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Category: Birding Goals

Stories about goals, projects, or annual challenges

January Recap

January Recap

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Total Species Recorded: 36

I am one month into my Big Recording Year, and it has certainly been a learning experience.

I do a lot of birding by ear, which means that I identify birds based on their calls or songs. When I set out on this goal to record 100 bird species, I thought it would be a relatively simple pursuit because of the frequency in which I identify birds by ear. The reality is turning out to be quite different.

Oftentimes I will hear a bird call just once, and that’s enough to identify it. To record it, however, I need the bird to continue to vocalize, as there’s the time needed to open up the Merlin app and get my microphone ready. Very often I’m left with an empty recording because the bird only sounded off once before going quiet or flying away. That has made recording tricky.

In spite of this, I’ve submitted recordings for 36 bird species in January. My absolute favorite experience so far was spending time with a small group of short eared owls. To hear their barks and screeches while they interacted with each other was magical.

January has been otherwise filled with seets, chips, and chups with a general lack of singing. I expect that to change soon as spring migration and the breeding season gets underway.

To read more posts about this challenge, see the dedicated Bird Recording Challenge 2026 web page or click on “Bird Recording Challenge 2026” under “Tags” at the bottom of this post.

January Big Day

January Big Day

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Total Species Recorded: 24

It was a perfect day for birding. The air was cool, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the sun offered some gentle warmth against the chill. The wind was finally calm after days of high gusts. I was excited to have some good weather because we were competing with my sister and her husband to see who could spot the most number of bird species in a single day, commonly known as a “Big Day” event. Although the day would be focused on spotting the highest number of birds, I hoped to sneak in some opportunities to record birds for my Big Recording Year challenge.

We had an active day planned that would take us to various edges of San Joaquin County. We would start birding in South County, meander to the north, and then drive to the east to wrap up the day. Much of the time would be spent driving, but there was always the possibility of picking up incidentals along the way.

The first stop involved our neighborhood where I could be sure to pick up Lincoln’s Sparrows, Yellow-billed Magpies, and Rock Pigeons. After a rushed walk, we took off to Oak Grove in Ripon where we focused on the water treatment plant. We were able to add unique species to our Big Day list, including Bonaparte’s Gulls and Black-bellied Plovers. Our trip to Ripon added a lot of time, but I knew it was going to be a tight competition for the highest numbers.

These first stops were far too noisy for a good sound recording, so I didn’t bother trying. But our next stop at the Cosumnes River Preserve in Sacramento offered a great opportunity to record geese. Our timing was perfect – a large group of loud Greater White-Fronted Geese were foraging in the water close to the pedestrian walkway. I had to wait a moment to allow other nature lovers to walk away so that their conversations wouldn’t be added to my recording, but otherwise the geese were cooperative.

A quick check-in with my sister made me a bit nervous – we were falling way behind their numbers. They were birding in San Diego and had planned their day more carefully. It was time for us to step it up.

Our next stop was at Staten Island (not to be confused with the New York location), which I knew would be filled with water-loving birds and waders. Indeed, we saw thousands of various geese, and dozens of Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans. We also picked up a few birds that we weren’t expecting, such as the Brown-headed Cowbird. I managed a recording of Cackling Geese that were foraging on a dry field, although a nearby dog decided that was the perfect time to unleash a barking fit. It’s not always easy to record Cackling Geese, so I shrugged off the barking and accepted the recording as is.

After a quick lunch sitting in the car while counting the geese at Staten Island, we drove across the county to the east side. Although we didn’t pick up any birds along the way, it was a pleasant drive through the fields and vineyards. Our last hope for picking up more birds was Mokelumne River Day Use/Fish Hatchery. Here I expected to get mergansers, wrens, and sparrows along with the possibility of eagles.

The park was surprisingly not crowded with people despite it being a beautiful weekend day. It was also mysteriously low on birds. I was able to opportunistically capture recordings of Bushtits, Dark-eyed Juncos, and a Song Sparrow. But the point of the day was to see as many birds as possible. I soon realized that we were hopelessly losing the competition. But I had one consolidation prize that I was anticipating all day, and I had to time it just right.

We left Mokelumne at 3:00 p.m., exactly when I wanted to, and we headed north to Amador County to a worn-down road off the beaten path. We arrived about a half hour later and I popped out of the car with the microphone in hand. After a few minutes of scanning, we saw them: Short-eared Owls were sitting on the ground. We counted four simultaneously, although there were possibly one or two more. They delicately flew over the herd of cows, interacted with each other with aerial acrobatics, and swooped down to pounce on prey. The most incredible part of the experience was hearing them vocalize. Their calls ranged from screeching, not unlike a Barn Owl, and a quick succession of barks. I had only seen a Short-eared Owl once before and it did not vocalize, but this small group was very chatty, giving me a perfect opportunity to capture the audio experience. We stayed in the area watching them for an hour before we decided to call it a day.

