My friend, Denise, is having a Tahoe Big Year with her birder friends so I thought, why can't I have an Oceanside Big Year?
A Big Year is a personal challenge to see how many birds you can identify in a single calendar year.
I first learned about a Big Year from the movie The Big Year with Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson. What a hilarious documentary...
With the help of my new New Stokes Field Guide to Birds Western Region, a willing boyfriend, and some tenacity we are in business!
When Denise was here in December we spotted an osprey, and as luck would have it, we found the same one in the same spot, but this time it was battling a pesky crow.
#1- American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
#2- Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
#3- Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
#4- Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
#5- California Gull (Larus californicus)
#6- Thayer's Gull (Larus thayeri)
#7- Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)
#8- Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedosa)
#9- Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
#10- Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
I think.
Now I just need someone to check my work...
Brady, I love that you have created your own Big Year. I forwarded this to Jenny, my bird expert. I'll let you know what she says about the species you weren't sure of. Way awesome... all of this. I especially love the feet on the Egret.
ReplyDelete“To be standing together in a frosty field, looking up into the sky, marveling at birds and reveling in the natural world around us, was a simple miracle.”
-Lynn Thomson
The masked Snowy Egret is gorgeous!
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