2009 is drawing to a close. The end of the year is the traditional time for doing a summary, and some reflection.

The opportunity to travel during the year opened up a new avenue for creativity and led me increasingly to expand of my birding hobby with photography. Photography is slowing down my birdwatching, making me more patient, more observant, and more appreciative of the birds.

Birding has been a component of travel, but not the sole component - history, culture, flora and fauna, are all important ingredients and I hope will remain so.

That being said, this is a blog mostly about birds, and a summary of my birding year is in order.

In 2009 in North America I logged 365 species and expanded my North American life list to 565, adding 18 new species. A surprise in those 18 new species is that 4 were in New England, my home base. I keep thinking that the odds are getting longer and longer for new species in the region where I do most of my birding. But each year something new turns up.

So for my year end summary, here is the list of new species, with photographs of the one that stood still long enough for me to document the sighting.

Dusky Flycatcher
01/11 - Patagonia Nature Conservancy, AZ

Rufous-crowned Sparrow
01/11 - Patagonia Rest Stop, AZ

Gray Flycatcher
01/11 - Patagonia Lake State Park, AZ

Rufous-winged Sparrow
01/11 - Patagonia Lake State Park, AZ

Rufous-capped Warbler
01/12 - Florida Canyon, nr. Madera Canyon, AZ

Painted Redstart
01/13 - Madera Canyon, AZ

Montezuma Quail
01/24 - Cave Creek Canyon - 2 clear observations of covey of about 12 on 2 different days

Elegant Trogon
01/26 - Cave Creek Canyon

Bar-headed Goose
04/18 - Brattleboro Retreat - probably an escapee - so not officially a countable but species, but what the heck ...

Henslow’s Sparrow
07/01 - Montague, MA

Manx Shearwater
8/10 - Pelagic trip out of Newburyport, MA

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
10/22 - Orange, MA

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
11/12 - King Ranch, TX

Sprague’s Pipit
11/12 - King Ranch, TX

Hooded Oriole
11/13 - nr Falcon Dam, TX

White-collared Seedeater
11/13 - Salenos, TX

Bronzed Cowbird
11/14 - Harlingen, TX

Rose-throated Becard
11/16 - Estero Llano Grande WBC, TX

As a summary, a year in which there were many good things, not least of which was plenty of Good Birding!

More from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

Late on Saturday, I picked up another life bird in the Rio Grande Valley - a Bronzed Cowbird. I know, cowbirds are not people's favorite bird, and yes, behind the bronzie you can also see a Brown-headed Cowbird. What can I say? We tend to overlook the blackbirds, but there can occasionally be a different one mixed in. BTW, remember that orioles and meadowlarks are also blackbirds.


We took the bird festival trip to Laguna Atascosa NWR on Saturday - a day of exceptional birding, even though we did miss the Alpomado Falcon. One of the dramas we watched was this Caspian Tern with a fish in its beak being chased by another tern, probably a youngster looking to steal or be fed.

There were large flocks of Long-billed Curlews, along with many other shorebird species and most of the waders.

The Great-tailed Grackle is hardly anybodies' favorite bird, but it is a southern species, and abundant. A bird may not have flashy colors, or the perilous circumstance of being rare or lost, but that doesn't mean that it should not be photographed or even appreciated from time to time.

The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival has been a treat, with exceptional leaders on every trip. They confirm what I have occasionally said or written - that there are more exceptionally skilled birders alive today than there have ever been in history. Even the icon of birding, John James Audubon, could not hold a candle to the skill of today's field birders. In part that is because his only equipment was a shotgun. The optical equipment of modern birding, combined with knowledge, experience, and skill in visual and auditory identification, has seldom been matched in the past, and then by only a handful. Today there are many handfuls of these talented birders, and we have had the chance to bird the last three days with a few of them.

Sunday we will be on our own. Good birding wherever you may be.