Although we majorly lost the Big Day competition with my sister and her husband, I was happy for a perfect owl ending to a fun day.

To read more posts about this challenge, see the dedicated Bird Recording Challenge 2026 web page or click on “Bird Recording Challenge 2026” under “Tags” at the bottom of this post.

Winter Recordings

Winter Recordings

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush Perched on Wire, 2018

Total Species Recorded: 21

My Big Recording Year is off to a good start! So far I have recorded 21 species towards my goal of 100. While that may seem like I’m on pace to reach 100 within weeks, it will steadily get more difficult to add to the list.

One thing I’m finding challenging is getting the birds to cooperate. In the winter, birds can be fairly quiet, and the ones who are vocalizing frequently startle into silence upon my presence. I joke that the birds have recording anxiety, for as soon as I hold up my microphone, the bird will suddenly go quiet. Perhaps it’s because I have suddenly stopped walking and pointed an object at them, prompting the bird to be more wary of my presence.

One of my favorite stories from this past week was my time spent in Oak Grove Park in Ripon. While it was a delightful walk amongst the grove of Oak Trees, I was collecting a growing list of failed recordings, mainly due to the target bird going quiet. The starlings were also singing in full force, drowning out everything I tried to capture. I want to record a starling in my neighborhood because their specific mimicry is interesting, so I did not want to expend energy on them this trip. I ended up deleting many of these recording attempts.

After an hour of walking, we stopped in an area filled with bushes. After adjusting to our presence, the bird chatter filled the air. Townsend’s, Orange-crowned, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were chipping in the trees, a Northern House Wren scolded an encroaching wren, and Oak Titmouse were calling to each other while foraging.

One fun lesson was hearing the subtle but distinct differences between a Fox Sparrow and Hermit Thrush call. The Fox Sparrow has a smacky quality to it, like having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth while trying to say “tsk.” The similar-sounding Hermit Thrush instead gives a “Chup” call that has a cleaner tone. It’s not often that I hear a Fox Sparrow, let alone a Fox Sparrow and a Hermit Thrush at the same time, so it was a treat to study their differences in the field.

To read more posts about this challenge, see the dedicated Bird Recording Challenge 2026 web page or click on “Bird Recording Challenge 2026” under “Tags” at the bottom of this post.

Bird Recording Challenge 2026: Day 1

Bird Recording Challenge 2026: Day 1

Day 1: January 1, 2026
Total Species Recorded: 7

After months of anticipation, 2026 is finally here! I decided to pursue a personal Big Recording Year in 2026 with a goal of recording 100 species. The recordings will only count if I upload them to eBird, and the files will be added to a growing database of sound media used for research. Not only am I giving myself a fun challenge for the year, I’m also contributing data that benefits birds.

Typically on New Year’s Day, I participate in a friendly competition with family to see who can spot the most number of birds in a single day. Those plans were dashed by unfavorable weather this year, so I focused on recordings rather than running around looking for as many birds as possible. It resulted in a calmer, more introspective day, replacing the adrenaline rush that comes with scurrying all over to get a glimpse of all the birds.

I anticipated rain today, but instead we got wind. I’m using a small microphone with a windshield to help block some of the wind sound, but it was no match for the wind that whipped through the fields today. While it would be nice to produce the “perfect” recording, I find it more important to capture an accurate call or song no matter the conditions, better reflecting the true situation.

I was more aware of various unnatural noises that may impact the recordings, such as jackets rustling, distant traffic on the freeway, or the idling car when recording during a driving-based list. These are all things that we might naturally tune out while birding, but are readily picked up by the microphone. It seems like it will be nearly impossible to find conditions where there isn’t wind or other unwanted noises, but that’s also the nature of the type of birding many of us experience and, it is worth capturing.

My favorite recording of the day was a Wood Duck call. I’m familiar with their Ooo-Wee! Ooo-Wee! call that I associate with the ducks taking flight, but the vocalization I captured this time sounded like a soft, buzzy zipper, and I almost mistook it for a Pine Siskin. Later that morning, another similarly high-pitched and whiny call made me think I was hearing an odd chicken sound, but it was a different Wood Duck! These are the learning moments I’m looking forward to with this challenge and hope that I’ll gain a more intimate understanding of various bird vocalizations.

At the end of Day 1 of this challenge, I uploaded seven recordings to two eBird lists. I have 364 days to capture 93 more recordings!

To read more posts about this challenge, see the dedicated Bird Recording Challenge 2026 web page or click on “Bird Recording Challenge 2026” under “Tags” at the bottom of this post.

