Dave’s Year Listing Adventures, Y2K

... My best chasing/sighting story of the year, it’s in the last paragraph. First I talk about the bird of the year, then “the one that got away.”

It’s easy to answer Florence’s question about the best bird. There’s no doubt that the best bird of the year 2000 was the Louisiana Waterthrush found by Brad Hines in Miguelito Park. It’s not every year you get a first county record, especially when there’s another bird as good as a Golden-winged Warbler hanging out in the same place. The Golden-winged caused quite a stir, in fact, and even got a story in the Lompoc Register. Meanwhile, this waterthrush is skulking around the creek, being seen only from time to time, and even getting recorded on BirdWest as a Northern Waterthrush. On the day when I got my brief look at this bird, the list of rarities for the park was: Louisiana Waterthrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, White-throated Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Northern Pygmy-Owl, and Golden Eagle. I suspect more people will be birding this area in the future, compared with past years.

I have several different offerings for “the one that got away.” Certainly I’m irked that my work kept me from making a good effort at a couple of breeders: Bell’s Vireo and Black-throated Sparrow. But sometimes you make you’re best effort and nothing comes of it. I don’t know how many times I chased Red-naped Sapsucker this year. That was a real miss. But the bird that stands out as “getting away” is a Hooded Warbler found by Grant Weyburne in the clump of vegetation across the road from the first pullout at Devereux Slough. He found the bird, I think, around 9am and immediately called Joan Hardie, who was there in 20 minutes. She and Grant’s wife, Tryntje, were the only ones besides Grant to see the bird. I got back from my field work on the Santa Clara River around noon to find Grant’s e-mail. I went out soon after and poked around the brush for an hour or so, turning up virtually nothing, let alone a singing Hooded Warbler. A return trip the next morning produced similar results.

Besides the waterthrush and the Golden-winged, the list of other good birds I was lucky of enough to see this year wasn’t bad: Zone-tailed Hawk, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Pine Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Canada Warbler, Rusty Blackbird. But perhaps the most vivid memory of a birding adventure may be such because it’s the most recent, not because it involved a really great bird. On new year’s eve, I set out to catch Joan Hardie (who led me 337 to 335) by looking for Least Bittern at Laguna Blanca and Mountain Plover at the Santa Maria River mouth. I found the bittern easily enough, then stopped in at San Jose Creek, where I met a large group of people, including Joan, who were looking for the wintering Yellow-breasted Chat (another of the great finds this year, this one by Carolyn and Darryl Rutherford). I told Joan I was now only one behind her, and she wished me luck as I headed north. On my way to the river mouth, I decided to poke around and drive a bit off the main road leading in (to a property where I now have heard the landowner is VERY unwelcoming). As I drove up this road, a flock of Black-bellied Plovers flew over, with one smaller, darker bird among them. They landed near the main road, so I drove back to have a look. There among the Black-bellieds were two Pacific Golden-Plovers, the only ones seen in the county last year (amazing enough in itself). I made 337 and ended tied with Joan. (For those who are wondering, I drove back to Guadalupe and called Joan about the sighting. She stayed home, I missed Mountain Plover—despite checking the river mouth and scouring valley ag fields—and we stayed tied.)

Dave Compton

Becky’s synopsis for the lister year 2000

You know, I could hardly WAIT for the lister year to come to an end until it actually did. It was a real letdown when it was finally over.   I didn’t expect to feel the pangs of withdrawal from the constant push and excitement that the year had brought. It was an exciting, rewarding, educational, and sometimes frustrating and exhausting experience.  All in all, I loved it!  That’s much easier to say in retrospect, now that I’m not having to make daily forays to Santa Barbara or Figueroa Mtn in search of new birds, but really, I loved it.  I’ll list my biggest misses and best birds as I see them, but if you’ve followed the sightings that were made last year, and most especially if you kept an eye on the lister webpages, you’ll know that the very ‘special’ birds that were seen by so many of us are too numerous to list!

