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Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 7th, 2016, 9:46 am
by chrish
I have been hanging perilously close to the 2000 birds mark for a couple of years now. On my last trip to Australia I decided I was going to try and get over the hump but I spent too much time herping :) and not paying attention to my bird count. I ended up leaving Oz with a total of 1998 species on my world lifelist. :(
So I have been waiting for a chance to get two new birds and celebrate that 2000th tick on the lifelist!

Well, the AOU has stepped in and ruined everything once again. The Summer 2016 supplement is out and....http://blog.aba.org/2016/07/2016-aou-supplement.html

- California Scrub Jay has been split off from the "Woodhouse's" Scrub Jay (stupid name for scrub jays east of CA!). (+ 1 lifer for me) The Texas and Central Mexican populations may eventually be split off in the future as well.
- Green Violetear has been split so my sightings in US/Mexico are now a different species (Mexican Violetear) from those I saw in Panama (+1 lifer)
- Blue-crowned Motmot has been split and my Mexican sightings have been named Blue-capped Motmot, while my Costa Rican bird is now Lesson's Motmot (+1 lifer)
- Plain Wren from Mexico is now Cabani's Wren (no net change in my lifelist)
- Three-striped Warbler has been split so my Costa Rican sighting is now Costa Rican Warbler and my Ecuador birds are now a different species still called Three-striped Warbler (+1 lifer)

So Ebird hasn't incorporated all these changes yet, but my lifelist just jumped from 1998 to 2002 without me lifting my binoculars. I am more disappointed than happy. :( Now I have to wait for 3000 birds? I don't know that I'll live that long.

I understand how this birder felt:

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 7th, 2016, 5:01 pm
by Kelly Mc
This was fantastic. I could really go for a whole bunch of these.

I think you've invented a new Nature Geek Art Form.

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 8th, 2016, 9:24 am
by Curtis Hart
I hadn't realized that you hadn't passed 2000 yet, seems like you've been close for a long time. Congratulations anyways, 2000 is still a great number to finally reach.



Curtis

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 8th, 2016, 2:00 pm
by Porter
I wouldn't feel too bad about it... give it a few years. Science will knock it back down to 1998 :lol:

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 8th, 2016, 6:52 pm
by chrish
Porter wrote:I wouldn't feel too bad about it... give it a few years. Science will knock it back down to 1998 :lol:
Thanks. That's just what I was thinking.

BTW - did anyone else notice that Phoebe Snetsinger was the Google title person a few weeks ago. It was on 6/9/16 on what would have been her 85th birthday.

Image

If you don't know who she is, read about her. Amazing story. I think her data is in ebird and she recorded her sightings to subspecies. I heard somewhere that because she documented subspecies, her birdlist is still growing even though she died in a car accident in 1999.

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 8th, 2016, 9:58 pm
by nightdriver
I totally missed that. "Birding on borrowed time" ...right....Great book.

I'm with Porter... Just wait....they'll probably lump some gulls together or something. :lol:

I think I went from 700 back to 698 then up to 701 in the ABA area without leaving my house a number of years back. :lol: :cry:

nightdriver

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 12th, 2016, 2:07 pm
by Brian Hubbs
Chris: Are all your birds photographed, or are some just sightings and sounds?

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 12th, 2016, 9:52 pm
by chrish
Brian Hubbs wrote:Chris: Are all your birds photographed, or are some just sightings and sounds?
I have photos of a lot of birds over the years, but that 2K number is my identifications in the field.

I know I photographed 220 species in one calendar year a few years ago as part of a friendly competition with some other photographers (I smoked them!).

Looking over my life list (and relying on my failing memory), I conservatively estimate that I have photographed 965 of those species.
Now many of these photos are terrible or on slides from 30 years ago that I have no idea where they are, but for at least those 965 I remember taking/seeing the photos. I'm sure the real number is over 1K.

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 13th, 2016, 12:44 am
by Brian Hubbs
OK, I just wondered if you were following the Big Year rules or had some other criteria. I've only photographed 245 species since last Oct. in 7 states, and I only count the ones I get pics of. Birds are a lot tougher than I thought they would be...and I think I need to visit Texas... :lol:

Here's the revised album in case you haven't looked at it since I had 30 birds in it...LOL

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48237384@ ... 0869053412

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 19th, 2016, 9:47 pm
by chrish
Brian Hubbs wrote:Here's the revised album in case you haven't looked at it since I had 30 birds in it...LOL

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48237384@ ... 0869053412
That's an impressive collection for less than a year....but step away from the saturation slider!

No Terns? That is an easy group to pick up numbers of species in at the right time of year. In Spring or Autumn on the gulf coast you can get 7 species in a day (on one beack often) and they are easy to photograph generally. I suspect on the west coast you could do the same thing pretty easily.

Re: Not the way I wanted to get to 2K birds!

Posted: July 19th, 2016, 11:40 pm
by Brian Hubbs
Thanks, those are just my best shots and I have about 10 more to put in there after this last weekend. 259 species now...Haven't got to the terns yet. It got too hot before i even knew what they were...LOL I'll see some at Salton Sea this winter...and a lot of other stuff.

And you keep telling me to step away from the slider...I don't use the slider. My camera is set for VIVID color, and I use the brightness/contrast on photoshop to make the picture pop. The colors are true, sort of...they will need to pop for that project we spoke of...and I will be giving you a list soon. I've been looking at your album...some nice stuff in there... :thumb: