Hello All, How long keeping a list: We’ve been in the house 40 years, but didn’t begin keeping specific sighting records early on, so about 35 years.
We keep two lists, “Birds Seen in the Yard”; and “Birds Seen from the Yard”, i.e., mostly fly overs, but sometimes birds we can see in neighbors’ trees, yards from our yard. Style: Dedicated, 15 years of FeederWatch, and binoculars/camera usually at hand when in the yard. How many species: Combining our two lists, 98 species Favorites: “in the yard”: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, singing from our then Russian Olive; Carolina Wren, in three separate years; Brown Thrasher; Bohemian Waxwings, about 50 in the Hackberry; Red-eyed Vireo; among twelve Warbler species, Nashville, Mourning, Chestnut-sided; among ten Sparrow species, Fox and Harris’s; Summer Tanager; and White-winged Dove. Perhaps the oddest, a pair of Mallards exploring the vegetable garden in our fenced yard. Favorites: “from the yard”: large flocks of Sandhill Cranes flying over the house on a number of occasions; Scarlet Tanager, singing from a neighbor’s tree; Common Poorwill, in a neighbor’s driveway, singing and sallying up for insects, returning to the same spot each time. Most memorable: toss-up between seeing/hearing a Yellow-billed Cuckoo singing in the yard, at the time, it was the first time hearing that song since leaving Pennsylvania; and 100s of Snow Geese, in wave after wave, flying directly over the house on 11/14/09. Location/Habitat: Small urban yard in east Denver, not near open space or water. Bill Wuerthele, Denver > On Mar 11, 2024, at 10:40 AM, Thomas Heinrich <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > Every now and then one of us will share the excitement of adding a rarity or > new species to a yard list, report yard list totals, or comment on local > trends. And some of the lists, and variety of species, are really impressive > (e.g. David Suddjian's, Gary Lefko's). > > Yellow Grosbeak, Pyrrhuloxia, Streak-backed Oriole, Long-billed Thrasher, > Costa's Hummingbird, Laurence's Goldfinch, and even Anhinga come to mind as > rarities that have shown up in or been observed from yards. (Perhaps the > recent Brambling, too?) > > As a pretty obsessive yard lister (i.e. binocs always on, camera ready when > outdoors, much of the time indoors too), I often wonder about others' > experience with yard-listing. > > How long have you been keeping your list? > What's your style of yard listing: casual, mainly feeder watching, moderate, > dedicated, obsessed? > How many species? > Rarest, or favorite species? > Most memorable experience? > Location/habitat: urban, suburban, rural, etc? > > And the big question: if we tallied up all our yard lists, how close to > Colorado's 520 species could we get? > > It seems likely that certain families would be less well-represented; > shorebirds, waterfowl, and gulls, for example. But with neighborhoods lining > bodies of water such as Boyd Lake, Lake Loveland, Marston Reservoir, Jackson > Lake, and MacIntosh Lake (in Boulder), among many others, many of those > species theoretically could have been counted on a yard list. Maybe some > lucky person living on the shores of Boyd Lake has Long-tailed Jaeger, > Slaty-backed Gull, and Garganey on their yard list! > > Wishing all good health, good birding, and an exciting Spring migration! > > --Thomas Heinrich > > > My answers to the questions above: > 15 years > Dedicated to obsessive > 152 species > Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated Warbler, N Cardinal, Common Redpoll, Bohemian > Waxwing > Watching spring raptor migration from the roof-top, 35 Broad-winged Hawks > among 130 raptors of 10 species on one high-flow day (4/18/2020) > Interface between suburban and open space, base of foothills, el. 5600' > > -- > Thomas Heinrich > Boulder, CO > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > www.pbase.com/birdercellist <http://www.pbase.com/birdercellist> > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds > <http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds> > * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include > bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate. > * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/ > <https://cobirds.org/membership/> > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADXhbwF%2B99O3KouyaZ1vSvAFq-FERryJitT%3DO5GVQ1QqZXvb0w%40mail.gmail.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADXhbwF%2B99O3KouyaZ1vSvAFq-FERryJitT%3DO5GVQ1QqZXvb0w%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate. * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/3FED9F24-9F8C-41B8-827B-80CF0ACFBCB2%40ecentral.com.
