The BIGBY, explained

Several Montreal-area birders started doing a Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) in 2008. While the definition of a BIGBY can be rather fluid, it focuses on birders reducing their carbon footprint while familiarizing themselves with the birds on their own local patch of land.

In my case, I am doing what is called a "walking BIGBY", keeping track of the birds I see while walking from home. This year (2011) is the fourth year I've done this, starting out in southern Indiana (Bloomington) in 2008.

I moved to Milwaukee half way through 2010. I had 152 species on my 2010 Indiana list, and I had 193 species on my 2010 Wisconsin BIGBY list. And then I kept a "combo" BIGBY list for all of 2010. After accounting for the overlap between my Indiana and Wisconsin BIGBY lists, I came up with a total of 232 BIGBY species for the calendar year, a personal record.

Here are a couple of informational items about BIGBYing:

BIGBY informational web page: http://bit.ly/bGUVxi
BIGBY newsletter: http://bit.ly/aXrd7e
BIGBY e-mail list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bigbybirding/

And here are four brief articles I've written about my BIGBY experiences for the newsletter of the local Audubon Society chapter in southern Indiana. Note: the URL takes you to the newsletter issue as a whole. You will need to scroll down to the applicable page number.

In My Backyard: Big Green Big Year Satisfies. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 5. http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-01.pdf

Big Green Big Year — 2008 Summary of Four Experiences. The Leaflet (newsletter). March/April 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 6. http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-03.pdf

Big Green Big Year 2009: It’s All About Location, Location, Location. The Leaflet (newsletter). July/August 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8. http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-07.pdf

Green Birding 2009. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2010. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8. http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2010/Leaflet2010-01.pdf

Great Backyard Bird Count species list for Sunday, 2/20/11

Here's the Great Backyard Bird Count species list for Sunday, 2/20/11:

Canada Goose - 74
American Black Duck - 9
Mallard - 130
Greater Scaup - 74
Common Goldeneye - 62
Red-breasted Merganser - 4
Ring-billed Gull - 3
Herring Gull - 5
Gull species - 335 (i.e., birds were too far away to ID exact species)
Rock Pigeon - 15
American Crow - 13
Black-capped Chickadee - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 2
American Robin - 4
Dark-eyed Junco - 11
Northern Cardinal - 4
House Finch - 2
House Sparrow - 9

Great Backyard Bird Count species list for Friday, 2/18/11

Here's the Great Backyard Bird Count species list for Friday, 2/18/11:
 
Canada Goose - 36
 Mallard - 23
 Greater Scaup - 300
 Lesser Scaup - 1
 Common Goldeneye - 75
 Red-breasted Merganser - 1
 Cooper's Hawk - 1
 Red-tailed Hawk - 1
 American Kestrel - 1
 Ring-billed Gull - 3
 Herring Gull - 8
 Gull species - 9,053 (i.e., birds were too far away to ID exact species)
 Rock Pigeon - 11
 Mourning Dove - 1
 Downy Woodpecker - 1
 American Crow - 12
 Horned Lark - 1
 Black-capped Chickadee - 2
 White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
 Eastern Bluebird - 2
 American Robin - 11
 European Starling - 102
 Cedar Waxwing - 15
 Snow Bunting - 2
 Dark-eyed Junco - 2
 Northern Cardinal - 1
 House Finch - 2
 American Goldfinch - 3
 House Sparrow - 8

Milwaukee Lakefront, 2/15-2/16 - Two new 2011 BIGBY species

I walked the southern portion of my BIGBY route on Tuesday and Wednesday, adding one new 2011 BIGBY bird each day. My BIGBY count for the year is now 57 species.

What a difference a day can make on the lakefront. On Tuesday there was a lot of open water in Milwaukee Harbor. Yesterday the harbor was jammed shut with ice floes. Here's a "before" picture from Tuesday: http://bit.ly/fhf30z (the dark line in the middle of the photo is ducks, mostly Greater Scaups). And here's an "after" photo from yesterday, taken from pretty much the same spot: http://bit.ly/fDhUlz. I'm thinking the ice must have come from the Milwaukee River, which flows into the harbor? On Tuesday there were thousands of Scaups in the harbor. Yesterday I could only find six.

Some birding highlights:

* Mute Swan behind the art museum (Tuesday). 2011 BIGBY species #56. Here's a photo of the swan asleep on the ice: http://bit.ly/fkKCi4.

* Horned Lark (Wednesday). 2011 BIGBY species #57. A slow but steady trickle of flyovers above Lakeshore State Park, plus one on the rocks.

