2009: year in review...

well, 2009 is over, and it has been a pretty awesome year for me. i think i'll look back on it as one of my best ever. what made it so great was my relative freedom from obligation. luckily, i work in a restaurant, where i can get a day off whenever i please; i go to school, but only take one class at a time; i have a significant other, and she is very understanding about my obsession with birding. becaus of this, i've basically had free reign this year, and it's been outstanding. i've gotten up at the crack of dawn and traversed our county many times, i've been attacked by birds, menaced by coyotes and dogs, and frozen my butt off... all in the name of birding. i've learned an incredible amount about birds: where to find them, how to i.d. them, their songs, etc... i'm glad i was able to practice birding with so little restriction in my first year. so many birds were new to me, that almost every day was a banner day. i've also been able to make new friends and acquaintances in the birding community, which has been great. but, what's been most special to me about birding, is how much it affects the rest of my day. i'm just plain nicer to be around, and find that i'm much better equipped to deal cheerfully with rude and pushy people after a morning of birding.

by far, my biggest highlight this year was finding the SANDWICH TERN at robb field. the last confirmed sighting of this bird in san diego county (i'm pretty sure for the state, too) was in 1987! it was really just dumb luck that i saw the thing at all. i was at robb field, watching FORSTER'S TERNs, trying to find a COMMON TERN mixed in (which i didn't), when a strange tern with a yellow-tipped black bill flew by. i pulled my bino's away from my face and did a little double take, got the bird back in my sights and watched it dive a few times. i had no clue what it was, so i wrote down and drew everything i saw. after flipping through my book i was still clueless, so, i drove home and consulted the monster bird book. after seeing what it must have been, i posted a description and a plea for confirmation on the internet. i drove back down to find it again, and meet up with the biders who would second my i.d. unfortunately, i was never able to see the bird again, but about a hundred other birders did, including some that drove down all the way from chico. i remember someone online calling it "a rarity of some magnitude", which made me feel pretty good about my little discovery. below i've posted a pic of the bird and it's range map (courtesy of the usgs patuxent bird survey website). you can see that it doesn't get very far away from the gulf coast, or occur there in large numbers.




i found the SANDWHICH TERN in may, and have ever since been introduced as "the sandwich tern guy", which is totally okay with me. the rest of that spring was great. i found a lot of good birds on my own, but nothing too noteworthy.

another highlight from 2009: PAINTED REDSTART


in the summer months things died down a lot for me. i was working six days a week, and taking chemistry (with the most INSANE teacher ever) and a geographic information systems class. so, my time was largely spent taking care of business. as fall and winter approached, i gained more free time, and was able to bird more often. although 2009 was, on the whole a great year, there were a few low lights.

one of my biggest disappointments was not continuing with my tecolote project. my goal was to bird there once a week, which was totally unrealistic. it would have kept me from birding too many other places as my schedule got busier, so i had to visit less often. however, i don't think i birded there once between april and november. besides the fact that i was fnding many more new and interesting places to bird, i was a little wary of visiting the canyon. i had some run-ins with homeless people, menacing off-leash dogs, coyotes... and of course there was the COOPER'S HAWK that attacked and bloodied me, twice! one goal this winter is to grow a pair so that i can start again in february.

another dissapointment: my mis-i.d. of a female BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER (which would have been a great one to have gotten this year), as an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. i saw this bird at fort rosecrans national cemetary in point loma, where i casually wrote down its description. i didn't know how similar the two species could be, so my notes weren't very detailed. basically i wrote that it looked like an orange-crowned, but had a little white spot at the bend in the wing. it didn't sit right with me, however, that this was an orange-crowned, because i'd never seen the white on the wing before. i though maybe it was some kind of abberent plumage and didn't fret about it too much. i did look through all my books though, with no luck. then, about a month later, while absent-mindedly flipping through my monster sibley's guide and talking on the phone, i saw the same bird. i'd missed it before because i'd been focusing on the the brightly colored male (like a total dufus) in the book. well, this bird was a dead ringer. below are some pics so that you can see how closely they resemble one another.

female BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER


ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER

well, those were pretty much the only low lights of 2009, and if there were any more, i don't care to go digging them up. this year is over, and it's time to look to the future. my birding new year's resolution for 2010 is to join sdfo (san diego field ornithologists) and get in on at least one of their palagic trips. my 2010 wishlist is comprised solely of a fieldscope, which, i am hoping will be an item at the audubon banquet's silent auction. that way i can get one cheap.

good luck to me, and you, and happy new year!