Beyond the yard and immediate neighborhood, the local area can have a big impact on a Backyard Big Year or yard listing. Landscape and habitat features within a few miles of the yard will attract birds that may fly over your yard, or be visible from your yard.
Hoffman Park woodlands, ponds, and open grasslands just north of my neighborhood in Union Twp, Hunterdon, New Jersey.
Spruce Run and Clinton Wildlife Management Area northeast of my neighborhood in Union Twp, Hunterdon, New Jersey.
Wider view of my local area in Hunterdon County–Hoffman Park, Spruce Run, and hills to the north and farmland to south.
In my case, I’m less than half a mile south of Hoffman Park, a Hunterdon County Park that features many acres of grassland and woodland (161 species eBird list here). Bobolinks nest here, and it probably helps me get Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow flyovers at my house.
2.5 miles northeast of my yard is Spruce Run Reservoir, probably the best birding site in Hunterdon County (273 species eBird list here). Hopefully some of the waterfowl and shorebirds attracted to this (the third largest reservoir in NJ) will overfly my house. As it is, every morning during the winter, I can see a mass exodus of gulls from Spruce Run as they fly west to the landfill in Easton, PA.
Local eBird hotspots and personal locations in my local area–including Hoffman Park, Spruce Run, Round Valley Reservoir. Lots of good birding in my local area bringing in over 311 species (currently recorded for the county in eBird).
In addition to these two major bird habitats, I’m less than 10 miles from the Delaware River, and have mostly open land and scattered residential development in the five miles around my home. So there are lots of birds, and hopefully I can figure out how to observe most local species moving through this landscape.
Building on hillside 3.1 miles away as viewed through my Kowa 883 scope. Will a Wild Turkey flock ever walk through that yard?
The photo above is an example–with my scope I can look through the trees and over my neighbor’s house to watch a hillside that is 3.1 miles away. I can see deer on the hillside, so maybe someday I’ll see Wild Turkey there. Between me and the hillside I see thousands of gulls stream by each morning heading west from Spruce Run. I can even ID Snow Goose and Canada Goose flocks flying above and behind the hill. My first Gadwall for the yard was a pair seen flying through my view while scoping out this spot on 1 January.
See also Lay of the Land I: The Yard and Lay of the Land II: The Neighborhood.
