Backyard Big Year

Occasional fog will be only one of many challenges to finding as many birds as possible from one NJ yard in 2015.

In just over three years of living in our home here in New Jersey, I’ve seen 140 bird species and recorded flight calls of an additional 15 species as nocturnal migrants.  How many birds can be found in one year in one NJ yard without access to open water?  We’ll have to find out!  Here are my species goals for the 2015 Backyard Big Year:

ABA listable observations: 150 species
To be countable by the rules of the American Birding Association, birds must among other things, be seen or heard in real time (see listing rules here).  According to a new 2014 ruling, birds heard live through a recording microphone can be counted.  So birds heard while I’m listening live through my OldBird 21c microphone will count towards this number.  All these birds will be recorded on my personal eBird account.

Photographed birds: 150 species
For my own purposes, this will include birds photographed by a trail or critter cam deployed at a water feature or other area.  I will post these images here on the site, and any bird photographed by an automatic camera will be posted to a new separate Fergus Trail Cam eBird account.

Sound Recorded birds: 150 species
This will include all species recorded with a remote microphone or the OldBird 21c microphone while I’m not listening.  Those picked up by the microphones while I’m not listening will be listed on eBird separately in my Fergus NFC Listening Station account.

Total Species Recorded: ???
Here’s the big question.  How many birds can I record from my property using any and all of these technological means possible?  160…180…more?  I’m excited to find out!

I’m very excited about my 2015 Backyard Big Year.  Here are my Top 10 Reasons why I’m doing a Backyard Big Year–and perhaps why you might want to do one too!

10)  Save gas.  I can easily drive 15,000 miles in a year just birding my own county.  Gas prices at the end of December 2014 are dropping, but hey, I’ve got a daughter heading off to college this year and it might be a good idea to save some of that money!  Oh yeah, and it’s probably better for the environment.

9) Spend time with family.  Like I said, this year will see some changes at home with the oldest heading off to school.  If I can spend more time sitting in my yard with my kids, maybe doing some gardening, or having friends over to hang out with, that sounds preferable to chasing around the county trying to see new birds for the year.

My local county eBird standings. New county birds are getting harder to come by.

8) I need new birds.  I’ve birded Hunterdon County pretty heavily the past three years since we moved here.  I’ve seen most of the regularly occurring birds.  All the new birds for me to see in the county will be migrants–and I might have just as much of a chance to see them in my yard as I do driving all over the countryside.  Especially if I go bionic!

7) Bionic birding.  For a couple seasons I’ve deployed an OldBird 21c microphone (right) in my yard to monitor nocturnal songbird migration.  It’s amazing what the mic can pic up flying over the house.  This is a new frontier of birding, and I’ve already recorded Whimbrel and Short-billed Dowitcher from my yard–birds that are almost never seen in the county.  So if I focus more energy on the birds flying over my house, I will probably actually add more species to my county list than I would spending more time at the reservoir.

Whimbrel flight call, recorded over my house 25 May 2012.

6) Sharpen my birding game.  Focusing my energy on birding from my yard will make me step up my game.  I’ll have to do better at identifying some of the more obscure bird vocalizations.  Many of the birds I find will only be seen briefly and as flyovers.  So I’ll have to be on top of my game. Think of it as hard core birding training.  I’m very excited to work on my mad birding skills!

5) Research.  There’s a lot we don’t know about bird movements and bird migration.  When do ducks migrate?  Do they vocalize?  How about shorebirds?  Rails?  By conducting acoustic monitoring with the microphone, and conducting more regular point counts in my yard, I hope to make a real contribution to our understanding of bird movements.

4) Take my best shot.  I grew up birding without a camera.  Times have changed.  Now everybody and their dog has a digital camera and is expected to document their sightings.  I’ve got a Nikon COOLPIX P500 12.1 CMOS Digital Camera, as well as a new Apple iPhone 6 and a Kowa TSN-883 spotting scope.  By trying to get images of as many birds as possible in my yard this year, it will force me to become more proficient with my equipment.

3) Gear.  I’m super interested in how technology can improve our ability to detect and identify birds.  So I’ll be trying out some new gear.  I’ve got a 15 foot tripod deer stand to set up so I can see over my trees.  I’ve got bird ID books to help me get ready for those quick flyovers.  Sound recording devices.  Critter cams to try out.  Sound like fun?

2) Fun.  I love birding challenges, and this is just going to be plain old fun!  I love strategizing, trying to figure out how to find more birds.  By trying to find waterfowl away from water, or migrants away from their primary habitat, or as they fly over my house, it’s just going to be a whole lot of fun!

1) Sharing.  I love to bird with others and to share what I find.  I hope that this blog and the Backyard Big Year Facebook page will help me learn and also give me a chance to share what I learn with others.  In the end, it’s only partially about how many birds I’m actually able to find.  The journey, shared with my family and friends, is as much fun as anything.  And this is a hard core birding quest I can undertake right here in my backyard.

So have I convinced you?  Are you starting to think about how you can do your own backyard big year?

A Big Year is a longstanding birding tradition, in which participants try to see how many birds they can find in a given area during one calendar year.  In North America, the most famous big years are conducted continent-wide, with participants trying to see how many birds they can find in North America north of Mexico (the American Birding Association listing area).  Statewide and countywide big years are also popular.

The Backyard Big Year is basically an attempt to maximize the number of birds found in your own yard during the year.  If a state or county big year is like a game of basketball, perhaps the Backyard Big Year is like a slam dunk contest or a game of H-O-R-S-E.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious hard core birding challenge!  Birds that may be easy to get within a mile or two of the yard can be extremely challenging to see or hear from the confines of the yard if there isn’t appropriate habitat  in the yard or adjacent properties.

So think of it as a birding with one hand tied behind the back.  Or big year on a very small geographic level.  At any rate, stick around and watch as we take yard birding to the next level in 2015!  A year of hard core birding from one New Jersey yard!

Welcome to the Backyard Big Year–a gonzo-all-out attempt to find as many birds as possible during one calendar year.  I’m Rob Fergus and I’ll be staging a 2015 Backyard Big Year from my home in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.  Join the fun here at the Backyard Big Year blog or on Facebook.