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| Counties of Washington State, including the totals from the "Big Enough" Years I have completed in recent years |
Well, here we are again! Nearly at the start of a new year. As always, I'm looking forward, mapping out a year in my head. It's always interesting to see the plans form, to do the actual birding, and then to write about it afterwards. Now, no offense intended towards planning or writing - both of these are important endeavors - but they always take a back seat to the actual birding.
Birding? Well, yes, these are "birding trips", but I walk, I drive, I listen to the radio, I pull over and nap, I pull over and talk to friends, I eat, I read signs, drive golf carts, think about life, and brush away snow. "How many birds can I see?" is largely a vehicle to get me doing all of these things and exploring a new place for a year.
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| This and all images lifted from 39counties.blogspot.com - specifically this trip |
This year? It's Pacific County - down at the mouth of the Columbia, along the Pacific Coast of Washington. I'm going to see what I can see down there in 2026. Expectations?? Well... for the longest time, I looked at the year list record of 190 and thought it was quite beatable. Chumpy! Bring it on! (Note - the only thing I intend to "bring on" with that statement is The Wrath of the Jinx Gods, but even bad luck can be a good story)
This has since been confirmed. The record for a Pacific County year list is now 220! Since the start of this, I've been doing "Big Enough" years - go out once a month, don't chase things, keep balanced, yadda, yadda. ButImean... the kids have flown the nest...Pacific County isn't THAT far away... Most of my other counties are going to be paired up for a two-counties-one-year situation. This may be my best chance to go a little bigger!
And there are other reasons why it might prove particularly interesting in Pacific County. On the one hand, yes, it is underbirded. I look at birds that fall into the "not reported annually" category, and see Northern House Wren, and Short-eared Owl, and I just assume there's a lack of intentionality to the birding that happens down there. On the other hand, I look at the rare birds that have shown up - 107 species!! Being on the coast, and at the mouth of the Columbia, there are crazy birds that show up occasionally. And there are pelagic birding trips that add to the possibilities as well.
I'm still a planner at heart, so I am not likely to turn into a chaser this year. But I think the nature of this county might convince me to be a go-down-more-often-er. Maybe this will drop me down there right in the middle of a visit from a rarity. Maybe I'll find some of my own!? I can promise nothing in this regard. I can only report that, as of today, I know what a Mountain Plover looks like, and I am prepared to maybe notice one. I promise to be shocked neither if I discover a really cool bird, nor if I go the whole year finding nothing more interesting than... oh let's say, a Northern House Wren.
On the to-do list:
- Go to Brooklyn and Long Island - both of which will require some planning. Look 'em up!
- Walk "The World's Longest Beach" (quotation marks entirely necessary)
- Have oysters in Oysterville
- Go on my first pelagic, where I will see, among many other things, my first albatross
- End the year with 224 species. That'd be more than I've seen in a year in any other county in the state!
- Get semi-but-not-completely-lost in the Willapas. The mountains are calling... but the active logging roads of the Willapa Hills will have to do.
- Throw some cranberries in some vodka. I haven't performed the add-fruit-to-vodka ceremony in a few years. They've got a cranberry museum down there, so it seems fitting.
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| For funsies - the Pacific County checklist with only the code 5 birds highlighted |
