CONTENTS Get Ready to Rally! CALLING ALL BIRDERS! Join us this fall for the first-ever ABA Birding Rally! Based at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we’ve designed a program that will be packed Contents with fun and great birding, with plenty of chances to socialize with friends old and new. Come join your ABA 2011 ABA Big Day Report . .2 leaders as they team up with local birders to tally some Explanation of Terms . .2 great birds and great times at one of the premier 2011 Canadian Big Days . .4 migration spots on the east coast. 2011 U.S. Big Days . .8 Champion Top 10 Big Days . .17 Additional information found on page 15 Provincial and State and online at aba.org/events/rally12. Record Big Days by Month . .26 ––––––– 2011 ABA List Report . .28 Life List Totals . .29 October 17-21, 2012 Areas . .29 Regions . .42 Other . .50 Cape Charles,Virginia United States . .53 Canada . .65 REGISTER TODAY! LIMITED AVAILABILITY. 2011 Annual List Totals . .66 PHOTOS © GEORGE ARMISTEAD ABA Listing Rules and Interpretations . .69 Description of ABA Listing Categories . .71 ABA Code of Birding Ethics . .Cover 3 Map of ABA Listing Regions . .Cover 4 ––––––– Staff Editor • Greg Neise Reviewers • Ted Floyd, Jeff Gordon, David Hartley, Tony White Graphic Design • James Harris Data Entry • Eric Eaton Database Management • David Hartley, Greg Neise Advertising • Ken Barron Thresholds • Tony White ––––––– Cover photo courtesy of John Vanderpoel. ––––––– This publication is funded through membership subscriptions, specific donations from members (whose names are printed in bold in the list reports), and advertising. Copyright ©2012 American Birding Association 1618 West Colorado Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80904 PHOTO © DEREK STONER, ABA MEMBER (719) 578-9703 • fax (719) 578-1480 [email protected] • www.aba.org 2011 ABA Big Day Report & ABA List Report | 1 THE 2011 BIG DAY REPORT Big day birding is infectious. Once you get it in If you’ve ever tried to get a birding companion on you had a 95% or better chance of seeing along your blood, it stays there and resurfaces when a warbler at the top of a tall tree, you know it your route at that time of year (i.e., you expect you start “thinking things”. You go out for a can be difficult. Now get 3 team members on to see the species on at least 19 attempts out of “normal” day of birding, and find a location that bird, with the clock ticking, and get all three 20), but which you inexplicably missed. with a bunch of hard-to-get breeding birds in to agree on your identification of the bird! close proximity, for example. The next thing you My most memorable days in the field have Target Totals: To compare the relative result of know, you’re putting together a team and a been big days… that “magic” day, when the each individual count, a TARGET TOTAL (TT) for plan. In the past 18 months, I’ve completed 18 birds drip from the trees and everything lines up each province and state is calculated. The TT is big days, and have 6 more already planned. Like just so. The thrill of the last hour, scrambling for the average of the top three counts for a given I said, it gets in your blood. just a few more, and then the “woulda, shoulda region, up until the end of the previous year. The planning and execution takes time, pa- coulda” conversation that inevitably follows. They can be found in the Champion Big Day tience, skill and a healthy dose of luck. 2011 Spend some time with the accounts in this re- summary tables. TTs are not calculated for saw the convergence of those factors on sev- port, and you may soon find yourself calling your counts that are intrinsically uncompetitive due eral days, resulting in several new records. First birding buddies and making plans of your own. to imposed restrictions (single-county, walking, was the team of Jessie Barry, Andrew etc); that take place outside the “ideal” time of Farnsworth, Marshall Iliff, Tim Lenz, Brian Sulli- Greg Neise, Editor year; or whose Grand Total is less than 75% of van, and Chris Wood, who set a new ABA-area the TT. record (and Texas state record) of 264, on April –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 22. The 24-hour effort took them across 750 HOUSEKEEPING Abbreviations: miles of Texas, and produced a day-list with an Per ABA Big Day rules, certain information is re- CA – Conservation Area amazing array of species. Elf Owl and Hooded quired of Big Day submissions for acceptance Co – County Warbler. Yellow-throated and Hutton’s Vireos. and publishing. Please remember to completely CP – County Park Not exactly species you might expect to see on fill out each Big Day form, including mileage, Mtn – Mountain the same day. starting and ending times, locations visited, and NF – National Forest A little over a month later, Tom Hince and