Re: [Maine-birds] Hancock County Big Year!

I truly enjoy birding locally. In my case, that is Mount Desert Island (MDI). For me, birding serves many purposes. Not that I need it, but it is yet another excuse to get outdoors. By contributing my observations to eBird, I get satisfaction through knowing I am contributing helping ornithologists better understand bird populations and distributions. And personally, I enjoy the challenge of trying to best my previous years tally. 

Each year, I set 200 as my magical goal for the number of species I identify on MDI. While I have only achieved it once, in 2013 (that year I smashed my previous best effort by 35 species!), it is something to work toward. The following is my MDI tallies for the past five years:

2010 – 184 species

2011 – 186 species

2012 – 185 species

2013 – 221 species

2014 – 188 species

This year, expanding my local birding quest to include all of Hancock County, I aspire to identify 220 species.

Whether you follow the birds at your feeder, in your neighborhood, your town, your county, or statewide, consider setting yourself a challenge for 2015. Not only is it fun, but it may even help your skill as a birder.

Richard MacDonald

The Natural History Center

6 Firefly Lane

P.O. Box 6

Bar Harbor, Maine 04609

207/801-2617 (store)

207/266-9461 (mobile)

Rich@TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com

www.TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com

www.facebook.com/TheNaturalHistoryCenter

From: Scott Richardson <scott.xot@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, January 4, 2015 at 8:59 AM
To: "maine-birds@googlegroups.com" <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] Re: Hancock County Big Year!

On the Big Year theme I'd add that York County Audubon has just begun its fifth "Quest for 300," a collective effort to find 300 species in the county. It's a just-for-fun goal tracked through eBird, this list, and the grapevine. The 2015 list currently stands at 82. We've made it to 300 once so far:

2015:  82
2014: 284
2013: 278
2012: 301
2011: 295

For those listing fanatics ready and willing to "up their game," I've wondered about a town-by-town challenge, not unlike the "county ticks" displayed by eBird. York County has 29 cities and towns*, most of which get little coverage by birders. Imagine the challenge of totaling all species found in all of them! Would that be a Quest for 3000? 5000? Instead of making the umpteenth trip to Biddeford Pool in hope of finding one rarity, a birder could take a jaunt to the interior and log 50 "new ones" in Limington.

Scott Richardson

* They are: Acton, Alfred, Arundel, Berwick, Biddeford, Buxton, Cornish, Dayton, Eliot, Hollis, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Kittery, Lebanon, Limerick, Limington, Lyman, Newfield, North Berwick, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, Parsonsfield, Saco, Sanford, Shapleigh, South Berwick, Waterboro, Wells, York

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