It's now really over. Turns out Josiah and I actually tied in our species counts for the year. He added a couple of good species late in the year including Northern Shrike, American Bittern and Barrow's Goldeneye, all good birds I didn't see all year! So we both ended up with 295 species (294 without Eurasian Teal). Just a day or two into 2009 I found the bird above, an American Bittern, in the rushes at nearby North Lake, Golden Gate Park. Shoot! One more species I could have found in 2008.
After finally getting my list straight, I can't believe how close Josiah and I both were to seeing an amazing 300 species in one year by bike. Josiah added three species relatively nearby I could have seen had I just gotten out on my
bike (too busy with other holiday stuff I guess). Add this to two or three species I probably could have seen had I put in a little extra effort, such as the Tufted Duck in nearby Oakland, shown above, and I could have definitely broken 300 species by bike. Of course, I could not have even come close to this locally--it all depended on our big bike ride all the way to Mono Lake and back in the summer.And believe it or not, 295 species puts Josiah and I number one for birds seen by bike in 2008!
2 comments:
Andy, I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is a great idea! I didn't know you had kept a blog about it until today.
What a beautiful duck!
If you want to see more photos of birds, I share you my blog.
https://avesdecordobayargentina.blogspot.com
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