2017 Year in Review

Warning "number-nerd" stuff ahead.  Going to do a review of my year, the year for Calhoun County and some updates to the data I use from the 8 county South-Central Michigan area from eBird (Branch, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Barry, Eaton, Jackson, Hillsdale and Calhoun).  

My goal for the year was to get to 230 birds for lifelist for Calhoun.  I managed to do this with the help of an armchair add, and 8 other new birds found this year.  The 9 new birds I added to my list were.

• Buff-breasted Sandpiper on April 16th
• Caspian Tern on April 30th
• Long-billed Dowitcher on April 30th
• Marsh Wren on May 10th (heard only)
• Orchard Oriole on May 13th
• Cerulean Warbler on May 13th
• White-eyed Vireo on June 27th (heard only)
• Black Scoter on Dec 2nd
• Iceland Gull on Dec 20th 2014 (armchair find and a first for the 8 county area)

The first 3 were all found on the same spot on O DR N in a flooded farm field that Dr. Dale Kennedy first located.  Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Black Scoter were firsts for the County.  As far as potential County lifers I missed out on last year:

• Common Redpoll
• Golden-winged Warbler
• Connecticut Warbler
• Hooded Warbler (my new nemesis)
• Northern Mockingbird
• Ruffed Grouse
• Least Bittern

Too many birds to list that I just never chased that prevented me from hitting 200 for the year.  Ended at 199, which gives me a 4 year average of 198 over that time period.  As for more numbers I had two new highs for months this year:

• April with 126 birds (6 more than previous high)
• July with 100 birds (16 more than the previous high)

I had 4 new high days and another that tied my high days for month:

• April - 79 on 4/28 (11 higher than previous)
• May - 81 on 5/13 (7 higher than previous, and all-time high for me)
• July - 71 on 7/2 (8 higher than previous)
• November - 62 on 11/6 (11 higher than previous)
• December - 42 on 12/2 (tied with previous)

35 birds I go new Earlies dates in 2017, not including the 8 new birds for 2017.  38 birds with new late dates in 2017, not including the 8 new birds for 2017.  

Calhoun County had its best eBird year yet with 218 birds reported, 2 more than last year.  There were 3 County firsts added over the past year, including the Iceland Gull.  I now have the overall list at 274 birds (I think I need to take out Blue Grosbeak and add Passenger Pigeon based on some information I found today).  There have been some historical records added to get eBird to 255 birds listed though.  So a good year for Calhoun overall.  

For data for my area there were 8 new birds added to the eBird data, to bring the total for this area to 309 species.  I know the number should be much higher as Kalamazoo Nature Center has over 330 for Kalamazoo alone, but I'm just going off eBird data.  Birds added to the dataset:

• Swainson's Hawk - added to Eaton County from 1991
• Red Knot - added to Eaton County in 2017
• Bewick's Wren - added to Jackson County from 1922 and 1923
• Virginia's Warbler - added to Kalamazoo County from 2006
• Le Conte's Sparrow - added to Jackson County from 2012
• Nelson's Sparrow - added to Hillsdale County from 2017
• Pine Grosbeak - added to Jackson County from 1921
• Iceland Gull - added to Calhoun County from 2014

75 birds changed Code from last year, 20 down a code (most from Code 2 to Code 1), 50 move up by 1 Code, and 5 moved up by 2 codes:

• Forster's Tern - from Code 2 to Code 4
• Least Bittern - from Code 3 to Code 5
• Northern Saw-whet Owl - from Code 3 to Code 5
• Surf Scoter - from Code 3 to Code 5
• Red Crossbill - from Code 3 to Code 5

I think I've about needed this post up enough.  Overall it was a very good year for the County, and for the area.  Looking ahead to the rest of 2018 I don't have any real goals to shoot for.  I think reasonably I can try to shoot for adding 5 additional birds to the lifelist.  I hit on 8, and dipped on 7 so it shouldn't be an impossible task.  Another goal I have is to try to see daylight each day so I have a chance to submit a checklist a day.  The temptation is always there to expand my birding area though.  I am sitting at 294 for ABA official (Indian Peafowl isn't on the checklist yet), so I could easily hit 300 this year if I expanded my birding to a greater area.