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Up to 391, with Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow and Seaside Sparrow over the weekend in Mississippi. Also bumped my Bigby list up to 195 with a bike ride to Lake Sequoyah last week, producing among others an American White Pelican, a species I wasn't counting on. Whee!
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I didn't bird outside central Honshu at all this year, and with the last month winding to a close, I doubt I'll add anything more to 2008, which now stands at 188 species.
This year's highlights: Chinese Egret, Hodgson's Hawk-Eagle, Japanese Quail, Lesser Yellowlegs and Asiatic Dowitcher. After almost 20 years here, all were firsts for my Japan list.
I'm making semi-plans to hopefully get at least merlin, hen harrier, whooper swan and water rail before the end of the year, but if I don't I may end it on my current total of 166. Seeing as my year's taget was 150 I'm happy with that...
I've set myself a target of 200 in 2009! Will I rise to the challenge?!
Yesterday I participated in the third annual Goose Pond Christmas Bird Count not too far from here. In addition to all the great species I saw, I added two regionally rare birds to my Year List, which is now up to 770.
We have a christamas bird count coming up Jan 3, so none of those birds will help, so I came in somewhere just under 210. But there were some lifers this year so life list is around 320.
We had our Saint Joseph Christmas Bird Count (CBC) yesterday, the 20th. My group got the Prairie Falcon for a "good" bird of the day. That, however, was not a "year bird". I was able to add a "new" year bird (not a new species), a Northern Flicker! What is so special about a Northern Flicker you might ask? Well, it was the "red-shafted" variety, not the normal "yellow-shafted" which is the usual one we get here in Missouri.
This Red-shafted, Northern Flicker was the first one I had seen this year in Missouri!
My 2008 Year List for Trinidad wrapped up with an outing in the Nariva Swamp where our target and the last bird of the day, White-tailed Hawk, became #271.
In post # 614 I said unless I see a Snowy Owl, Snow Bunting or some such thing I would probably not add any new year birds for Missouri in 2008.
Well, my wife, Brenda, and I drove down to Smithville Lake, Smithville, Missouri, to look for the reported Snowy Owl there. Lo and behold, we did find it after looking for only about 15 minutes! It appears to be a first year female bird. It almost looks black with the massive black barring on all the feathers except the face!
* I decided to count the Red-shafted, Northern Flicker as # 254 (even though it is considered to be the same species as the Yellow-shafted). So, it looks like my total for Missouri for 2008 is going to be 255.
Just before Christmas we spent 6 days in the Marathon / Big Bend area of Texas. I missed several hoped-for birds but added 30 species (including 5 lifers) to my year list:
Am now on 775 after a trip to The Gambia last month plus a last few in the UK, my last bird of the year (probably!) being Waxwing (23 birds) on Boxing Day!
I've also made it to the 1000 life species mark this year (now on 1020), my 1000th species was African Emerald Cuckoo in The Gambia.
I got an unexpected "year bird" for Missouri this morning at the Saint Joseph Stockyards, Saint Joseph, Missouri. My bird was in with a small flock of Eurasian Collared-Doves which were perched in a small, leafless, deciduous tree in the stockyards area.