Greetings from Martha's Vineyard....
I wanted to send a note out to the listserv to thank everyone for the help in
2002 while I was on my quest for birds. In what surprised me as much as
anyone else, I did manage to get 346 birds in Virginia this year, edging past
Ned Brinkley's mark of 345 by merely an orangy-yellow bill. By now everyone
knows the role that Ned played in my success, but there were scores of others
that helped in countless ways. My wife, Brandy Warman, was perhaps the most
supportive and encouraging. Not lost on me was that without Brandy or Ned I
wouldn't have been able to do this. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks
I'll be able to get some words down and summarize the year and dole out lots
of credit for anyone interested, and I'll post it to this list.
I certainly accomplished what I set out to do, which was see more of
Virginia, meet many of the birders, and beef up my Virginia list to keep guys
like Iliff and Armistead from bragging that they topped my paultry state-list
and did so as non-residents. However, doing the year was far more than I
thought. Not only did I meet people, but I became friends with many. Folks
I barely knew or didn't know at all are now people that I'm quite glad to
have met. Several people have fed me, housed me, and I know that I'll not go
a year or maybe even a season without birding with many of them. Good people
that I hope to always call friends. Not only did I see many parts of the
state, I found areas that I'll visit every year in some season or other. I
truly look forward to visiting some of the areas that I only spent a day or
even a few hours in.
The year has certainly brought into focus how I want to bird in Virginia.
For a few years I've kept myself limited as a piedmont birder, and almost
exclusively Fauquier County. I'm still very interested in both the region
and the county, but I have a stronger desire to better understand
distribution of birds throughout the entire state than I did a year ago.
Virginia is a special place to bird, and those of us that call it home are
fortunate to do so.
Enough reflecting for right now. Some bird stuff now. Biggest miss is
Parasitic Jaeger, with Little Gull and Red Crossbill close behind. All three
were reported in Virginia this year, the Jaeger and the Crossbill several
times. Little Gull has been scarce this half of the year, but there were
birds to be had in early January, and the Super Bowl Sunday pelagic trip from
Virginia Beach netted one seen by most. Red Crossbill is a bit of a double
miss, as not only did I not get it for the year, but it is the only regular
breeder in Virginia that I didn't see. The latter was a bit of a quiet goal
for me. To be truly remarkable, seeing all the breeders during breeding
season and on their breeding grounds would be the way to accomplish this. I
harbored no such illusions. I was quite content to get any of them at any
time of the year, anywhere I could find them. I would love to see an attempt
made at getting them all during breeding season. The kayak out to Cedar
Island for Wilson's Plover was perhaps one of the best days of the year,
though it has stiff competition for that distinction. Still, it speaks of
the energy an observer might have to invest to see them all as breeders. I
think it also relies less on the vagaries of vagrancy to measure the success
of a big year, and more on actual knowledge of distribution of birds in
Virginia. But migration and wintering is an essential element to the entire
picture; without them you only have half the story.
There was one state first that I saw this year, the Heermann's Gull found by
David Clark. Clark's Grebe has been reported in the two previous winters
from the precise location it is being seen at today, but never documented
with physical evidence until this year when it was digiscoped by Tom Gwynn
and Don Schwab. This is still certainly the second most rare bird I saw in
Virginia. The Bullock's Oriole on Phil Kenney's feeder was also the first
for that species to be documented with physical evidence, and is among the
rarest birds I saw in the state. The Mew Gull found by myself, Ned, and Alex
Merritt is certainly the rarest bird that I was present for the discovery of.
The fact that it is from the western North American population raises its
degree of rarity, with none having been reported in Virginia prior. Those
four birds are certainly among the most memorable, but they all require a
great deal of luck. Lucky for someone to find them by being where they were
(how easy it would have been for the Heermann's to slip through and never be
seen by anyone), lucky for them to stick around, and lucky for me to be able
to get to where they are being seen when I needed to see them.
I think though that maybe a bit sweeter are the regular (either annual or
very close to annual) but very scarce birds that I had the opportunity to see
this year. Bachman's Sparrow and Cave Swallow are candidates for my two
favorite birds from 2002. They both share a few common elements. One, it
took many attempts to finally locate one. For each I had spent many hours
doing nothing but looking for them. Two, they were both new species for me.
I got a bunch of new birds in 2002, and I'll tally them later, but both of
these were more memorable. Three, I found them myself. Every big year has a
fair amount of chasing involved. I don't know if I chased more or less than
is typical. I certainly chased more than Ned did in 1996. In a successful
big year, it is good to surround yourself with talented birders and hit the
thickets, hedgerows, landfills, et cetera. I did this, and did it a lot.
Those people will often find great birds, and I was just as happy to look at
a bird they directed me to as finding my own. I was fortunate to bird with
great birders like Brinkley, Stinson, Heath, two Armisteads, Iliff, Abrams,
Sullivan, Merritt, Hynes, Hughes, Ake, Anderson, Little, F. Day, Rottenborn,
Z. Smith, Patteson, Pearce, Lehman, and the upstart Topolsky. Anyone that I
missed above is mostly because I am away from all my notes and such, having
not been to my own house since 26 December. Everyone above either got me
some birds or spent a fair amount of time swinging and missing with me.
There are many others that found birds around the state that I went to see,
and I'll do something much more thorough when I get back home next week.
Let this act as the first of many thanks to everyone who participated in this
thing with me, even if it was just with a note of encouragement during the
year. I was surprised by how many people that would tell me either in the
field or by email that they were pulling for me. There were literally scores
of you, and I can't thank you enough. It makes a huge difference when days
turn into weeks between adding another species to the tally.
The last five...
342, Mew Gull, CBBT, with Ned and Alex Merritt 19 December.
343, Long-eared Owl, Christmas Day by myself.
344, Painted Bunting, 28 December with Ned and Yann The Icelander.
345, Thayer's Gull, found by Paul Lehman, 28 December, seen with Ned, Yann,
and Eileen Mathers.
346, Clark's Grebe (my honest favorite of the year), with Ned, but found by
Tom Gwynn and Don Schwab. Seen with George Armistead, Mike Iwanik (and
Vicki, whose last name escapes me), David Hughes, Matt Sharp, and Don Snipes,
a bird I'll remember for a long time.
Happy New Year to everyone...
Todd Day
Aquinnah, MA (just for another few days...)
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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