Just as expected, January 1  arrived on schedule.  And just as expected, I was not!  Many things I thought I’d have done by the end of 2014 are still on the to-do list.  But big years wait for no one, and by 12:15 am,  I was parked on the side of the road in a quiet location yearning to hear the ping-pong ball call of a Western Screech Owl.  With the alarm clock set for 5:30 am, this was a longshot–if I didn’t hear it within minutes, it would have to wait for another night.  It will have to wait for another night.  A few other stops on the way home yielded similar results.  All I can say is that I’m glad this is a big year, not just a big day!

The reason for the early wake-up call was an annual tradition that could not be ignored.  No, not the polar bear swim that Andy McKinnon hosts each year.  A MUCH more sane event–the Duncan Christmas Bird Count.  This year, the Mt. Prevost/Drinkwater team was stacked.  Not only were leader Alan McLeod and team regulars Jan Brown, Bruce Whittington, and Wanda  Dombrowski on hand, but Andrew Harcombe, Jim Danzenbaker and Syd Cannings had joined as well.  In tow, was videographer Ian Toews, gathering potential blackmail material as well as footage of birds and habitat for an upcoming production on birders.

It was cold before the sun woke up, but eventually turned into a very nice day.  We split into two groups, which then split into even more, allowing probably the best coverage our zone has ever received.   The end result of this group effort was a record of 60 species for our portion of the Duncan circle.   If you check out my species list, you’ll see that I have fewer than that for my first day of my big year.  While my group found 47 species in our section, there were several that were only seen by others, and several more that were seen by the other group. However, for my big day, those zone boundaries meant nothing, and I was able to add several species for my personal count, poached from other zones while there was still a bit of light.  I have 55 species checked at the end of day 1.

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I am very grateful for all of the encouragement and enthusiasm I’ve received for my quest.  Thank all of you for your positive thoughts and wishes, and I look forward to birding with as many of you as I can this year.

By the way, I will be adding links to the bottom of this page for others who are doing their own big years.  Check out Noah Strycker’s blog!  He’s not going for 275, or even 500 species. He’s chasing 5000, worldwide!