The birds will have to wait

My "Big Life" will have to be temporarily suspended. I am going to be an adult and start teaching middle school Earth & Space and Integrated Sciences at a local middle school. And right in the midst of fall migration too.

Birding Continues

Despite my thought that I would slow down or stop after my year was over, the birds of South Florida have had other plans for me. On Tuesday, Eva and I headed down to the Everglades and picked up the super-rarity CUBAN PEWEE that had been spotted two days prior, but I''ll let her tell that day's story.

Yesterday, after a report of a female CERULEAN WARBLER at A.D. Barnes Park, I headed over and had luck finding this inconspicuous warbler. Migration is in full effect.

Guess what?

Rosana and I are going on a trip to see Eva and her parents... and I am intentionally NOT bringing my binoculars.

Crunching the year's numbers

80 different places slept at.

12 of which were campsites in my tent, for a total of 16 camping nights.

28 places I stayed at were with the wonderful people who I'd never met until I showed up at their houses. A thank you to each of them is not nearly enough.

I received a meager income from 5 random jobs throughout the year, including: independent carpentry with Devin, URI's Ryan Center, Opinion Outpost, the Sunrise School of Miami, and the Miami Science Museum.

I traveled through 31 states and 1 Canadian Province (B.C.).

467 ABA countable birds. However, there are 12 non-countables that I saw throughout the year:

HILL MYNA
YELLOW-CHEVRONED PARAKEET
MITRED PARAKEET
BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW
CHESTNUT-FRONTED MACAW
MUSCOVY
EGYPTIAN GOOSE
GREYLAG GOOSE
PURPLE SWAMPHEN
BLACK-HOODED PARAKEET
PEAFOWL
RED-MASKED PARAKEET

So the number of wild, breeding birds in the U.S. and Canada that I observed this year was 479.

I added 167 lifers to my list, giving me a life list of 497 right now.

Big Year Complete!

The last few days, I've been scrambling around Miami-Dade and beyond looking for those final birds. My last day of the year, yesterday, proved successful.

I got to Lucky Hammock and the Annex first, seeing a WHITE-TAILED KITE at about 6:30 am, land in the hammock, and immediately fly back west, where it had come from. Ironically, this is what Eva and I were really hoping for 1 year ago today when setting out on our first of my year big day. Yesterday, I also saw several WHITE-EYED VIREO, empids, tons of EASTERN KINGBIRD and PURPLE MARTEN in the Immokalee Rd. area. I also was able to find a SOLITARY SANDPIPER east of the C-111 canal that I was looking for for my year, so well worth the early trip.

I then went to Dagney Johnson in Key Largo looking for a BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO, but didn't get to see it after a couple hours of looking (9am-11am). This bird escape me this year, but definitely not for lack of trying.

In the early afternoon, I went to Matheson Hammock to look for the KENTUCKY WARBLER, reported the evening before, but had no luck. I did see a couple WORM-EATING WARBLER, a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, AMERICAN REDSTART, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, and NORTHERN PARULA. Warbler migration is in full swing.

In the afternoon I went up to Miami Shores with Rosana to look for a WHITE-WINGED PARAKEET. We drove around there and El Portal with no luck. We went to Starbucks there at about 4pm and got great looks at a flock of them, and then immediately noticed two RED-MASKED PARAKEET bothered by a Cooper's Hawk. Both of these were lifers for me, but only the WHITE-WINGED is ABA acceptable.

We celebrated last night up in Hollywood with some beers. I'm trying to wrap my head around the conclusion of this adventure still. I intend to put reflections, statistics, and future plans in the coming days in weeks.