I can’t believe it!!! You won’t believe it!!!! It’s unbelievable!!!! I won after all, I saw 573 species. Here’s the unbelievable but true story, and I can prove it all:
To recap – After I hit 500 species in September I needed a new goal. After I added New Hampshire to the schedule and looked at the list, I saw that 570 was possible. That in itself is not that interesting a number so I decided to try to top Roger Tory Peterson’s 1953 Big Year record of 572. As the days ticked down in 2019 I kept getting closer and closer. Finally it came down to New Mexico. I had 570 species on December 28 and if I could add the 3 rosy-finches at the top of Sandia Crest – which is normally a sure thing – I would have my 573. But the whims of weather prevented me from getting to the top so no rosy-finches and no victory. I was (Sandia) crest-fallen. But I took my lumps and congratulated myself on a great year. And it was. Now it just got better.
I’m now writing a book about my Big Year. Everyone else has so why not me. While working on it today, I got to the part about my first trip to Texas in April. My Blog post of April 17 says I went to Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park that evening and heard about 5 Common Pauraques. I clearly remember that. To see what species number that was for the year, I looked at my Word document list. But it’s not on the list! I forgot to add it to the list! See for yourself. If you look at the April 30 post you will see the list for that time period. Specifically, look at April 17 – no Pauraque. I was stunned. I missed one. I really saw 571 species, not 570. Still skeptical? Look at my post of November 9. On my second trip to Texas I saw and photographed a pauraque and published its picture on the blog. But so what, one species doesn’t change much.
But wait a minute, if I missed this one, what else did I miss? Maybe there are more. I carefully went through the ABA checklist that I printed out before the year began where I wrote down the date and place of each sighting. I compared that to my Word document kept in chronological order, the one I have published on my Blog. I put a check mark next to each species on both lists. Common Merganser! It’s on the ABA checklist but not on the Word list! Here’s why: Look at the post from January 29. In a Corrigenda, I mention that I saw this species at Parker Canyon Lake on January 22, 50 of them according to my eBird report. Notice the post of January 25 has the list but no Common Merganser for that date. So even though I realized I forget to add it to the list, I still never added it. I’m now at 572 – it’s a tie! I’m tied with The Greatest of All Time!!!!
But wait! I’m only up to waterfowl on the ABA checklist so I keep going. E-A-R-E-D G-R-E-B-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw Eared Grebe with Joy at Canoa Ranch on January 3 and did not write it down in my field notebook. I saw more at the Amado wastewater plant later that day, 3 in fact, it’s right there in my field notebook! I’m sure I saw a million more elsewhere too. 573!!!!!! I kept looking for more but after an hour of tediousness I looked up and thought – why keep looking? There might be 1 or 2 more I missed but it doesn’t matter now. I took the shortcut of manually counting all the birds I saw and entered a date and place for on the ABA checklist – 573 (plus 3 introduced species). I reached 573 after all!!!!! I won! I reached my goal!!!! All that heartache for nothing. I tried to make like it didn’t matter but it mattered. I hate losing, I hate not reaching a goal. Especially when it is broadcast on my Blog for all the world to see. There was no hiding from it. Everyone could see I came up 3 short, no matter that it was due to weather. I should have stayed in San Diego a few more days. I should have this, I should have that. All this second guessing.
Now it’s OK. I did exactly the right thing all year long. I went to just to the right number of places, found just the right number of birds, saw just the right number of bonus birds to make up for the misses. I saw five-hundred and seventy-three species in one year. I did it – I reached my goal. I don’t know how many people will see this all-important correction but I know about it. That’s all that matters. All is well in the world now.
robsbigyear2019.com 