All, I've been slacking on blogging about rides and birds since I got back from eastern Montana for field work in mid-June. The Northern Great Plains are in fairly severe drought, and per previous threads here on CO-Birds about Breeding Bird Survey routes, I'd add I had record low numbers of Baird's Sparrows and Sprague's Pipits on my BBS routes. I have the best route for pipits in the world, with 20-36 pipits each year. This year I had seven, and under perfectly calm conditions. The birds just weren't there. However the drought was good for Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspurs, which is not a surprise. I had personal high counts for them on a few routes including 88 Thick-billed on one route (all within the last 15 stops too)! I also got to band and release a Mountain Plover, which was pretty darned awesome.
Anyway, back to the green big year birds. I managed to get in some rides between my trip to Montana and a trip in late July to Pennsylvania to see family. I snagged some "tough for me" birds, cleaned up some uncommon local breeding species, which are rare this year, and continued to NOT find some species (nemesis birds!!). I lumped a few rides into one post with a summary of numbers through July 12 here: https://jrmemorialgreenbigyear.blogspot.com/2021/08/late-june-and-july-round-up.html I've had some more birds in early August, including a long overdue Rufous Hummingbird. I also snagged one of my major green year nemesis birds this week! I had gone 0-9 for this species! That post is coming soon. Fall migration is about to come fast and furious. I hope I'm rested for this and can get out after birds a lot! It's going to be a ton of fun. I can't wait. For those who subscribed to my blog to get an email when I post, Blogger doesn't support that feature anymore, so this old dog had to learn some new tricks about email management systems. I hope I didn't just email the entire world! Good green birding! Scott Somershoe Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year 2021 blog <https://jrmemorialgreenbigyear.blogspot.com/> Co-Author of *Birds of Tennessee: A New Annotated Checklist <http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Tennessee-New-Annotated-Checklist/dp/1507815751/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1453317221&sr=8-3>* -- -- 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?hl=en?hl=en * 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/CFO/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/CAJmtx%2BWp%2BCvhRVHBmhuoZ1FSjUuAa8QTPHr9izqFzmyB%3DKcsUg%40mail.gmail.com.
