Final Tally: 181

Several people have reminded me in recent weeks that I needed to update my blog with my final tally of species for 2014. As I mentioned in a blog post last fall, I decided that I was happy at having exceeded my stated goal (170 species) and decided not to purse a new, revised numerical total in the remaining months of the year. That was a good decision, since the fall included some unexpected challenges that reduced my birding time during the last three months of the year.

The good news is that I did add a few more species and ended the year with 181 seen in the county (I don't think I had any heard-only species for the year, unless it was Barred Owl). My final species for the year was a Surf Scoter, found by Evan Spears at Briery Creek Lake on 3 Dec. He let me know about the bird soon after he found it and I was able to stop by the lake and see it on my way home from school that afternoon.

It's something of a tradition to wonder about the species that are missed on a Big Year. While I could compile a long list of species that I "should" have seen or "might" have seen, only a few species really stand out for me. All of them are species that I had seen in Prince Edward County before 2014, but missed for one reason or another during my Big Year.

First on the list is Red-breasted Nuthatch. Although the species was scarce in the area in 2014, after missing it in the early months of the year I still thought I would find one in the fall or early winter. I did not, maybe because my birding was so limited then.

I could make similar statements about Pine Siskins. Although I never saw one in Prince Edward in 2014, they were common at my home feeders (in Buckingham County) early this year. The first morning that I saw one hanging there eating my immediate response was, "where were you last year?"

Other misses that stood out were Northern Pintail and Common Merganser, perhaps because in general it was such a good year for waterfowl, and Worm-eating Warbler, because I'm especially fond of that species and just hated to miss it (I saw them in the Blue Ridge in 2014, just not in Prince Edward County). Lincoln's Sparrow was also a miss, again because of my reduced birding time in the fall, when I was counting on finding one in a weedy field. And, to finish the "miss list," I would say "shorebirds" in general. It was not a good year for finding shorebirds in Prince Edward, though there isn't much shorebird habitat here to begin with. But only six species of shorebirds is minimal, even here -- not even a Lesser Yellowlegs!

Enough complaining. The year was a success in terms of meeting my numerical goal, a learning experience, and a lot of fun. It gave me insights for my ongoing work on an annotated checklist and birding guide for the county. And it gives anyone else who is interested a number to shoot for. I don't doubt that 181 could be topped in Prince Edward County, as well as some adjacent counties in Virginia (especially Buckingham, which is larger and topographically more diverse, and Charlotte, which includes a little section of Kerr Reservoir). Who will do it?

Easing into fall

The temperatures are still pretty warm in central Virginia, but you can certainly tell fall is on the way. The days are getting shorter and the migrants are moving through. My county total for the year is up to 177 thanks to a good morning at Wilck's Lake on Tuesday. Highlights were a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and several migrant warblers including Cape May and Blackburnian. I also saw a distant falcon that was probably a Merlin (which would be new for the year), but I just didn't see it well enough to count it.

Shorebirds are still largely absent from the year list. Despite checking a few spots that have produced peep and plovers (Semipalmated, anyway) through the years, I'm still missing such common species as Least Sandpiper in the county in 2014. There just isn't much habitat around for them, and time is growing short for finding some of these species.

Halftime is Over!

I'm not sure how many people have been reading this blog, but in case you're wondering where I've been the past three months, and how my Prince Edward County big year is going, here's the answer.


Back in December I set a goal of seeing 170 species in Prince Edward County during 2014. I thought this was a decent goal since it was about 14 more species than I'd seen in any previous year, but by May I'd realized that my goal was too low. On 21 May I reached 172 species when I found a pair of Dickcissels in western Prince Edward County – goal achieved, with more than half the year remaining.


By this time spring migration was mostly over and I was looking forward to a summer of travel as well as other things that would take a good bit of my time. Taking a cue from U.S. football, I decided that June and July would be halftime, and that I would lay aside the big year until August. That's what I did, and as for where I've been, since the first of June I've taken separate multi-day trips to southern Ohio, Italy, Atlanta, and, most recently, Ecuador.

Chestnut-breasted Coronet, one of 45 species of hummingbird I saw in Ecuador.

Only the last of these was entirely a birding trip, though I did at least a little birding on all of them. I also completed a couple of online classes and have been busy with other things such as church, visiting family, going caving, and more that have taken me away from what can be (I admit) some rather tedious summer birding in central Virginia. (How many tick bites have I avoided?)


Since I've already passed my initial goal of 170 species I've been thinking about whether to set a new one. I decided not to, at least not numerically. Instead, the new goal for the rest of the year is simply to have fun and see a few more birds for the list. I don't know what “a few more” will mean, but there's some obvious potential. I didn't find some common migrants during the spring (e.g. Cape May Warbler) that should be easy to add to the list. I haven't seen many shorebirds yet, so finding a few of those in the next six weeks or so seems reasonable. We could always have a hurricane to make things exciting! But if I do or don't make it to some other number – 190 or 200 or whatever it might be – I don't care too much.



So, halftime is over. Yesterday I visited Sandy River Reservoir and a few ponds looking for shorebirds but didn't see much. School resumes (for me) on Monday, and my commute usually provides opportunities for quick birding stops, so it's back to the routine just in time for fall migration. Common Nighthawks should be heading through soon, then the influx of first-year warblers, and so on. Here we go....