[texbirds] Patch birding 2013 - 1/4 of a patch; 182 spp

From: Heidi Trudell <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 21:55:12 -0600

First of all, kudos to David Sarkozi for endorsing the patch year
competition - it saved me a bunch of miles, some sleepless nights, and
the headache of logistics that the rest of the county/state would have
involved!

My patch moved with me this year, but didn't make a dent; the patch
for the Double Bacon Ranch is only 17 blocks off from being the exact
same patch as Dos Baños. DBR was still 3 miles too far from the
prairie dog town, but that turned out to not really matter.

We were finally able to arrange access to the SW ponds in the early
months of the year, which pushed our county lists up considerably:
Matt was out of the patch for 3 months during the spring/early summer
and we both missed about a month and a half, cumulatively, this fall.

If we break the patch down into quadrants based on Hwy 90 and Hwy 385
outside of town:
NW - zero access
NE - zero access
SE - zero access
SW - Post Park, ponds, Hwy 90 tank

...honestly, outside of the town proper, and Hwy 90 heading west, I
didn't even bother with the other 3 quadrants along the highway
because I hate messing with border checkpoints and there's not much
along those roads I couldn't get outside of my SW corner.

Of the 182 species, 29 were new for the patch this year (patch 'life'
list is 237) - almost all of them due to the addition of pond access.
The agony of not knowing what I missed in November and early December
are what bother me the most: Long-tailed Duck could have been there
for almost a month for all we know, so I will never, ever, ever leave
during waterfowl migration ever again!

Considering my tentative goal was 150, I'd say this patch did quite well!

Happy trails,
-h

Heidi Trudell
Marathon, TX


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[texbirds] Patch birding 2013 - 1/4 of a patch; 182 spp

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