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

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  

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

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