Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Overall 2024 was a slow year. I didn’t travel anywhere I hadn’t been before, and I lost a month of prime rarity season in New York to a bout with pneumonia that put me in the hos[ital for over a week. But there were still some interesting birds to be found the rest of the year.

I finished the year with 364 species total (surprisingly 19 more than 2023, perhaps because I traveled to the West Coast a couple of times for the first time since quarantine) but no life birds. (Harris’s Sparrow was new on my ebird life list, but I did see one on Long Island years ago before eBird was a thing.) I did pick up some species for my state and county lists though.
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2023 was a decent year, especially here in Brooklyn where I added eight birds (almost 9) to my county list. I still haven’t left the country since quarantine, but I did make two trips to New Orleans and two to Arizona, so there were a few life birds to add. I finished the year with 345 species total (20 fewer than 2022) and 6 life birds (all in Arizona).
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I continue to be amazed at the number of “pro” photographers who continue to not understand crop sensors and the importance of pixel pitch, especially for wildlife photography. After watching a number of YouTube videos about rumored upcoming Canon cameras, every single one talks about the full frame sensor as an advantage, and this is exactly wrong.
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2022 was a slower year than 2021. I still haven’t left the country since Covid, but I did make four trips to New Orleans and two to Arizona, so there were a few life birds to add. I finished the year with 365 species total and 19 life birds as well as a Brooklyn first Townsend’s Warbler.
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2021 was a low but not super low year thanks to quarantine. I did make two trips to New Orleans and one to Arizona. Plus there were some really good and one spectacular bird in Brooklyn this year. Also worth noting that I set a new personal best for a Brooklyn year with 216 species. I finished the year with 311 species total and 18-19 life birds including a spectacular surprise of Gray-breasted Martin on my home patch at Prospect Park.

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This was a super low year thanks to quarantine. I finished the year with 197 species, less than I’ve seen probably since I started counting. I never left New York City and rarely left Brooklyn. I didn’t even get to Jamaica Bay. Nonetheless I did get one life bird in 2020, a King Eider that was hanging out at the Brooklyn Army Terminal pier in December.

Besides the Eider, I added five birds to my Kings County list including:

• A Western Tanager that spent a week or so in Greenwood Cemetery.
• A Short-eared Owl flying around the Fountain Ave. Landfill on the Christmas Bird Count
• Cliff Swallows that nested at Canarsie Beach Park under the Belt Parkway
• A Harlequin Duck at Sheepshead Bay early in the year

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