As many of you probably know, I ended up the year in 3^rd place with a grand total of 326 birds, behind Joan Hardie and Dave Compton who tied for 1^st with 337 birds each.  Those are pretty darned impressive numbers!  I should also tell you that I didn’t begin to get really serious about the competition until sometime during the late spring/early summer months, so I missed some birds that I shouldn’t have merely because I wasn’t willing to go chasing after everything on the wing that others were finding!  L  Oh well….

My biggest miss of the year would have to be the Red-necked Stint that I missed because I was taking a nap (I was up for work at 0400 every morning zzzzzz……) when Brad called to say he was going to ‘run out to the beach for a few minutes’ and I opted to stay home.  (BIG mistake!)  That bird would have been for me, as Paul Lehman put it, “a blocker” to the rest of the group!  Missing the American Dipper on San Ysidro Creek back in the spring was a byproduct of my lack of interest early on in the competition, but it was a substantial miss.  Other big misses for me are the Canada Warbler (missed it by one day), Bobolink and Varied Thrush (NOT for lack of trying!), Eastern Kingbird, and MacGillivray’s Warbler (just not in the right place at the right time!).

My very best bird of the year has to be the striking male Summer Tanager that I found (it’s my best mostly because I saw it first, and then had to track it down to convince Brad that I hadn’t caught a fleeting glimpse of a house finch or bluebird!) while birding Stow House in Goleta with Brad.  All of my ocean birds were great (the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses were REALLY exciting!), since I took my first ever pelagic trips this year.  I ended up going out 4 times, and each trip was really fabulous!  The MOUNTAIN birds were awesome finds!  It was thrilling to have them come down to the lower elevations!  The Mountain Plover is a bird that I had never hoped to find in this county, but thanks to Alex Abela, I picked that one up on our Christmas Count.  Of course all of the county rarities were very special finds, but the most special for me were the two that Brad and I found together on Thanksgiving morning:  the Golden-winged Warbler, and the Louisiana Waterthrush (a very FIRST county record!).

It was a great year, that’s for sure!  My very favorite part of the year was the camaraderie that developed between not only the listers, but the non-lister interested parties as well (Brad, Grant, Patrick, George, etc).  What FUN it was to be out birding, and have your fellow listers show up in the same spot.  It was just a BALL, and I’m really happy that I was involved.  Thanks Joan!  And everyone!

Becky Hoban

Cher Hollingworth

John’s Year in Retrospect

My year in retrospect.

I can't really think of what would be the best bird or sighting of the year, but nonetheless there were some highlights. 

Four pelagic trips without getting sick was a real positive, but with all the Parasitic Jaegers I saw without discerning a tail streamer that I could identify was a real downer.  Also having a Short-tailed Shearwater in front of me just off the bow, a potential life bird, but forgetting what I was supposed to be looking for before it was out of view.  Even had we not heard the Spotted Owl, the overnight backpacking trip to Big Cone Spruce would have been a rewarding trip.  The owl became my 300th county year bird, far surpassing my most optimistic expectations.  Nor did I expect the beauty of the San Rafael Wilderness along Manzana Creek.  I also enjoyed the day hike to Little Pine Mountain.  I'm glad the year is over, but had a great time. 

John Ayres 

The Year 2000: Virtually My Greatest Year Ever, by George Roland

I have debated now for lo these past three months whether or not to report what follows to all you diehard members of the Santa Barbara County Bird Listers Group . All things duly considered, however, I decided that its scientific importance to county listing in general and Santa Barbara County in particular, outweighed any justification that I could come up with to avoid all the hassle that goes with the inevitable glory and fame that must follow. 

I am reporting herewith that I won the Year 2000 SBCo birding competition. It’s true. Lest you scoff at my cheekiness in claiming this, let me hasten to explain that I did this by virtue of my breakthrough creation, the Virtual Santa Barbara County Bird List. When I added my virtual list to the list of what I actually saw, meager though it was by comparison, I came out so far ahead of everyone else that it’s truly embarrassing. I won’t reveal my final total because being a shy and reticent person by nature I do not want to have to deal with all the praise and adulation that you all would surely heap upon me were I to reveal how well I did. Trust me, I won by a virtual mile.