* On Tuesday a flock of at least 1,000 Scaups flew by at close range. Interesting sound with all the wing-whistling.

* There's been an influx of Mallards this week. Not that long ago I could find only a few. Tuesday and Wednesday I recorded at least 200. Most were sleeping on the ice, but this one was eyeing me suspiciously: http://bit.ly/h6Mivt.

* I think I'm seeing an increase in Ring-billed Gulls. A sign of spring?

* The crows look like they've found a new sport: harrassing gulls on the ice. There were several crows tormenting gulls. They would land on the ice and walk up to a gull cawing racously until the gull flew off. One bird would actually yank on a gull's tail feathers if the gull tried to ignore it.

* Saw a Red Fox AND a Gray Fox in Lakeshore State Park. Too far away for decent photos. Interesting that I see them out in broad daylight fairly frequently, since Red Foxes are usually diurnal hunters and Gray Foxes are usually nocturnal hunters. I have a new theory about this "abnormal" behavior. I've been seeing coyote tracks in the snow in the park, and I've read that foxes tend to avoid coyotes. Maybe they're active in the daylight because they're less likely to run into coyotes at that time of day? Just a thought.

Fifty Milwaukee walking BIGBY species in January 2011

With January over I decided to tally the species count for the first month of my 2011 walking BIGBY. I had exactly 50 species for the month. What is a walking BIGBY? See my blog: http://bit.ly/h8txmm

Here are my first 50 species of the new year, in rough taxonomic order:

Canada Goose
Mallard
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Goshawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Herring Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Greater Black Back Gull
Iceland Gull
Glaucous Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
American Tree Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting
Northern Cardinal
Meadowlark species (couldn't confirm Eastern or Western)
Purple Finch
House Finch
Common Redpoll
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

What the heck is a BIGBY?

Several Montreal-area birders started doing a Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) in 2008. While the definition of a BIGBY can be rather fluid, it focuses on birders reducing their carbon footprint while familiarizing themselves with the birds on their own local patch of land.

In my case, I am doing what is called a "walking BIGBY", keeping track of the birds I see while walking from home. This year (2011) is the fourth year I've done this, starting out in southern Indiana (Bloomington) in 2008. I moved to Milwaukee half way through 2010. I had 152 species on my 2010 Indiana list, and I had 193 species on my 2010 Wisconsin BIGBY list. And then I kept a "combo" BIGBY list for all of 2010. After accounting for the overlap between my Indiana and Wisconsin BIGBY lists, I came up with a total of 232 BIGBY species for the calendar year, a personal record. 

Here are a couple of informational items about BIGBYing:

BIGBY informational web page: http://bit.ly/bGUVxi
BIGBY newsletter: http://bit.ly/aXrd7e
BIGBY e-mail list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bigbybirding/

And here are four brief articles I've written about my BIGBY experiences for the newsletter of the local Audubon Society chapter in southern Indiana. Note: the URL takes you to the newsletter issue as a whole. You will need to scroll down to the applicable page number.

In My Backyard: Big Green Big Year Satisfies. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 5.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-01.pdf

Big Green Big Year — 2008 Summary of Four Experiences. The Leaflet (newsletter). March/April 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 6.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-03.pdf

Big Green Big Year 2009: It’s All About Location, Location, Location. The Leaflet (newsletter). July/August 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-07.pdf

Green Birding 2009. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2010. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2010/Leaflet2010-01.pdf

Milwaukee BIGBY update - 21 new life birds so far!!

Today I was taking a look at the checklist of birds seen during my Milwaukee walking BIGBY. I've never done a BIGBY near a large body of water, so I decided to see how many new life birds I've recorded. Not new BIGBY life birds, but new life birds overall.

I was surprised (but maybe not surprised) to find that 10% of the species I've recorded since I moved to Milwaukee were new LIFE birds.

Why was I surprised? I've added 21 new lifer birds since starting my Milwaukee BIGBY on 8/1/10!

Why was I not surprised? Most of my birding before Milwaukee was generally in Midwestern woodlands and grasslands. Birding the Lake Michigan waterfront was a completely new experience.

Not surprisingly, waterfowl, shorebirds, waders and gulls accounted for 20 of the 21 new life birds. The outlier was what I am convinced was a Cave Swallow in December at Lakeshore State Park (I filed a report with the WSO...we'll see what they think).

Also not surprisingly, I had no new lifer owls, hawks or falcons. No new warblers or sparrows or other passerines.

