First Day

One of the exciting things about doing another Big Year is that I have to try to see all the exciting birds I have seen in the past again, and have to find some new birds as well.  Below is the list of birds (with first sighting location) from the first day of my year:

1. Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) - Gunflint Lake, MN
2. Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) - Gunflint Lake, MN

3. Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) - Gunflint Lake, MN

4. White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) - Gunflint Lake, MN

5. Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - Gunflint Lake, MN
6. Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) - Gunflint Lake, MN
7. Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) - Gunflint Lake, MN

8. Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) - Gunflint Lake, MN

9. Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) - Gunflint Lake, MN
10. American Crow (Corvus Brachyrhynchos) - Gunflint Lake, MN
11. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) - Gunflint Lake, MN

12. Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) - Ham Lake, Cook County, MN

13. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) - Ham Lake, Cook County, MN
14. Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) - Ham Lake, Cook County, MN
15. Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) - Ham Lake, MN
16. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) - Gunflint Lake, MN
17. White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) - Gunflint Lake, MN

18. Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) - Gunflint Lake, MN

19. Chestnut-sided Warbler (Dendroica pensylvanica) - Gunflint Lake, MN

20. Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) - Gunflint Lake, MN

21. Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) - Lonely Lake, MN

22. Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) - Gunflint Lake, MN

23. American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea) - Gunflint Lake, MN
24. Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Gunflint Lake, MN

All the birds above were spotted on the first day of my Big Year (April 30, 2017).  I hiked over 10 miles that day to get a good start.  It would be great if every day I could spot that many species!

Big Year

As a year-long celebration of my decade and a half as a Naturalist in Cook County, Minnesota, I have started a birding Big Year.  The Big Year is done by birders around the world.  Participants pick out a geographical area, and find as many bird species as they can in one year.  Some of the options are: Earth, North America, the Continental United States, one state, one county, or your backyard.  I am going to do a ten-mile radius around myself.  If I am already going somewhere, I bird along the way.  A few years ago, I did another Big Year (April 2014 - April 2015).  I was much more of a novice birder at the time, but was still able to see a lot of species.  My goal this time is to beat my old record, learn a lot about birding, and add several new bird species to my life list.

This blog is starting out as a way for me to chronicle my birding adventures over the next year, and into the future as well.  I'll post the types of birds I run across as well as photos of many of the birds I see.  Day one of my Big Year was April 30, 2017, and the year will end on April 29, 2018.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)