Reset!

In the birding world today is Reset Day. Everyone's year lists get reset to zero. Lots of birding happens on the first and foremost folks are trying to make sure they see any rarities again this year, before they leave town. It is also the day of the year a birding can be excited about seeing a Song Sparrow. The weather was lousy and I had a mid-day brunch to attend, but I was happy with my 42 birds for the day.

This is actually my final post about last year, focused on my life list adds that were possibly once in a lifetime birds.

The Pink-Footed Goose was in February and right after I spent sometime with Pinky, my (probably already somewhat fractured) 5th metatarsal screamed out in pain when I stopped to get gas. It eventually lead to surgery and wearing a boot for 8 weeks. The upside is I think I have pretty much perfected car birding. The downside is not all birds can be seen from a car.

In August Dave C. spotted an unusual duck at his patch Apponaug Pond and sent the word out. I arrived about an hour later (it was 45 minutes away) and there was a crowd of birders watching and photographing a Black-bellied Whistling Duck - First ever in Rhode Island. A beautiful bird.

September brought us the Brown Booby. It is typically a tropical bird. I'm not certain if it was a Rhode Island first, but it was close. Again I'm grateful to my friend Sue who encouraged me to take the boat ride. It was a fun ride with two birders I knew, but three I didn't. They were fun & funny and really good birders. We were all disappointed at the end of our allotted time when we hadn't spotted the Booby. Then the organizer, Peter Capobianco, saw the bird fly into the back of "shit" rock and the captain took us around for a look. That may have been the last day it was seen.

In October I saw my first Northern Saw-Whet Owl during an Owl banding event hosted by Audubon and led by Dr. Peter Paton (URI). I attended with 7 of my best birding friends and what a night. He banded five Owls (after having none the week before). I got to have an Owl stand on my arm for 15 seconds while she made up her mind to leave. She looked in my eyes and I had a bird moment I don't think will ever be surpassed -- but I'm still going to try.

All the local Hummingbirds (Ruby-throated) usually leave in October, so when someone reported on in November, antennas went up. The bird was located, Sue made friends with the homeowner (who bought the bird a heated feeder, heat lamp and gave her a name) and now he welcomes birders, good thing as we are all returning to add the Rufous Hummingbird to our 2021 lists. It was a Looooooooong time before we had species confirmation. I'm going back tomorrow.

December brought the Steller's Sea Eagle to South Eastern Massachusetts. I was birding in Middletown a scant 25 miles from the owl -- so I chased and caught it. It is by far the worst photograph in this group. I got a better look through a scope -- if I had stayed longer, I would have had a better photo. Doesn't matter -- there are only @4,000 of this bird in the wild and their normal wild is in Russia/Japan. It was far from home -- still hoping it comes to Rhode Island for a visit. It is currently in Maine (kind of near my cousins -- I keep trying to talk them into visiting)

So that ends my year end reporting. I couldn't have asked for a better year -- learned a ton, met a lot of lovely people and birds and had a wonderful way to ease into retirement. Here's to meeting lots more birds, some new, some old friends, in 2022.

Cheers!

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Pink-footed Goose