John and Texbirds,
Since I’m on digest, I’m a day or two later in responding than most. I too add
congrats to the new TCC members and say, Welcome to The Club.
Bill and Bob both had excellent remarks and I too used some of the ideas and
strategies they mentioned. I will focus on additional specific strategies that
I used to help get me to my current TCC 167 and some sightings in all 254
counties.
I started birding in 2002 at the age of 58 and as such had much catching up to
do. I got my TCC 100 in 2008 and opened my 254th county in Jan/Feb 2012. I
had the time so could run fast and often, within reason.
Bob is correct about using TOS or Audubon society events to get to the field
with others. Four to twenty additional eyeballs especially in counties you may
not know well is a valuable asset. When going on these outings I had specific
targets. I would target 2 or 3 of the most remote or least birded counties.
Obviously, most of the time, the leader of a group will have invaluable insight
into that county that could prove valuable to you on successive trips.
When possible I take different routes going to the same location over time. As
example in 2007 my wife and I bought a small winter home in The Valley with the
idea we would find or build a retirement place in the palm trees. In traveling
from Denton to The Valley, when driving, we would take different routes. We
went Hwy 77 through Victoria some, I-35 through Schertz and San Antonio and
sometimes a most circuitous route via Hwy 281. One does not have to buy a
second home to do this. If Granma lives in Texas or a military or school mate
lives in Texas and they’re 250 miles from you, to me that is a great two-day
trip on both the front and backend of visiting grandma, time permitting.
That’s potentially four or more new counties.
Bob’s idea of helping with a CBC is spot on. Except that does work for me very
often. For decades we have allocated the middle of December to the end of the
month for family and volunteering with many local churches in their food or
gift distributions. As such I’ve only done 2-3 CBCs in the last 18 years. The
Brothertons are a wonderful couple SW of Texarkana and in the past have
conducted multiple CBCs in that corner of the state. Anthony Hewetson has
several CBC routes in the Lubbock area. There are many other great Texas
birders conducting CBCs too. My guess is that virtually no CBC route has
enough volunteers. Did anyone say, new counties?
But conducting a BBS – Breeding Bird Survey serves me similar to a CBC. When
we first got The Valley home I asked Brent Ortego for BBS routes in the remote
counties of Starr and Duval. After a couple of years one begins to learn the
county well and it becomes a new TCC county. Then it’s natural to work on
counties contiguous with the BBS county. A note that likely everyone knows is,
unlike a CBC, a BBS commitment needs to be 3 and preferably 5 years so as to
get the continuity of data input.
Approximately one-half of my TCC county growth has come from clusters of
counties that started first with a BBS route in some remote place 10-13 years
ago.
In closing, partly due to the turmoil in our country, I want to say Thank You,
to every Texas birder with whom my path has crossed. I am grateful for each of
you. I’m grateful for TOS presidents, field leaders, presenters property
owners. I’m grateful for those that have answered my emails, shared knowledge
with me and helped me with what should have been easy IDs the two years of
cataract surgery and so much more. Thank you.
A big virtual hug or slap on the back and good birding to all,
Lamont Brown
Formerly Denton, now Euless, Tarrant Co
From: John Faber <jrfabertx@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2020 08:01:45 -0500
Subject: [texbirds] Re: New Century Club members
Wow, congrats folks!
For those of us aspiring to be in the century club (and even working on the
half-century club), I’d love to hear some stories and tips! How many years,
how many trips per county, hardest areas, etc. Looking at my own stats, I
imagine the first 50 were fairly easy whereas the last 50 (and last 10)
required quite a planned effort!
