Nick Komar’s “Biggest Year” in USA Birding - 2023

This morning I woke up early, grabbed my iPhone, opened the BirdsEye App and clicked on "Nearby". In the "Needs" tab, I saw that there were 9 species needed for my World Year list that were seen by others within 25 miles in the last week. I picked one to look for this morning- the Northern Pygmy-Owl. Clicking on the species name provided checklist locations for Pygmy-owl sightings. The App is informed from eBird checklist submission data so I opened eBird.org and explored recent sightings of Northern Pygmy-owl to learn more about these sightings from comments that the submitter(s) may have included. Based on this research, I headed towards Poudre Canyon, a short drive west of my home in Fort Collins, Colorado. Accompanying me was my wife Maribel and my friend David Wade. After a 30-minute hike up a side canyon in the Roosevelt National Forest, Dave spotted a Northern Pygmy-Owl  (#401) perched in the bare canopy of a massive deciduous tree, perhaps a cottonwood. with

The next big adventure would take me to Northern Minnesota, home to the famous Sax-Zim Bog, a managed Black Spruce and Tamarack and Birch wilderness where Great Gray Owl can be reliably found throughout the year.  In winter, these majestic owls are sometimes joined by Northern Hawk-Owl and Boreal Owl and several other northern species like Pine Grosbeak, Common Redpoll and Boreal Chickadee. I would be joined by Joe Kipper and Kathy Kay on a week-long road trip to see these species and others.  I started the trip with 377 Biggest Year Birds after adding a Northern Goshawk with Greg Osland in Fort Collins on February 17. Kathy picked up Joe and me at 4 AM on Saturday, February 18 driving her Mazda SUV. In the darkness we headed east on Colorado Highway 14 through the Pawnee Grasslands before the sun appeared on the horizon. Our first destination was the sandhills of Logan County in northeast Colorado where Joe had seen several Short-eared Owls in January. We arrived before dawn at a wetl

My Biggest Year tour to Puerto Rico got off to a rocky start due to my delayed arrival. But the instability caused by the delay was easily handled by the experienced guiding skills of Julio Salgado, one of the premier birding talents on the island of Puerto Rico and owner of the local birding business called Puerto Rico Birding Trips. I had set up a 5-day tour designed to find all 18 of the islands endemic bird species as well as an equal number of Caribbean endemic species. Joining me on the tour were Cliff Hendrick and Dana Hiatt of Colorado, James Nealon of New Hampshire and Howard Youth of Washington DC. While these four all had return flights scheduled for 5 days later, I would stay on the island for an extra week in order to celebrate my 32nd wedding anniversary with my wife (Maribel would arrive Feb 1 at the end of the birding tour) and play in a baseball tournament (Men's Adult Baseball League 45+ division Feb 2-5). Birding and baseball have always been my two biggest hobbi

In writing this blog, one of my intentions is to share life lessons as they come along. The date was January 28, 2023. The night before, my friend Cliff Hendrick picked me up at home at 8:30 pm and off we went to Denver International Airport to take the red-eye flight on Frontier Airlines to Orlando, FL en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The weather cooperated; the roads were clear. Everything was set for a smooth start to my third tour of my Biggest Year. The other three tour participants had already arrived in San Juan and our local tour guide Julio Salgado reported that all logistics were ready for a smooth start of the 5-day tour for endemic bird species of Puerto Rico. The start time was 1 PM January 28. Cliff and I were scheduled to arrive from Orlando at 12:15 PM.   Our red-eye arrived on time at about 5 AM. am. The night sky of Orlando brightened as we waited for our 8:20 AM departure. At 8 AM, the gate sign flashed DELAY and soon after, FLIGHT CANCELLED. After claiming baggage