eBird glory
2020 Still Sucked, but I’ll Take the Win
2020 started off so well. We rang in the new year in the Yucatan, spotting Turquoise-browed Motmots and Bat Falcons at the incredible Chichen Itza and Keel-billed Toucans from the top of a Maya pyramid at Coba. Despite a pandemic, I managed to add 11 lifers during 2020 after our Yucatan trip. They included a booby (Masked), a hummingbird (Calliope), a duck (Harlequin), a flycatcher (Sulphur-bellied), a sandpiper (Curlew), and my first longspur (Lapland). Every new species is a delight. But the highlights were finally seeing California Condors and stumbling into a Northern Goshawk and a trio of Canada Jays. I also added 9 species to my 5MR life list, including a rare sighting of Semipalmated Sandpiper away from the L.A. River.
Masked Booby
Evening Grosbeak
One of my favorite pictures of the year
For a change of scenery, and to flee virus outbreaks in Los Angeles, we made 3 trips to Torrey, Utah between July and December. Those getaways were life sustaining. On top of that, they produced a small victory in 2020. For the first time ever, I topped the leaderboard for a county in eBird. I saw 110 species this year in Wayne County, Utah, more than any other human being on the planet. It was actually the second best year in the under-birded Wayne County ever (the champ saw 122 species in 2017). It was only the third triple-digit year on record in eBird for Wayne County. I did it by spending less than 30 days in the county all year. And none of them were during spring or fall migration.
Below are a couple of scenic photos from our last trip of the year to Utah. We arrived the day after Christmas, and were greeted two days later with a big snowstorm. It was enough snow, and it was cold enough, that it stuck around for a few days. It turned the already beautiful scenery into a winter wonderland. There were not many birds around (and no Black Rosy Finches), but it was a fantastic way to end the year.
Grand Wash, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
A surprisingly popular spot with Dark-eyed Juncos and Mountain Bluebirds
Chimney Rock, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah