Every year I make goals at the top of the year and they’re all boring: I tell myself all the ways I need to eat right; the exercise I need to do; the amount and kinds of work I want to book; the money I want to save. This year my biggest goal was to pay off my student loans, which in practice means my goal was to just not spend most of every paycheck. (I did it, by the way; I paid those suckers off so hard.) This January, facing down a page of exceedingly tiring and responsible goals, I decided “I need a fun one.” I polled some friends for joyous and easy goal ideas and a surprising number of people recommended birding. Thus, with no camera, no binoculars, and no experience, I set myself a goal to spot 50 bird species over the course of the year. I ended up seeing and photography 155.
It turns out birding is SO FUN. It’s a great way to explore a new place. It’s a lovely start to a morning that sets the tone for a bright and sparkling day. It’s essentially free (now that I own a camera), and it’s surprisingly social. I’m now convinced that everyone should do it. Since this is the year where I got all the low-hanging-fruit birds for the first time, this may be the bird-iest year I ever have (or at least the bird-iest year I have until I take some vacations to jungles). To celebrate, below is a little journal of my Big Bird Year. May it be the beginning of a lifetime of the same.
January
A strong start to the year! I wanted my first bird to be a pigeon and that’s what I got, plus some other accidental spots early in the month (house sparrow, cardinal). Later in the month I took myself on a walk through central park to find ducks, and ducks I certainly did find. It was cold, but January really surprised me with how easy it was to find new birds. The pictures for this month (and the next few months) are largely actually from later outings, after I had gotten a nice camera.
First Outing - Just Outside the Door!
- Rock Pigeon
- House Sparrow
Central Park
- Northern Cardinal
- American Robin
- Tufted Titmouse
- Great Blue Heron
- Ring-billed Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Hooded Merganser
- Bufflehead
- Mallard
- Wood Duck
- Canada Goose
February
February was a busy month with surprise travel to Nebraska to attend my partner’s father’s funeral. There was not much moving in the trees in Nebraska, but I saw a few new birds while we were there, including wild turkeys as they crossed the road (which I required us to stop the car for me to capture awful photos of with only my phone).
Nebraska
- Eurasian Collared-Dove
- Wild Turkey
- European Starling
March
My partner found a famous birding tour leader in central park for me this month so I got quite a few new birds and I got to learn from other birders for the first time. I learned that I really liked birding with a knowledgeable group, because being able to ask identification questions to old-ladies-who-have-memorized-all-birds is great fun. Also, I got my first relatively rare bird, the American Woodcock, thanks to a friend from work. It was fun to see something that felt almost like a secret!
Central Park
- Pine Warbler
- Common Grackle
- White-throated Sparrow
- Fox Sparrow
- American Goldfinch
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Downy Woodpecker (Eastern)
- Red-tailed Hawk
Bryant Park
- American Woodcock
District of Columbia
- Double-crested Cormorant
Hilton Head Island Beach
- Laughing Gull
April
This was the month that really got me hooked. I had a work trip to Hilton Head get cancelled after I had already arrived in town, and finding myself with no deposition to take I stumbled upon (literally accidentally ran into) a birding tour, and then found my way to a second tour that took me to wading-bird nesting season. It was incredible. I realized I was loving this birding stuff, and wanted my own camera to get more zoom and thus clearer pictures.
Audubon Newhall Preserve
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Eastern Towhee
- Gray Catbird
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Carolina Chickadee
- American Crow
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Willet
Pinckney Island Ibis Pond
- Yellow-throated Warbler
- Palm Warbler
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Eastern Bluebird
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Great Egret
- Green Heron
- Snowy Egret
- Tricolored Heron
- Little Blue Heron
- Black-crowned Night Heron
- White Ibis
- Anhinga
- Pied-billed Grebe
- American Coot
- Common Gallinule
- Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Prospect Park
- Osprey
May
I returned to Birding Bob’s tour again this month but had a bit less fun, as there were fewer birds out and the group was less lively.
West Side Highway
- Brant
- Gadwall
Central Park
- Northern Yellow Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Baltimore Oriole
- Blue Jay
- Eastern Kingbird
June
A trip to DC to bird with friends and try out my brand new camera was an absolutely blast, and then in England I got to experience birding truly alone in a completely unknown area for the first time and I loved it. Wandering the Hampstead Heath outside of London and listening to all new bird calls in the morning air was beautiful.
