few days I had in town were timed impeccably. I returned home from field work on May 10, the day a Ross' Goose was found, and nabbed it the following morning, before leaving town again on May 12.
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| Ross' Goose (#209) - 11 May 2015 - Brunswick Point, Ladner. |
I was then gone until May 25, coming back for only two days which coincided with a territorial Least Flycatcher, and then left again for the remainder of the month. Amazingly, during my absence, there was not a single chaseable CMF in Metro Vancouver! My biggest miss was Western Kingbird, which I had anticipated and prepared for sufficiently well that birding suicide was never considered. And there continues to be a trickle of WEKI sightings which gives me hope that I still have a slim chance to connect with one.
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| Least Flycatcher (#217) - 26 May 2015 - Minnekhada Regional Park. The flycatcher offered no views, so this sonogram is the best I have to offer. Its che-BIKs are within the red boxes, with a Wilson's Warbler between the red boxes and a Swainson's Thrush wip-ing below. |
Some might question the strategy of leaving town for extended periods of time during a big year, especially during late May which typically yields a hot bird or two. While it certainly is a gamble, when timed right it could earn substantial bragging rights such as this: "I was out of town for n days in (pick the most impressive month) and still got x species." And now with that card in my back pocket, the big year goes on.
Count update: 219 species on May 31.
Yep you are doing amazingly well considering how many days you are out of town. You went away and got a Hawaiian Petrel in BC it was worth the chance of missing some Vancouver rarities.
ReplyDeleteNow back to that Least Flycatcher however after that bear adventure we had all you came away with was that soundbite and a tick on your list. I'm not sure it was worth all that effort we put in ;) oh ok it was .