Rare in my area (Yard Code 5), a friend of mine a few miles away has this Evening Grosbeak at his feeder. Will I get lucky and get one at my feeders or as a flyover in 2015?
With less than 10 hours to go, 2014 is almost in the bag. Tomorrow’s the big day! I will literally do a birding big day to kick off the Backyard Big Year. I’m playing for at least 30 birds tomorrow. While there will be many days later in the year when I see more species, there will never be another day when I see that many new birds for the year.
Recently it has been pretty easy to get 20 species in my yard by birding an hour or so in the morning. Tomorrow I’ll hit it hard most of the day.
I’ll be shooting for 150+ species next year, which will be a lot more than the 98 I saw this year with casual yard birding.
My eBird yard listing yard listing results at the end of December 2014.
As my eBird yard listing totals indicate, I found 44 species in my yard this December. I’m shooting for 60 in January. I’m going to need a lot more flyovers and a lot more time out in the early morning to make that happen. Oh, and a lot of luck since the birds have to come to me, and I have to be out watching and ready for them when they show up!
Tomorrow is looking to be cold and clear. So viewing especially in the afternoon may be a challenge. The neighbor’s small pond froze over last night, and Mallard pair that has been hanging out there has moved on. But other good yard birds are bound to show up. Tomorrow’s a new day. A new year. Let the games begin!
Forecast for tomorrow, and the start of the Backyard Big Year.