Probably I need to allay skepticism by explaining my virtual list. It is compiled following a set of well-defined counting rules which I have carefully formulated over the course of the last year or so. Actually, my rules are not all original, for I have heard some variation of many of them used by birders all over the US. Even birders in Santa Barbara County. The brilliance of my approach is that I have added definition and refined their usage to a high degree of perfection.

My definition of a virtual bird is a bird I would certainly have seen had I done, or conversely, not done certain obvious things. Here are some more rigorous definitions. A virtual bird is a bird that I would have seen. . . .

a) if I had gotten up and gone birding earlier in the day;

b) if I had chosen to drive faster to the bird’s location;

c) if I had stayed and looked longer;

d) if I had used a tape (particularly good for Scott’s Orioles, various owls, and cuckoos);

e) if I had chosen to go birding rather than do something else;

f) if I had been in town instead of traveling on business (I made this rule specifically to list the Canada Warbler Joan Lentz found while I was on business on the East Coast). You see, the rules are dynamic, not static. and that this is a work in progress;

g) if I had chosen to treat my Mercedes as a rugged offroad vehicle. The list goes on, but you get the picture, I’m sure.

Two rules are perhaps a little more iffy and require a teeny bit of persuasive amplification.

The first of these is The IIHOK Rule (“if I had only known, pronounced eye-hock) i.e. if I had only known the bird was there I would have seen it for sure. I know this rule might accrue a teeny bit of criticism from slavish adherents to ABA listing guidelines. Fortunately, however, I hardly ever had to use this rule because everyone did such a great job of putting things on the list serve so that all of us could participate. Thanks all.

Then there was The Murdoch Rule, which states quite simply that if Bill Murdoch saw a bird then I certainly could have seen it too. I mean . . . DUH! . . . he is my neighbor and all. The Murdoch Rule turned out to be highly useful late in the game when Bill was very actively birding with the likes of Grant Weyburne and Kathleen Whitney and I was into heavy-duty Christmas Shopping. Nice birds guys. Thanks. My list grew.

The benefits of virtual birding are so intuitively obvious as not to need a lot of elaboration. First and foremost, of course - THERE ARE HARDLY ANY MISSES (and if the rules are formulated and used correctly, there are none). And all you intrepid birders who couldn’t leave the county last year for fear of losing a good bird - NO PROBLEMO. What a reduction in frustration and stress and an increasing sense of accomplishment as your virtual list grows. Enough, no need to explore this ad nauseam.

I had so many virtual highlights over the year that I won’t even try to list them all. Your good birds were my good birds. Even when I was at the Santa Barbara Film Festival or attending eight weeks of the Music academy of the West program, my list continued to grow. I really loved the Burrowing Owl Becky saw on VAFB when I was off eating my sandwich. And the Spotted Owl Joan and George heard with John in the deep dark depths of the Los Padres National Forest. I didn’t even get sore muscles hiking in. And all those vagrant warblers that Dave and Grant and Karen and Brad found - Yup!, you guessed it, I ticked ‘em all. Wow! What a year. My heart palpitates with the excitement even now. Never have I birded so well!

I’m so high on this whole thing that I’m expanding this year to a North American virtual list. It’s so easy what with high speed internet access and all . And I’m recommending to Joan Lentz that we consider some variant of my formulas for this year’s CBC. After all, everyone KNOWS there was a Moorhen somewhere at Laguna Blanca last count. After a bit of virtual creativity I bet we could really kick some Texas butt. Call me about this Joan. While you’re looking up my number, I’ll just log on for a few minutes and see what I added in Florida today.

Bird on . . . virtually,

George Roland

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Year 2008 Participants:  Cher Hollingworth

Previous Record Year 2000:
Dave Compton
Joan Hardie
(tied at 337)

Year 2000 Participants:
John Ayres
Becky Hoban
Cher Hollingworth
George Roland