10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

in the nearly two years since I’ve been here I’ve been steadily climbing towards 200, a fair goal for a county in the center of North Carolina. It is my goal to track down species for my Piedmont eBird Challenge team, and county birds are secondary, but they come in twos. Missing no more.

2016 141

2016 North Carolina 2015 Raleigh 141

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Every part of the world has it’s suite of parking lot staples, those urbanish species that seem to prefer to linger about humanity subsisting in no small amount to the magnanimity, or more likely the laziness, of humankind. Here in the non-Floridian Southeast we have sparrows and starlings and pigeons.

North Carolina 189

North Carolina Fast Food Sparrows Birds 189

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

There was a time when I thought each bird species had its own individual song. Then I found out that there was this vocalization called a ‘call,’ so I thought each bird species had its own individual song (but just the males) and individual call. There’s more than one song per warbler? How do they know?

North America 279

North America Research Birds Groups 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

As of mid-October 2018, the Collaborative had submitted more than 1,700 checklists and observed 618 species in the United States. The heat map is revealing: Unsurprisingly for a site founded and run by two New Yorkers (one of whom literally wrote the book on birding New York), the Empire State boasts the highest number of species (316).

Rhode Island 114

Rhode Island United States West Virginia Puerto Rico 114

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2013

On a Big Year, every species counts equally, even the lowly House Sparrow. Ali Iyoob is looking to break the North Carolina Big Year record of 351 this year. As of my writing this he is off to a roaring start with 169 species recorded already. That would be more species than are on his life list!

2013 204

2013 New Jersey Los Angeles North Carolina 204

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

On Saturday, 28 January, while I was at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, Doug Gochfeld and I made our way to central Florida for most of a day’s birding, looking for the specialty species of that region. One target species down, though barely, and one to go!

Wildlife 161

Wildlife North Carolina Woodpeckers Florida 161

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2016

And this brings us to Zonotrichia albicollis , the White-Throated Sparrow. From a recent article in Nature , “This bird acts like it has four sexes,” says Christopher Balakrishnan, an evolutionary biologist at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, who worked with Tuttle and Gonser.

Rats 107

Rats Sparrows Birds North Carolina 107

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2011

There was a time, a few years back, when I had some really good luck getting on a run of first state records for North Carolina. Fortunately for me, most of the recent new additions to the North Carolina list have been birds that have stuck around long enough for masses of state birders to get on.

North Carolina 154

North Carolina Sparrows 2008 Hunters 154

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

White-crowned Sparrow. The road was lined with scrub and short trees, and I spotted not one but two new sparrow species. White-crowned Sparrows are possible winter sightings where I live in North Carolina, but not at all common, while Savannah Sparrows has been one of my nemesis birds for quite some time.

Seals 191

Seals Elephants Whales Whaling 191

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

For many birders it may be hard to believe that I could have seen 399 species of birds in North America and none of them had been a Peregrine Falcon, but it’s just one of the strange ways birding plays out. This year Pine Siskins have been present in not overwhelming numbers across the Piedmont of North Carolina.

North Carolina 198

North Carolina Falcons Florida Birds 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2015

I hoped to see warblers, warblers, warblers, plus classic northeastern species I had had no opportunity to look for while living in North Carolina. It is a known birding hotspot, hosting sub-boreal species as well as rare birds, like the Black-backed Woodpecker. Still, it was my first Ruffed Grouse of the year.

Birds 159

Birds North Carolina North America Woodpeckers 159

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 26, 2018

The return home included a total of 5 ½ hours of flight delays, one missed flight, and we subsequently missed the entire town of Charlotte, North Carolina. We also got an extra stop in Dallas, Texas (Hey wasn’t I just here) but again no birds could be added, unless I count the House Sparrow flying around inside the terminal.

Bahamas 128

Bahamas Costa Rica Abandon Abandoning 128

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

Both Pine Warbler and Prairie Warbler were breeding in the pines for sure, with the former’s trilling song in hearing at the same time as that of the Chipping Sparrow , which was good practice for my ears. Seaside Sparrows were incredibly abundant in the saltmarsh west of Gordon Pond.

Delaware 177

Delaware New York Birds North Carolina 177

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2013

Got to finish browsing for the fawns and collecting chiggers,” wrote Becky, from an island off North Carolina. That more rehab centers would accept non-natives, like pigeons house sparrows, and starlings,” wrote Charis in Oregon. Why is there no state or federal money available to care for federally protected species?

Wildlife 250

Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Oklahoma New York 250

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The first, the much caricatured hard-nosed lister who stops at nothing to get just one more bird, and the second, the deep-patch birder who just wants to hang around the common species. That regular common species are ignored? Both of these opposite ends of the birder spectrum combine effortlessly in the county birder. State tick!

McDonalds 168

McDonalds South Carolina North Carolina Jordan 168

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2013

We soon figured out the place for Barred Owls, for Harris’s Sparrows and Brewer’s Blackbirds and all sorts of semi-rare birds that we were solely responsible for bringing to the count list at the end of the day. I’m living and birding in North Carolina. We all knew that area well, and were rewarded for it.

North Carolina 161

North Carolina Missouri Blackbirds Sparrows 161

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2011

Many winter in Florida, admittedly something of a freak state when it comes to overwintering passerines, but a few Orioles can be found up the coast as far north as North Carolina, and the odd bird finds its way into the Piedmont, the part of the state, well inland mind you, where I live. But how does the apply to Orioles?

North Carolina 140

North Carolina 2011 St. Louis Baltimore 140

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2012

You can argue that large waders of Florida are flashier or that the secretive Bachman’s Sparrow elicit more respect, and sure, Pine Warblers nest as far north as southern Canada so how can they really be southeastern, but if you raise these points I think you fail to realize how truly prolific Pine Warblers are in the south.

North Carolina 145

North Carolina Jordan Raised North America 145

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2018

Moth plates from Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America (left plate) and Southeastern North America (two right plates). There are over 11,000 species of moths in North America. I have a hard enough time with the 1,103 bird species on the ABA Checklist. Let that sink in.

North America 100

North America America Oklahoma Missouri 100