The Birdchaser: Backburner Birding--2024 Birding Recap

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Backburner Birding--2024 Birding Recap

So this past year has been momentous. I took a new job at the Palmyra Temple in Palmyra, New York in January, we finally sold our house in DelCo in July, and we bought a house and moved to Mendon, NY in August (new yard list up to 75 bird species by end of the year). So new job, new house, new lots of stuff. But not a lot of new birds. Or many birds at all, as birding took the biggest back seat in my life since I took a couple years mostly off to serve an LDS mission in Ecuador from 1988-1990.

By the numbers, I only saw 213 bird species this year. Ouch!

I did not leave the U.S. this year, and logged birds in only 11 states--including 199 in New York. Shoot, I just saw that. If I had been paying attention, I would have worked harder this week to have made sure that total got to 200. That's what happens when you aren't paying attention in the back seat!

I did not see any new birds for my World list or my North American list this year--the first year I haven't seen a new bird since 1987.

Most of my birding this year was just an hour here or there before or after work. The only real birding games I tried to keep up with this year were my daily attempts to get my 20 Bird Minimum Daily Requirement and to get an All Time New Day Bird (a bird I hadn't ever seen before on that calendar day). I will have to count, but I got one or both of those on most days, though there were plenty of misses--including today (Dec 31) when I got neither.

Since I saw so few birds, it is hard to even come up with a 2024 Top 10 birds list for the year. but here goes

1. Wood Stork--the only rare bird I found myself this year, an October surprise up on the shore of Lake Ontario in Rochester, NY. Fortunately it stuck around for several days, so many people got to see it.

2. Snowy Owl--I haven't seen any for a few years, so nice to see one again at Sodus Point this fall. Definitely worth a quick drive up one afternoon between work shifts.

3. King Eider--I hadn't seen one since chasing one on the Texas coast back in 1998, so more than time to have seen one. Took several attempts to see one that spent a few weeks at Sodus Point back in February.

4. American Woodcock--since these were always a bit of a challenge to find in DelCo, it was nice to have several displaying every night at the Sacred Grove next door to my work, so I saw them over 15 times in April and May on the evenings I got out of work early enough to catch their twilight sky dances.

5. Barred Owl--Always fun to hear them, and I heard them 15 times this year at the Sacred Grove, and saw one twice.

6. Rough-legged Hawk--This was one of my top jinx Delco county birds, having narrowly missed it a few times--finally was able to see one at the Philadelphia Airport back in January. This may well be my last new Delaware County, PA bird ever.

7. Swainson's Hawk--a bird I see most years when I am out visiting family in Utah, but this was one that someone found in Wayne Co. New York and I drove over to see one afternoon in May before work.

8. Purple Sandpiper--Another bird I hadn't seen in a number of years, good to finally see one again three times up at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario.

9. Bonaparte's Gull--Uncommon in Philadelphia, nice to live where you can see them all the time--if you drive to the right place on Lake Ontario. I saw them 24 days this fall (as opposed to only 8 times in 2023), a reliable get when needed as a new All Time Day Bird.

10. Swamp Sparrow--Like the Bonaparte's Gull, a fairly reliable All Time Day Bird many times this year at the Sacred Grove when needed quickly on the way to work (99 observations this year, as opposed to 27 observations in 2023 when I was birding more frequently).

Aside from the birds, it was actually a spectacular year for watching the sky. I got to see my second full solar eclipse, my best views yet of the northern lights, and the great comet show this fall. So looking forward to what heavenly visions 2025 will bring--birdwise, astronomically, and otherwise!