I'm still working on the wrap-up of our Big Year... we decided that removing a year's worth of cobwebs, putting away months of laundry, and starting to get our life back to normal was probably a bit more important than cranking out an update!
But, over the last few weeks, our list has undergone a few modifications, despite 2015 being long gone:
- The Birding Police are pretty sure that the Brown Shrike we saw early in the year near Arcata is probably a hybrid, and thus doesn't count. The bird hung around for several weeks and thanks (or no thanks) to photographers, we have documentation of how the bird developed from juvenile plumage into adult. Its feather patterns apparently don't look like any one kind of shrike, hence the declaration of it as hybrid and therefore not countable (because which would you count it as?). So -1 from the list. Damn you, Birding Police! [sad face]
- A couple weeks ago, I received a random text. It turned out to be from a person we met in Texas when we attempted to find the Golden-crowned Warbler near Corpus Christi. Her message was, "I've been doing a lot of listening, and the bird we heard was indeed the warbler." !!!! So we dug out the iPhone recording we had made and studied it more carefully. And indeed, the call we recorded does match the warbler in question! We had been literally carrying around the recording for over a month, and didn't bother to ever study it. Bad birders! But, +1 to the list [happy face], and a big thanks to the gal from San Antonio! Maybe we'll actually get to SEE the bird next time!
So, we're still at 692 for the year, but with these kinds of changes still possible, we'll wait a few more weeks before declaring the number final.
Stay tuned for that wrap-up!
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