As some of you know, I am doing a Big Year: a competition or personal challenge to see the most species of birds within a certain region in one year. It is customary to start on January 1st, but since that would not encompass all of our trip I started July 8th. In this case my region is the world. I am aiming to see 1,000 species of birds and to do that I need to maintain an average of 2.7 additional species per day. Currently my average is 5.46 and I have seen 71 species of birds in 12 days, 2 of them being my first ever. Here are some photos of some of those 71 species.
This is a Green-tailed Towhee, one of several birds that I suspect may be seen only once during the course of my Big Year.
Western Tanagers, on the other hand, are not as uncommon as the towhees; we saw an estimated 6 in a period of 2 hours.
This Calliope Hummingbird is one of the two new species for me that have been seen during the Big Year period. It is the smallest bird in North America.
This is an adult male Hairy Woodpecker, due to the red patch on the back of the head. We have seen adults feeding a juvenile so we presume they have nested here recently.
Pygmy Nuthatches are very hard to get a photo of, as they move extremely quickly, are very small, and do not visit the feeder for prolonged amounts of time.
This Bald Eagle was seen at Lagerman Reservoir in Longmont. It calmly perched on a telephone pole while we looked on from our car parked adjacent.
This is not special sunset light on this adult male Baltimore Oriole; it looks like it is about to burst into flame perpetually.
This sighting of a Dusky Grouse was my first view of the species, and as it was a species I had been trying to see for literal years (my “nemesis bird) I was elated to get a good view and get good photos on my first sighting of it.
I found this Yellow Warbler nest in Buena Vista. It was before I had started my Big Year, so it didn’t count towards the total, but it was an photographic opportunity I could not miss.