Big Recording Year in 2026

Big Recording Year in 2026

Time starts to fly this time of the year. Holidays come at us with blinding speed – when one ends, another is peering around the corner. Appointments, projects, and commitments get squeezed into the remaining months of the year. Before you know it, a new year is upon us, hopefully providing a much-needed reset from the flurry of activities.

For me, the new year brings new opportunities for birding. I like to set goals to drive new life into birding activities, and to hopefully learn a bit more along the way.

Some birders like to pursue a Big Year where they tally up as many bird species as possible during an entire year. I participated in a county Big Year competition in 2023 – a thrilling and exhausting experience that I will honestly be hesitant to repeat. This year, my goal is to do an individual Big Year by competing with myself, but the rules will be a bit different. I plan to do a Big Recording Year.

I’ve become more interested in recording bird vocalizations since lugging a heavy camera around for photography can be cumbersome. I have a lightweight microphone that plugs into my cellphone and is easy to deploy. It’s been particularly useful in areas where a visual on a bird is difficult and vocal IDs are the main focus, such as in the mountains with the birds hanging out at the tops of the towering trees.

Recording birds also doesn’t have the same popularity as photography, meaning that my recordings will be that valuable for research. Each recording attached to an eBird checklist will be automatically added to the Macaulay Library collection.

My goal is to record 100 bird species during 2026. I did a quick run through of the birds I’ve seen this year and estimated that 98 species could be reasonably recorded, although by no means a guarantee. So theoretically 100 should give me a gentle challenge.

Some advanced planning will help with tackling this goal. Identifying a list of target birds and when they are present in my home town will be a good first step. I’ll want to first tackle birds that are more difficult to get. For example I can record the California Scrub-Jays and Anna’s Hummingbirds in my backyard year-round on any given day, but the window to record a Bullock’s Oriole will be during spring migration and when it sings its heart out to attract a mate. The summer is usually quiet and too hot to go out birding, so I will need to account for that.

There’s a lot to do before the year comes to a close, but I’m looking forward to this year-long goal!

Big Year Wrap-Up 2023

Big Year Wrap-Up 2023

Tundra Swans

Three Tundra Swans fly by against a gray background

Last year I embarked on an incredible journey – my first Big Year competition, sponsored by the San Joaquin Audubon Society. The Big Year is a competition to see as many bird species as possible in one year, and in this case we would be competing within county borders. It proved to be a great way to meet the local birders and to get to know the birding spots here, which was a perfect set-up for newcomers such as myself.

Franklin's Gull

Franklin’s Gull flying while a Ring-billed Gull sleeps. The Franklin’s Gull took multiple attempts to find.

During the year, I experienced many beautiful moments of awe, of being lured into the spell of a rare bird popping by for a day or two. With every rare bird report, I could count on seeing a familiar group of birders later that day as we all rushed out to find the bird. I enjoyed the conversations and friendships that followed.

Because of the Big Year, I went out of my comfort zone by exploring new areas and landed several “lifers” (a bird I’ve never seen before) as a result. I also paid more attention to the birds around me, which undoubtedly aided in my discovery of a Costa’s Hummingbird making my backyard its home. It’s these experiences that I will treasure long after the Big Year is done.

In the end, my husband and I received first place for team effort! We were tied for third in the intermediate category, and placed sixth overall. Not bad for newcomers that were just getting acquainted with an area.

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk spreading its wing to defend against a squirrel (not pictured), 2023

A bucket list item is checked. A new year begins. Now what? After a year of grinding, suddenly I’m left with a feeling of uncertainty of how to bird “normally.” I’ve been focusing on my backyard and observing the bird drama. White-crowned Sparrows establishing a pecking order within their foraging unit, Anna’s Hummingbirds aggressively defending their feeder, and battles between jays and mockingbirds for the prime spot in a tree. There’s been so much to explore within my own backyard, and for now that is bringing me the peace and relaxation I need to wind down from 2023.

Checklist-A-Day Challenge

Checklist-A-Day Challenge

On January 1, 2018, I embarked on a lofty goal: to submit an eBird checklist every single day that year. This was inspired by a checklist-a-day challenge, sponsored by eBird, for a chance to win a pair of binoculars. Most days I easily fulfilled my goal with at least one bird outing each day, even if it was as simple as watching birds from my window or as I walked to work. On other days, I had to peel myself away from whatever was occupying my time to sneak in an uninspired bird count. But by December 31, 2018, I had done it: 365 consecutive days of eBird lists.

What started as a fun annual goal became a multi-year obsession.

Daily birding became such a happy habit that I continued it through 2019. I kept going in 2020, where it was especially useful to keep me grounded through the pandemic. 2021 was another nutty year, but I documented the birds in eBird every single day. Then in 2022, in spite of a move and a hellishly hot summer, I managed to log in my birds.

