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ABA Big Year 2018 (1 Viewer)

trptjoe

Well-known member
Yes, folks, the game is afoot!
Nicole Koeltzow likely hit 600 today, and Gaylee & Richard Dean are back for another try! They're just over 500 as of today, and they certainly learned a lot last year. I'm in the process of entering the species into my spreadsheets, and I'll post them here as I get them finished.

Happy New Year!

Joe
 
Excellent.

And many thanks for the updates and hard work you put into these threads trptjoe - much appreciated by many. :t::t::t::t::t:B :)
 
Joe

Superb. In your opinion, is this a serious tilt now Hawaii is settled to set a new record?

It will be a couple of days before I can look at the detail and form a view of that question myself.

All the best and echo our thanks
 
I haven't heard that any of them plan to include Hawaii. I also haven't heard that they don't. All three were on a repositioning cruise in the Pacific Northwest, and they cleaned up.
Nicole: 611
Gaylee & Richard Dean: 546

eBird shows Nicole with one more bird as she has one exotic parakeet on her eBird list. Whenever you look at her number in eBird, simply subtract one.
Unlike last year the Deans have exactly the same list.

Joe
 

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Hi folks, hope you don't mind me joining in; Joe asked if I had any thoughts about the affect of the Big Island volcanic activity upon birders now and into the future. I'm no expert, but can point out that that the good news is that Mt Kilauea is way south of the remaining strongholds for native birds. I hope that the only constraint the eruptions will place on birding will be increased traffic at the airport (amazing outdoor structure that I loved, until Feb this year when sideways rain made delayed flights a real ordeal). On that trip I visited Hakalau Forest, and saw all of the endemics. I suspect that the Big Island birds are in better shape for seeing out another few decades than is the case on the other islands - at least Kauai, where disease carrying mosquitos seem to be gradually expanding their range to higher elevations, having all but squeezed the three specialty birds off the top of the ranges and into oblivion.

Regards, John Weigel
 
so do any of these folks have blogs or anything to follow, or are you getting this information via personal communication?
 
I get occasional emails from Gaylee and Nicole, but all three have graciously allowed me access to their eBird accounts. It's easier on them as they're awfully busy, and I provide a cross-check to make sure that nothing's been left out. I did the same for some of them last year and I was able to find species that hadn't yet been entered into eBird.

Joe
 
Thanks for the updates, Joe. I stumbled upon this thread around September last year, and then followed Yve's blog after that as well. As a relatively new birder who knew little of big years outside of the movie, it was really exciting to follow your updates. It motivated me to follow David Sarkozi's 2017 Texas Big Year too, in addition to getting out more myself. As I'm sure you all are aware of, it becomes a bit of an obsession. It isn't always easy to find people who share that passion, especially as a young(er) birder.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Update as of today:
Nicole 619
Gaylee & Richard: 566, having added Winter Wren and Saw-whet Owl on their very successful Kirkland's trip.

Dan Gesualdo is putting together a fine year, too, but I don't know anything more than what I see in his eBird tally.

Joe
 
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Nicole is on Attu, where they’re doing quite well. She hasn’t entered things into eBird as yet, but I saw a partial list; she may be closing in on 650 at this point.
Husonian Godwit gets the Deans to 567.

Joe
 
Nicole is at 653. Update attached.
The Deans have not updated their eBird lists since heading to Alaska, so we're eagerly awaiting those, too. They were at 570 when they left for the North.

Joe
 

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Post-Alaska update for all three:
Nicole is at 664 and the Deans are at 615.

Joe
 

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Okay, the game has another player! Dan Gesualdo is doing a Lower-48 Big Year; he's at 597. He was nice enough to fill in the blanks in the By Code list so all I had to do was some formatting. I finished plugging him into the other sheet, so both are here. Welcome, Dan!

Here 'tis!

Joe
 

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Today's update: 675 for Nicole; 624 for the Deans. Other than Nicole getting the Kirkland's they've all been cleaning up Code 1 species.
Three different types of Big Years this year:
Nicole is planning to go to Hawaii in October
The Deans are attempting to be the first birders to hit 700 in consecutive years; no Hawaii plans for them so far.
Dan is doing the Lower 48.

Joe
 
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