West Side Highway
- Song Sparrow
District of Columbia
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Bald Eagle
- Indigo Bunting
- Common Yellowthroat
- Barn Swallow
- Acadian Flycatcher
- Belted Kingfisher
England
- Eurasian Blackbird
- Rose-ringed Parakeet
- Common Wood-Pigeon (White-necked)
- Eurasian Coot
- European Robin
- Common Chiffchaff
- Great Tit
- Carrion Crow
- Eurasian Magpie
- Eurasian Jay
- Gray Heron
- Eurasian Moorhen
- Stock Dove
- Tufted Duck
July
July gave me the end of my trip to England, as well as a very low-bird trip to Greece. The only reason I got a new bird on Chios was because we camped out across from a nest for an hour, and the only reason we did that is because we completely accidentally chose a table at a beachside taverna that had a nest built into the corner of it.
England
- Common Pochard
- Egyptian Goose
- Mute Swan
- Graylag Goose
- European Goldfinch
- Eurasian Blue Tit
- Great Crested Grebe
Chios
- Western House-Martin
August
A trip upstate for a cabin weekend for my partner’s birthday got me a few new birds and a walk through a meadow at sunrise so stunningly serene that I lost my breath. I cannot overstate the impact this meadow had on me.
Upstate New York
- Chipping Sparrow
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Carolina Wren
- Cedar Waxwing
September
For Labor Day weekend I went to Chicago with my dad to get two new baseball stadiums, and I took him out birding while we were there. Then, back home later in the month I got to do some fall migration birding with friends MUCH more experienced than myself, and it was so fun to see all the passing-through warblers, plus get perhaps my first truly good pictures with my new camera: the hummingbirds.
Chicago
- Cooper's Hawk
- American Herring Gull
- Sanderling
- Semipalmated Plover
Prospect Park
- American Black Duck
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Northern Waterthrush
- Black-and-white Warbler
- American Redstart
- Northern Parula
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
October
For e-bird’s fall Big Day I went out to the very tip of Long Island looking for shorebirds. We didn’t see a ton, but the black-bellied plovers we did get were uncommon, so that felt pretty cool. I did some more fall-migration birding with a Prospect Park group later in the month and got a good number of birds but didn’t love the leader’s energy (he did not feel very approachable, seemed to reject photo-identification, and used scientific taxonomy instead of common terms, which was difficult to follow).
Orient, Long Island
- Black-bellied Plover
- Killdeer
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Savannah Sparrow
Prospect Park
- Northern Shoveler
- Eastern Phoebe
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Hermit Thrush
- Swamp Sparrow
- Black-throated Green Warbler
November
Rounding out the end of the year as it started, I went out with friends looking for ducks at the onset of winter and indeed found some new ones. My Thanksgiving trip home to Texas also landed me a couple new names, though it was unseasonably cold there so I did not get a ton.
Central Park
- Green-winged Teal
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Ruddy Duck
- Dark-eyed Junco
Texas
- Northern Flicker
- American Wigeon
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
December
What a finish. 30 new birds in a single week. Hawaii was overwhelming with new things to see, and it has made me really consider if I should plan a true birding trip in the future, because man it was so fun. This trip also really drove home for me how much birding has made me more confident and courageous as a person: on Christmas I drove over an hour before sunset in a rental car to a trail in the middle of nowhere, which I hiked alone to look for endemic birds. And it was worth it. It wasn’t just worth it, it was exhilarating (that’s where I saw the akiapolaau, which there are fewer than 1,800 of in the wild!) At the beginning of the year I don’t think I ever would have gone out on such a limb, but I love that I did, and I can’t wait to do so more.
Kapiolani Park
- Red-crested Cardinal
- Yellow-fronted Canary
- House Finch
- Common Waxbill
- Java Sparrow
- Common Myna
- Warbling White-eye
- Red-vented Bulbul
- Red-whiskered Bulbil
- Western Cattle-Egret
- Pacific Golden-Plover
- Zebra Dove
- Spotted Dove
- Red Junglefowl
Ka’ena Point
- Scaly-breasted Munia
- Laysan Albatross
- Wandering Tattler
Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refugge
- Saffron Finch
- Black-necked Stilt
- Hawaiian Coot
Waimea Falls
- White-rumped Shama
Outrigger Kona
- Yellow-billed Cardinal
Pu’u O’o Trial
- Hawaii Amakihi
- Akiapolaau
- Iiwi
- Apapane
- Omao
- Hawaii Elepaio
Devastation Trail
- Nene
Ala Wai Promenade
- Blue-billed White-Tern