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Year in Review

Back at home I checked my 2023 list totals on a spreadsheet on my laptop. I had missed a few species. My total was 891 species for the USA and Territories, 9 species short of my goal of 900. I noticed that my World life list in eBird had increased by 111 species. Eleven of these I had seen previously but had never been included on any checklist I submitted to eBird before 2023. So 100 species were true life birds for me. I assessed the value added by visiting each of the outlying regions beyond the Lower 48 states (see Table 1). All the regions were valuable. Within the lower 48 states, I visited Texas the most (7 times) followed by Florida (6 times), California (5 times) and Arizona (4 times). Table 1. Value added (in terms of year birds and life birds) among the outlying regions visited in 2023.  Region     Birding Days Year-Birds Life-Birds  Alaska              14                  34            11  Hawaii             17                  57            17 Puerto Rico     16  
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Last Stand in Texas

With three days to go in the ABA Area Big Year competition, I was still in fourth place, and still six birds behind Gino Ellison who was still picking up species in Arizona and California. Nonetheless I would try to maximize my species number, and photograph species that I had not yet photographed. There were four vagrants on winter territories in the lower Rio Grande Valley that I needed to see for my year list: Gray-collared Becard in Brownsville, Crimson-collared Grosbeak in Weslaco, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and Mottled Owl at Santa Margarita Ranch near Roma, Texas. My friend EJ Raynor was already in Brownsville when I arrived in San Antonio close to 1 AM on Friday, December 29, 2023. I figured I would rent a car at the airport, find a cheap hotel, then drive four hours to Weslaco for the grosbeak and meet EJ in Brownsville at the end of the day. The following evening we had reserved a guided hike at Santa Margarita Ranch in hopes of hearing nocturnal species, including a res
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Racing Towards the Finish Line

As I prepared to return to the US mainland, I checked the eBird standings for ABA Area, ABA Continental and Lower 48 using the Explore tab in eBird.org and then clicking on Top 100 and selecting among the list for Major Regions. Some day I hope to see USA and Territories included in the list of Major Regions but I will have to be patient. While I was vacationing in the South Pacific, Gino Ellison was diligently working on adding new species to his Lower 48 list, and had moved into third place in all three lists by 6 species. David and Tammy McQuade had also increased their ABA area totals and were firmly out of reach, occupying first and second place. I would have to work hard and efficiently to catch Gino, and hope that he had hung up his binoculars for the final week of competition. The number of possible adds for my ABA area list were quite limited. These included 5 species in Texas, 3 species in California, a couple of vagrant waterfowl in the northeast, and one or two pelagic
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The Mariana’s, Day 9 — Guam

We returned to Guam on December 26, 2023, after spending our final night in Saipan in style at the Coral Ocean Resort. We had booked the short flight on a United Airlines jet for about $300 each. Before returning our rental car we drove around to the Saipan airport pond for one last attempt to see the Common Greenshank that had been reported there in recent days. We got excited when a shorebird flew in but it turned out to be Wood Sandpiper, the most common sandpiper wintering on the island. United Airlines’ procedures were slow and cumbersome compared to STAR Marianas airline. And because CNMI and Guam are different countries, we needed to go through customs inspections. So the short flight took up much of the morning. My friend Tom Hall, who had accompanied me in Gambell (Alaska) in June, had worked in Guam years ago and he informed his colleagues there of my Biggest Year project. They recommended that I contact Martin Kastner. I emailed him and he responded with some general gu
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The Mariana’s, Day 6-8 — Rota

[By Nicholas Alexander Komar (Nick Jr.)] We arrived on the island of Rota on December 23rd, 2023. The flight from Saipan took about 30 minutes in a dual-engine jumper plane that fit up to eight passengers (including the pilot). You can really feel the air in a plane that small, which can be troubling considering nothing is in your control. The pilots for S.T.A.R. (Saipan, Tinian, Aguijan, Rota) Marianas Airline have all been young, professional, interesting people. One was a 22-year-old guy from Colorado Springs who studied at the Air Force Academy. Another was a 23-year-old Indian woman who grew up in Maine and had been involved in aviation since she was six years old. I found it fascinating to learn how each of them ended up flying these tiny plans way out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  The birding goal on Rota was to find Mariana Crow, and Rota White-eye. Both critically endangered species endemic to this island. We were given suggestions by locals on how to find both, so
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The Mariana’s, Day 5 — Tinian

  On Friday, December 22, 2023, Nick Jr. and I caught a commuter flight to the island of Tinian, via Star Mariana Airlines.     But first we checked out a couple of spots around the airport on Saipan. The most productive spot was a pond on the golf course at Coral Ocean Resort. Nick Jr. used his charm to convince the resort manager to provide a golf cart free of charge for us to view both ponds on the property. Both ponds have emergent vegetation. The west pond had good birds. Our checklist included Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Garganey (USA and Territories Biggest Year-Bird #869), Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt (870) and Whiskered Tern.   The flight to Tinian was a short 10-minute jaunt in a tiny 4 passenger plane. The pilot was a young man from Colorado. Tinian is a small island but big enough to rent cars at the airport. We rented one and drove to the town harbor where we found Gray-tailed Tattler, a gray mid-sized sandpiper that prefers rocky shoreline. There were few b
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The Mariana’s, Day 4

On Thursday December 21, 2023, Nick Jr. and I returned to the north end of Saipan. It is a small island so we arrived in 20 minutes, just before sunrise. Here we first heard and then saw our target, the Micronesian Megapode, a terrestrial forest bird named for its large feet (Year - Bird number 865).  eBird uses the name Micronesian Scrubfowl. We found a singing Saipan Reed-Warbler (866) near Suicide Cliff.     Then at the nearby landfill we found a good variety of shorebirds at the settling pond: Wood Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper. Eurasian Moorhen was a new Year-Bird     (867). We then birded our way back to the airport at the south end of the island. We were determined to find a better view of the catchment pond. Eventually we found a better viewpoint. We found a Whiskered Tern over the     pond. Not only a year- bird (868) but also a life bird for both of us! We ended our birding day at Garapan Harbor where we located an overwintering Siberian Sand-plover (new
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