It’s a couple weeks into 2023 and I see no signs of stopping this practice. It’s relaxing and meditative, while connecting me with nature for a little bit every single day. In my new area, curious (or perhaps suspicious) neighbors stop to ask me why I’m wearing binoculars in the neighborhood, and it’s been a great opportunity to raise a little awareness of local birds. Perhaps it will plant a seed of interest for a future conservationist, or at least someone who will appreciate and care for the birds.

After five years, I haven’t won a pair of binoculars from the eBird challenge, but I’ve gained so much more by inviting a rich birding experience that threads through each day of the year.

It’s the Great Backyard Bird Count!

It’s the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Red-Crowned Parrot

Red-crowned Parrot: One of several species I saw in my first GBBC

One of my earliest memories of doing a real bird count and submitting a checklist goes back exactly ten years ago when I participated in my first Great Backyard Bird Count. With my interest in birding starting to bud, I was down in SoCal visiting my family when I learned about this annual birding event. The rules were different, something about only recording the highest number of birds you see at a single time unless you were positive you were not recounting the same bird(s). You also noted things like your skill level, habitat, weather, and snow level – data that the birder no longer needs to enter into eBird checklists.

Armed with a paper notebook and pen, I was excited to participate in this activity for the first time. We scoured Irvine and Costa Mesa for birds. One new location yielded the non-native Egyptian Goose, several hummingbirds, and dozens of crows. But what I remember the most was popping up over a hill and feeling my head whirl when I found a couple hundred waterfowl crammed into a little pond. Everyone in my party moaned at the unbelievable task before us of counting them all. This was my first experience attempting to count what felt like a huge number of birds. I diligently ticked off every single bird for a total of 78 American Wigeons, 88 Mallards, and 23 American Coots. What a huge number for my first ever GBBC experience!

I did my first GBBC checklist of 2021 while looking out the apartment window this morning, thinking how much has changed in ten years. These days it’s easier than ever to record bird sightings. Our smartphones allow us to use eBird, automatically capturing data like distance traveled and time spent birding. It’s now permissible to give an estimate of the number of birds seen. Submitting a checklist does not require transferring data from a notepad to your desktop computer at home. Very convenient.

I hope you will join this annual event over the next four days. If you’ve never done it before, I encourage you to give it a try. Not only do your sightings contribute to bird conservation, it’s a great way to decompress and be in nature. Grab a friend or a Valentine sweetheart and have fun!

Monthly Bird Photo Project 2020: Macro/Attention to Detail

Monthly Bird Photo Project 2020: Macro/Attention to Detail

California Towhee

California Towhee: Face Details

For the month of February, I pursued bird photos with “attention to detail” as the focus. In other words, pay attention to features of birds that can be often overlooked.

The most difficult part of this theme was getting close enough to the birds to capture details (or at least close enough to crop later on) without spooking them. My 400mm lens, while very powerful, still required birds to be a bit closer for this theme. However, I did manage to pull off a few pictures, mainly head shots, that I enjoyed. I hope you like them too!

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Golden-Crowned Sparrow, Face & Wing Details

Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey, Upper Body Details

See Monthly Bird Photo Project for details of this project, and the February 2020 post.

Monthly Bird Photo Project 2020: Bird Groups

Monthly Bird Photo Project 2020: Bird Groups

Sanderling and Western Sandpipers

Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers Take Flight

See Monthly Bird Photo Project 2020 blog post for details of this project.

For the month of January, I selected the focus of “bird groups” for my year-long photo project. I chose this theme knowing that we would go to Sacramento NWR where there are thousands of geese that often take flight for stunning photo opportunities. Therefore, “bird groups” would be an easy first month project, right?

Wrong.

Group shots are harder than I expected, especially if you’re simultaneously learning to use the camera in manual mode. On the technical side, I found that my photos were overexposed, blurry, or too dark. On the artistic side, I found photo composition for groups difficult, especially when the subject includes fidgety birds. If you want a nicely composed photo, it seems that you can’t just take a picture of a group of birds. This comes out boring with no interesting story to tell. I learned that there needs to be more intentionality behind the composition if the photo is to shine.

For nearly two weeks, I tried taking more group photos, and none were coming out the way I envisioned. Subjects were too far or covered by distracting objects like branches. Birds mingled too far apart, making spacing awkward. It was interesting to see the various factors that frustrated my efforts.

Luck seems to be a big part of the game, and I did luck out on a few shots later in the month. Below are the results. I still have more learning to do, but this was an interesting way to begin this project.

Various Gulls

Various Gulls Avoiding the Splash

Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers

Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers

Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers

Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers Take Flight

Rock Pigeons

Rock Pigeons

Snow Geese and Ross's Geese

Ross’s Geese and Snow Geese at Sunset