16 July 2015 - Utah Birders Challenge Update

Some of you have been kind enough to ask how I am doing in my birding every day challenge for 2015.  I would say, considering my schedule, obligations et al, pretty well. 

As a reminder, the challenge was:

• Bird every day and submit a list to ebird for each location
• Bird in every county of the state - Utah has 29 counties
• Bonus points for birding in 10 different locations in each county. 

Here is where I am as of June 30, which is the 181st day of the year with 184 days left--just a hair away from the middle of the year. 

I have birded 151 days out of the 181 days available and I have submitted 214 checklists.  I have been in 9 Utah counties and 3 California counties.  Salt Lake County has a high of 29 different locations birded, although only ten count in this challenge, and Utah County is my lowest with only 2 locations. 

I have added 34 new birds to my life list. I am pretty happy about that. My only disappointment is that I have not been able to photograph all 34. As an example, on a trip to California I went on a whale watching tour where the boat circled the Farallon Islands. I got four new birds on the islands, seen through my binocs, but due to the waves and bouncing of the ship, no pics. No, we were not allowed to land on the islands. 

Here are a few of the new varieties for this year. 

Mountain Bluebird

These are both new. Black Rosy Finch on the left and Gray-crowned Rosy Finch on the right

Horned Grebe

Another photo with two new birds with similar coloring. 
Pine Grosbeak on the left and Cassin's Finch on the right.  Fun to see them together. Makes you wonder if the Cassin's is thinking "That's what I want to be when I grow up!"

Varied Thrush

Green-tailed Towhee

Orange-crowned warbler

Bewick's Wren

Common Loon (breeding plumage)

Acorn Woodpecker

Red-breasted Sapsucker