2025 - A Big Year
Above is a photo of a Ferruginous Hawk, a west coast species that until a couple of days ago had not been previously recorded in Massachusetts as best as I can determine. Yesterday, I decided to go to Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge only about 3 miles from our place in Chatham. I met another photographer returning to the parking lot as I was heading to the beach. He looked at my camera and asked if I was here to photograph the hawk. “What hawk?” I asked. He explained about this bird and said that he had seen it about 30 minutes earlier. I kept an eye out constantly as I walked around and was eventually rewarded with this photo.
I also photographed this Northern Harrier less than 5 minutes later from the same location. Unlike the Ferruginous Hawk, this is a fairly common species for Chatham.
Among birders, a “Big Year” is a year in which a birder intentionally focuses on seeing as many species as possible during a single calendar year within a set geography. In 2011, Steve Martin played the lead in the comedy “The Big Year”, a story loosely based on the 1998 Big Year efforts of Sandy Komito, Greg Miller, and Al Levantin. That year, Sandy Komito set a new American Birding Association (ABA) record with 745 species in the continental US and Canada. The current continental record is 784 species, and the record including Hawaii is 840, both set by John Weigel in 2016 and 2019 respectively.
As I described in my New Year’s Eve post, I plan to spend this year focused on merging my passions for bird photography and bicycling. For New Year’s Day, I chose to start with bird photography. Above is a Belted Kingfisher which I spotted at the wooden drawbridge on the way to Monomoy NWR.
With the trips I have planned for Hawaii and Alaska, cycling the spring migration from Florida to Louisiana, cycling the fall migration from New Jersey to Virginia, and a January birding trip to New Mexico, I should certainly photograph far more US bird species in 2025 than I ever have before, and possibly ever will again. It was this thought that made me realize that I am in fact doing my own personal Big Year.
A couple of minutes after the Belted Kingfisher, I captured these Buffelheads. While I will be doing a Big Year, I will not be chasing after any records. 2024 was my biggest US birding year to date with 202 species. My lifetime US species count is just 281. On e-bird, over 16,750 other birders recorded more birds in the US than me for 2024. To make the top 100 in 2024 required 523 species. As I approach my Big Year, I am not setting any specific goals. I want to immerse myself in the challenge of photographing lots of bird species, but not to obsess over it. 2019 was my biggest cycling year. I cycled 10,916 miles, but the number of miles is not what I think about as I reflect back on that year. What is important to me are all of the memories I have: my cycling in Chile in January, riding with Ruth and Jesse on the Blue Ridge Parkway in May, and most especially of my cross country trip from Santa Barbara to Myrtle Beach which I absolutely loved.
This Brant is a small to medium sized goose which gives a good sense of how large the waves were on Nantucket Sound yesterday. Because of the strong wind, I saw fewer species than I likely would have had the wind been calm. I took this photo at Hardings Beach as I wrapped up my day. Last Sunday, I saw 15 species there while yesterday I only saw 8.
This Common Eider was another one of the 8 species I did photograph. My hope is that I will ultimately photograph over 400 US species this year. One reason I do not want to get too focused on the numbers is the natural progression of species count during the year. On January 1, every common bird is a new species to be counted for the year. I have 22 species after day 1. Species counts grow very quickly early on, but it becomes harder and harder to add new species as the year progresses. In 2018, Nicole Koeltzow reached the 700-species milestone on July 1, taking just 6 months. It took her to October 30, or 4 more months, to get the next 100 species and reach 800. She added just 30 more species over the final 2 months, ultimately falling 6 species short of John Weigel‘s then record of 836.
This American Herring Gull was one of 4 gull species that I photographed yesterday. The other 3 were the Great Black-back Gull, the Ring-billed Gull and a Bonaparte’s Gull. Since I am focused on the photography aspects of birding, I will only be counting birds that I photograph. As an example, during my walk, I briefly saw a Black-capped Chickadee, but was not able to photograph it. So, for the moment, that species will have to wait to be added to my 2025 list.
This Long-tailed Duck is another of the 22 species I photographed yesterday. By July 1, I expect I will have photographed about 90% of the species I will capture during the year given my travel plans. However, there will still be 6 months to take beautiful photographs; however, they will almost exclusively be of species I have already photographed earlier in the year. I want to be chasing beautiful photographs, not chasing checkboxes on a list. At the end of the year, what will matter to me will be the memories and the photographs, not the final number. However, I also know that keeping track of the numbers can help motivate me to get out if the weather is poor or I am just feeling sluggish.