Since we made the trip to the Long Key SP, other birders discovered 2 quail-dove sitting together on a branch in the same area. And on the 28th of December a 3rd quail-dove was found on the Deering Estate in Cutler just south of Miami. My friend Bob Wallace had spent 3 days at Long Key SP without seeing the bird, and when he was called, he rushed up to the Deering Estate where he managed no better than the record shot just above--good luck picking out the bird. Clues: a) the bird is facing to the right, and b) look for the shiny eye and a white horizontal stripe just below the eye (click on any photo to enlarge).
Addendum 5/24/15: Laura Keene was able to get a photo of the Key West quail-dove this spring.
Turning to big year efforts in 2014, I only know of one blog done by Dorian Anderson chronicling his self-powered big year. He road his bicycle down the east coast to Florida; across the gulf coast into Texas and onto Arizona; up through the Rocky Mountains to Washington; down the Pacific coast to southern California; back through Arizona and down to the Rio Grande Valley; and finally ending up in Dallas. He averaged almost 49 miles of riding per day, covering almost 18,000 miles. He saw 617 different bird species plus a possible ABA area first record of a red-legged honeycreeper. He also raised over $45,000 for bird conservation, and had 575,000 pageviews on his blog.
There have been a few other "green" big birding years, but none on the scale that Dorian just finished. He has established the template for a cycling big birding year. I know how tiring a big year can be--a 365 day marathon which in my case involved 82,000 miles of flying and 66,000 miles of driving. To do it riding a bicycle almost every day is a truly amazing feat and level of commitment.
Like most big year birders, he developed a plan that would optimize his goal of birding and cycling. Unlike most big years though, he could not really chase rarities, so the quality of his plan and assistance from other birders in the areas he visited was even more crucial to his success. Every big year birder to some degree studies prior big year efforts in order to develop a plan for his/her year. The wild card to reaching a very big total number of birds seen is how many rarities show up, and does the big year birder choose to chase and successfully find them.
As I have written before, to set a record, a big year birder must be willing to chase. Sandy Komito has talked about this often. Neil Hayward tying Sandy's full ABA area big year mark of 748 is even more amazing since Neil did not fully commit to doing a big year until April of 2013 which meant he did not chase a few rarities early in the year. As a result he is still hoping the rufous-necked wood-rail found in New Mexico last year will be accepted as a first ABA record which would push his total to 749.
I did check ebird, and found that Brandon Reo saw 667 different species in 2014 in the full ABA area, and 641 in the lower 48 states--both of which are outstanding results. Also from ebird, Leo Miller saw 610 in the full ABA area. Every year since 2003, Leo has seen over 500 different species of birds in the full ABA area, and 3 of those years he broke 600. Finally from ebird, Doug Gochfeld, a professional bird guide I met last year in Alaska, saw 609 species in the full ABA area. I also want to give a shout out to Dan Sanders who just completed his 20th consecutive Ohio big year. He and his partner Doreene finished 2014 with 318 species, which just fell short of their record of 320.
Returning to my own birding year in 2014, I added 8 more birds to my full ABA area (788) and lower 48 states (749) lists. The new entries include collared plover (code 5), whiskered tern (code 5), tundra bean goose (code 3), Egyptian goose (code 2), and Key West quail-dove (code 4)--all birds that I saw during the year. And due to changes in the ABA listing rules I was able to now count aplomado falcon (2010, 2012) and California condor (2006). Finally, the ABA added Ridgway's rail (code 2) as a split from clapper rail. I recently reviewed my 2010 big year records, and confirmed that I saw Ridgway's rails below San Diego in October of that year.
It is time to wrap up this blog post so that I can begin my annual New Year's day tradition of drinking port and eating blue cheese while watching college football bowl games. Happy New Year!
Addendum on 1/5: my friend Marty pointed out this AM that I did not mention the 3 week birding trip in Morocco last March. I was thinking about my birding year in ABA area only when I wrote the initial year wrap up post. So a belated addition about what was fully reported here on the blog earlier, and definitely fond memories of the birding and everything else that trip gave our group.
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