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ABC BIG YEAR PARTY, January 15, 2019

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Nearly every big year included this Clay-colored Sparrow found by Will Brooks at 134th Street in Puyallup. Actually nearly every Pierce County Big Year relied heavily on Will’s findings.

ABC celebrated our birding achievements in 2018 with Big Year reports and best photos from all, with refreshments and merriment.

As usual, we had so much active participation that we ran overtime, but isn’t that a sign of a good time?  

The Big Year reports started out with Carole Breedlove, who continues to search the earth for new kingfishers and other birds, but this past year covered Washington state thoroughly as well.  She doesn’t e-bird, so it’s nice that she keeps us in the loop.

Many reports followed including the duos of Jerry Broadus and Clarice Clark, followed by Marcus Roening and Heather Ballash, both highlighting Spanish-language birding, Ecuador for Jerry & Clarice, Mexico for Marcus and Heather

A highlight was Ed Pullen’s report on how to get a really big year in Washington without being an expert or trying too hard, which was both hilarious as well as instructive!  Bottom line: Go on all the ABC field trips and add a couple of others such as a pelagic, and pay attention to the experts! I believe this was Ed’s way of explaining how he became the expert he is today. Here is a link to a PDF of the presentation.

Bruce LaBar, Marcus, Ken Brown and others talked about using eBird and Washington Birder county lists, getting to the magic number of 253 in the 253 area code, and sharing sightings.  

Essentially every WA big year depends on Westport Seabirds to get us out to find pelagic species, like this Northern Fulmar.

Heather Voboril and Laurel Parshall gave meticulous presentations, carrying on the tradition that Heather started several years ago of women reporting!   Both had well-organized professional quality photographs, and both projected their personal birding excitement.

We ended up with special guest star Blair Bernson, the #1 birder in the state for the year, who outlined his plan to cover the country with his progress so far with numerical quotas, photographing as he goes.  He was set to head off next day for New Mexico. Here is a link to Blair’s website where you can follow his birding posts and enjoy his photography and writing.

The 5 best photos will continue with those we missed!  This is very enjoyable for all, and ABC will post the 5 best for each soon, whether or not you attended the party!