big year

A number of birds are best seen in fall migration – what did autumn add to the species tally on Jack’s Thoreauvian Big Year?

I last updated the world on my Thoreauvian Big Year – an attempt to see as many bird species as possible within a 10-mile, foot- or bike-powered journey – in mid-April. Since then, I’ve clawed my way up to 183 species, adding 15 more birds to the year list. There are some interesting ones!

What are the 26 new species I’ve found recently in my Thoreauvian Big Year? What spring birds can you see now in Novato? What reasonably common birds did I finally nail down after months of unreasonable elusiveness on their parts? And where are the special hotspots of our area that hide the uncommon, range-restricted, habitat-specialist birds that most casual birdwatchers don’t know about? Let me tell you.

By the end of February, my Big Year bird count had climbed to 142 species. So where have I been spending my local birding time?

Earlier this month, I introduced my undertaking of a “Thoreauvian Big Year,” an attempt to see as many bird species as possible this year within a ~10 mile radius of my home in southern Novato, while transporting myself only by feet and bike rather than big gas-powered machines. Today, I’ll tell you about where I went and what I found en route to the first 115 species, which might give you some ideas about the best winter sites to visit in the Novato area if you want to see some new birds.

This year, I’m aiming to see more or less all the birds that occur in this neck of the woods. More precisely, I’m planning a new twist on the classic birding challenge in which one attempts to see as many species as possible between the first day of January and the last day of December: I call it the Thoreauvian Big Year.