Here's the list of the 21 new life species:

Ross's Goose
Cackling Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Barrow's Goldeneye
Red-throated Loon
Black-crowned Night Heron
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Franklin's Gull
Thayer's Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Greater Black-backed Gull
Iceland Gull
Glaucous Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Cave Swallow

Birdwatching takes flight in Britain's prisons

Interesting story from the BBC:

"This weekend over half a million people in the UK will take part in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' big garden birdwatch, the largest survey of its kind in the world. Among them are inmates at 61 of the nation's prisons".

Full text at: http://bbc.in/g30qCI

Lake Park "turkey hunt", 1/28/11

Yesterday I decided to bird Milwaukee's Lake Park. I've been focusing on the lakefront and kinda neglecting Lake Park. I also thought that, with the relatively fresh snow, it might be a good time to do a turkey survey (i.e., look for turkey tracks) to see if any turkeys might be visiting the park. (I've heard there was one in the park during 2009, and I've had reports of two nearby sightings in the past few years).

Anyway, I walked the ravine trails looking for tracks, and I walked circles around the three bird feeder sites in the park. No turkey tracks anywhere. But the fresh snow had been there only about 24 hours or so, so I may give it a shot again next week.

It was kind of refreshing hanging out with the woodland birds. I was sort of getting tired of ducks. :-)  Lots of chickadees and juncos. Three woodpecker species (downy, hairy, red-bellied). One Red-breasted Nuthatch and quite a few White-breasted. American Tree Sparrows. Northern Cardinals. A heard-but-not-seen Eastern Bluebird.

There were three Mourning Doves under a feeder in the park. They flew away as I approached. It's been awhile since I've been near multiple doves, and I'd sort of forgotten how their wings whistle when they take off. For some reason it was like I was hearing it for the first time.

But my big highlight of the day was a male House Finch. A House Finch as a highlight? Well, this one was perched in a tree lustily singing his little heart out. Tonic for a winter-weary soul! Reminded me that, yes, spring will get here one day.

And there was a little excitement during my walk, as well. As I was leaving the park I heard a number of emergency vehicles stopping in the general vicinity of Bradford Beach/North Point. I walked over to the top of the bluff and saw eight eight police cars (a mix of city and county), seven fire department vehicles (including the dive rescue truck), and a coast guard truck...all parked along Lincoln Memorial Drive. There was even a small boat moving along the shore. People were spread out on the shore, looking down into the water.

I was on top of the bluff in Lake Park, and didn't have a good way to get down to the lake, so I couldn't get close enough to find out what's going on. Haven't seen anything in the news.

Interesting "Daily Show" segment about birding saving a community

Edgy, provocative, but interesting "Daily Show" segment about the Mississippi Audubon Society saving what's left of a historic black community in Mississippi:

http://bit.ly/dTkpJv

My "12-month BIGBY" list now has 200 species!

As I've mentioned in the past. I'm currently doing a "12-month BIGBY". What's a 12-month BIGBY? I'm recording all the species I see while walking from home during my first twelve months as a Milkwaukee and Wisconsin resident. This BIGBY started on 8/1/10, the day I moved to Milwaukee, and will end on 7/31/11.

My goal for the 12-month BIGBY was 200 species (I've been sitting on 198 for a couple of weeks). I reached this goal yesterday while watching the Bears/Packers game...without even going birding!!

During lulls in the action I was updating my BIGBY spreadsheet when, lo and behold, I found two species I forgot to add in September (Sharp-shinned Hawk and Spotted Sandpiper).

Funny way to reach a birding goal...relaxing in a chair with a beer, munching on chicken wings, and watching a Bears/Packers game. :-)

Milwaukee, 1/20/11 - Barrow's Goldeneye(?), leucistic Scaup, etc

I've decided that I'm now in birding's "winter doldrums" in terms of seeing new species. I'm two species shy of 200 species for my 12-month Milwaukee BIGBY (8/1/10-7/31/11). But every day I'm seeing pretty much the same usual suspects. I'm pretty much tapped out on duck and gull species...I don't think I can come up with any new ones. I'm thinking I'll probably have to wait for spring migration to hit the 200 mark...maybe some shorebirds I missed this fall?

But the "winter doldrums" aren't all bad. There's less of a drive to push for the next new species, and more time to simply enjoy and appreciate the birds that *are* around. Kinda relaxing...

Some highlights from Thursday, January 20:

* Barrow's Goldeneye(?). Lakeshore State Park. I posted an email about this bird Wednesday afternoon. I called it a "possible" first winter male. But after hearing from someone off-list who had also seen this bird and also ID'd it as a Barrow's, I feel a little more confident with my ID. The bird was sort of hanging out by itself, loosely associated with three female Scaups. Oddly enough, it's not a new 12-month BIGBY bird. I saw a female Barrow's off of Bradford Beach on 12/15/10. Guy from Germany found it, had it in his scope, and let me take a look.