importance codes for species of note. Incom- NP – National Park Paul Pratt would run their third Alberta big day plete, inaccurate information or failure to com- NWR – National Wildlife Refuge in three years, attempting to set a new record ply with the 95% rule may result in the decision PP – Provincial Park for Canada. Their effort had them coursing to not recognize the record. Pt – Point nearly 700 miles of Canadian wilderness, and Res – Reservoir like the Texas big day, produced a fantastic day- Explanation of Terms SF – State Forest list including disparate species like White- Species of Note: A Species of Note is either one SL – Sewage Lagoon/Pond/Plant winged Crossbill, Sabine’s Gull, Black-necked that you didn’t expect to get but did, or one that SP – State Park Stilt and Black-crowned Night Heron. At the end you counted on but failed to see. SWA – State Wildlife Area of that long day—after double and triple-check- In the former category are birds you considered WMA – Wildlife Management Area ing their total—they recorded 218 species, in- you had virtually no chance of seeing during WR – Wildlife Refuge/Area/Sanctuary deed, setting a new big day record for Canada. your Big Day. A Vagrant (V) is any species WTP – Water Treatment Plant Also in Canada, on May 18, the team of Richard which occurs less than annually in the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Cannings, Peter Davidson and Nathan Hentze state, province, or country of your Big Day; 2011 Big Day Contender’s Table set a new record for British Columbia with a a Rare (R) species is less than annual –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– total of 202 species. along your chosen route, but may be more % 2011 Target Total >95% The lower 48 saw some new high numbers common elsewhere in your state, Listed in Descending Order as well: 185, a new record for Florida, was set province, or country; an Early (E) or Late –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Area Date Total Pct. TT Rank by the team of Andy Bankert and David Simpson (L) species is one that is Rare due to being –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– on April 19. On May 24, D. Lambeth, C. Merkord unusually tardy or early. An (S) in the ac- HI 28-Mar 63 104.4 1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– and S. Rossiter came in with a day-list of 168 counts indicates that the rarity or vagrant FL 19-Apr 185 103.3 2 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– species, setting a new state record for North had been Staked Out prior to the Big ND 24-May 168 103 3 Dakota. Beyond the contiguous United States, Day. A (#) indicates an unusually high –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– AB 4-Jun 210 102 4 Lance Tanino and Kurt Pohlman set a new sin- number of any particular species. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– gle-island record for Hawaii—63 species—bird- In the latter category are birds that you BC 18-May 202 101.8 5 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ing O’ahu, on March 28. consider virtually guaranteed, such that TX 22-Apr 264 101.3 6 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Big days are a lot of work, and let’s be seri- you did not specifically plan for them on ON 21-May 194 98.9 7 ous, stressful. But they are so worth the effort. your Big Day. These are Code 2 birds (no –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– AB 4-Jun 210 98.3 8 The teamwork required to comply with the 95% one should ever miss a Code 1 bird). More –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CO 4-Jun 182 97 9 rule is challenging, but makes you a better birder. quantitatively, a Big Miss (M) is a species –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 2 | 2011 ABA Big Day Report & ABA List Report 2011 ABA Big Day Report & ABA List Report | 3 2011 CANADIAN BIG DAYS ALBERTA #1 – 1 June 11 – Species totals: 218/216. (Team/shared). Tom Hince (217) We figured on needing at least 21 species of shorebirds to have a good shot at the Paul Pratt (217). Kilometers by Car: 1100 km. Kilometers by Foot: 2 km. Visiting: record. The way we were going that would be impossible. While scouting we had found Cold Lake, Jesse Lake, Keehewin Lake, Red Deer River, Taber Lake, Waterton Lake Na- a good back up shorebird site about twenty minutes off our route. We didn’t have twenty tional Park. Species of Note: Pacific Loon (R), Sabine’s Gull (R), Greater White-fronted minutes to spare, but with our shorebird count on vapor, we opted to try it. The tension Goose (L). built as we drove down the sandy oil access track we had permission to drive. Would Comments: This was the third year in a row of running a big day in the province of the shorebirds be gone? Our first scan produced only a few shimmering specks on the Alberta.