I admit it. I am a lister. Using eBird, I keep an electronic record of my bird sightings. Long before eBird existed, I wrote down my observations in a small notebook. I recorded the location and date, and listed each species I observed. My earliest hand-written record is from the week of June 2-6th, in 1973.
I was thirteen years old, and had just finished eighth grade at Canyon del Oro Junior High School in Tucson, Arizona. I belonged to Boy Scout Troop 6, and the Scoutmaster arranged for our troop to meet a troop from Minnesota at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. My father and I went on this trip, and I kept a record of the birds I saw.
On our drive from Tucson to the Grand Canyon, we went through Jerome (it was virtually a ghost town back in 1973), Sedona, Flagstaff, and Williams. Some of the species I observed on that trip were common nighthawk, Steller’s jay, white-breasted nuthatch, violet-green swallow, western bluebird, American crow, rufous-sided towhee (now called a spotted towhee) and both western and hepatic tanagers.
While this took place over fifty years ago, having a hand-written record of the birds I observed helps me to remember the trip. It was also my first time to hike the Grand Canyon. Good memories.
With the advent of eBird, keeping a record of bird observations is much easier. Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, eBird is super simple to use. All records submitted into eBird are sorted into a database format. The information is searchable by location, year, county, state, country, etc.
My eBird account allows me to dial down into my records, and see how many species I’ve observed in North America, in Arizona, and even in Yavapai County. My species count for Yavapai County is just over 300 species, and I continue to work on seeing “new” species here.
The species really aren’t new, but they are new to my county list when I see if for the first time in the county. Last month, when I was in Oklahoma, I received a rare bird alert email from eBird notifying me of a yellow-eyed junco—in Prescott. This was a species that I have seen before, but not in Yavapai County. Needless-to-say, I wanted to add it to my county list. Wouldn’t you know it, I was nowhere near Prescott.
Fortunately, the bird was showing up in the backyard of good friends and customers of The Lookout. Upon returning to Prescott, I went to their yard and spent time searching for the yellow-eyed junco. No luck. I went again on another day. No luck. I went again, with the same results.
Meanwhile they had a live cam feed showing the birds at their feeder set up, and the junco was continuing to show itself from time to time—just not when I was there. This past week I tried again. I was there just over twenty minutes when I saw THE BIRD. Success—a new bird for my county list!
Even after seeing it, I stuck around, and about a half an hour later it showed up again, and I got extended looks at it. So exciting! This is a species that is more common in Mexico and in the Sky Island Mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona such as the Santa Rita, Huachuca and Chiricahua mountains.
Over the years, many customers have been so kind to have me come to their home to see a rare bird at their feeders. If you observe a rare bird in your yard please contact me, as I’d love to come out and see it.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.
Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.
One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.
There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.
Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.
Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.