* Leucistic Scaup. Female. Body was a light brownish color, the color of coffee with a lot of cream. Head was a little darker brown. Very different and interesting looking bird.

* Several hundred ducks in the open water at the entrance to the Discovery World harbor (this is where the leucistic bird was). Mostly Scaups, but with a fair number of Goldeneyes. At one point almost all of them took off abruptly and headed south. After looking around a bit I saw one of the resident Red Foxes down on the rocks. That must have been what spooked the ducks. Most of the birds eventually returned, but more gradually than they left. One thing I've noticed about Scaups is that they seem to spend a fair amount of time flying back and forth between different parts of the lakefront. A couple of birds will take off, and several dozen will follow. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.

* Got another good look at the Meadowlark in Lakeshore State Park. Still can't decide on Eastern or Western. Hopefully it will stick around until spring, when its song will give it away (if it's a male, that is). Lots of "if's", I guess.

* Eight Northern Cardinals at the same time. Someone has been putting out sunflower seed along the ramp that leads down the bluff from Prospect Avenue. Most Northern Cardinals I've seen at once in a long time.

* Fifteen Northern Juncos in this same area. I believe that's the most I've seen at once since moving to Milwaukee.

* A male/female pair of House Finches. Nothing exotic, but the first ones I've seen since maybe the CBC. Can't wait til they start singing their spring songs.

* Very brightly colored male Purple Finch. Beautiful bird. Same area as the cardinals and juncos.

* Forty House Sparrows, in some bushes near Ogden and Humboldt, on my way to the grocery store. I know this seems like an odd thing to report, but I don't see many HOSPs when I'm birding along the lakefront. And I rarely saw them at my Indiana home...even at my feeders. Because of this, they look very strange and exotic when I see a decent-sized flock. :-)

Wild Turkey - My official 2011 BIGBY nemesis bird

I decided today that Wild Turkey will be my 2011 BIGBY nemesis bird. No matter how many species I tally in 2011, I will declare the year a success if I can find me a turkey while walking from home. I have turkeys as BIGBY birds in Illinois and Indiana, but not (yet) in Wisconsin.

Does anyone know where I might have a chance of finding turkeys within *reasonable* walking distance of the intersection of Prospect and Ogden on Milwaukee's east side? I'm planning on checking out the Shorewood Nature Preserve when conditions allow (I hear it's a pretty steep trail).

National Bird Day

For what it's worth, today is National Bird Day: http://bit.ly/hNnBuJ

The focus seems to be on both wild and pet birds...

Bernie Sloan

Rough-legged Hawk, 1/3/11 - Species #194 in my new BIGBY

The year 2010 has ended, and it's time for people to start their new 2011 lists from scratch.

But I still have a Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) underway. I moved to Milwaukee on 8/1/10. I'm now working on my "first-twelve-months-in-Milwaukee" Big Green Big Year. This BIGBY will end on 7/31/11.

Yesterday (1/3/11) I spotted a dark phase Rough-legged Hawk perched in a small tree near McKinley Beach on Milwaukee's lakefront. That's the 194th species I've found since moving to Milwaukee.

My goal is to reach 200 Milwaukee walking BIGBY species by 7/31/11. Six species to go, and seven months to do it. Sounds like a piece of cake, right? Not really. In looking at my list of Milwaukee BIGBY species recorded so far, I'm thinking I'll be hard pressed to come up with six new species. Looks like I'm going to have to come up with some interesting raptors, gulls, or shorebirds. Or maybe we'll be blessed with a few interesting northern species yet this winter.

Good birding!!

Did you do a Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) in 2010?

Just wondering how other BIGBY (green birding) folks fared in 2010?  I'm going to do a more detailed overview of my year in a week or so, but I thought I'd do a quick summary for now. (What's a BIGBY? See: http://bit.ly/fEdion).

I had several BIGBY lists going in 2010. From January through July I lived in Bloomington, Indiana. I had 152 species on that list. From August through December I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I had 193 species on that BIGBY list. And then I kept a "combo" BIGBY list for all of 2010. After accounting for the overlap between my Indiana and Wisconsin BIGBY lists, I came up with a total of 232 BIGBY species for the calendar year. (For the record, I did a walking BIGBY in 2010, counting only the species I encountered while walking from home).

If you did a BIGBY in 2010, how did it go?