{"id":318,"date":"2015-02-18T03:53:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T03:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=318"},"modified":"2015-02-18T03:53:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T03:53:43","slug":"the-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"The Quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a crisp, cold morning when I ventured out to a local park on January 1, 2015. The time was around 6:45 am, and the eastern sky was beginning to glow with streaks of pink and orange, as if someone took a large paint brush and stroked the horizon back and forth. No other cars were parked in the trailhead parking lot. The sunrise was going to be beautiful, great for photos. But, as much as I love taking pictures at daybreak, there was another reason for my visit to this quiet area on New Year\u2019s Day. I was starting a personal challenge, or maybe I call it my 2015 quest. Some people even nickname it a \u201cBig Year.\u201d My \u201cquest\u201d is to see how many different bird species I can record (see\/hear) in Pennsylvania in one calendar year. I\u2019m not getting anything for doing this, asking for sponsorships or competing against anyone else. The only competition is with myself.<\/p>\n

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Two species that are only found seasonally in PA are Snow Bunting (pictured above) and Bufflehead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Buffles\"<\/a>\u00a0Now, before you go and compare me to any of the characters Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black played in the movie The Big Year<\/em> (2011), keep in mind that I\u2019m only keeping track of birds I see in Pennsylvania. Although, if I had to choose one character that I could relate to, it would definitely be the one played by Jack Black. But, I\u2019m not flying and traveling all over the U.S. I don\u2019t have the resources or bird ID experience to attempt something like that, nor do I want to. I have a FT job, and many other interests. However, on a much smaller scale, I do want to \u201cbird\u201d my home state of PA, meet new people, and discover some places I\u2019ve never visited before. The Keystone State has a lot to offer for outdoor adventurers, as well as birders!<\/p>\n

\"Woodstar2\"<\/a>
When a rare bird species is found, the word gets out very quickly and dozens of people may show up to catch a glimpse of it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the Pennsylvania Ornithological Society<\/em> (POS), there are currently 426 species listed in Pennsylvania. Of these, 418 are considered to be accepted (called Class I) while 8 others are still to be confirmed (called Provisional). Someone recently asked me what my \u201cgoal\u201d is; how many do I think I can realistically hope to see? My answer was simple, \u201cAs many I can.\u201d I don\u2019t want to limit myself, or my quest, by choosing some arbitrary, target number that I can\u2019t reach. I just want enjoy the experience of birding in a variety of habitats, with lots of different people and eat some good food along the way! That\u2019s it. Whatever my total species count is on December 31st<\/sup>, will be my number!<\/p>\n

\"CedWax2\"<\/a>Don\u2019t get me wrong, many birds on this list are considered uncommon or rare, and I want to try and see those ones as much as the next guy, but I won\u2019t be able to \u201cchase\u201d all the rare birds that happen to occur across the state throughout the year. I know this will lower my total number, since many (96) of the birds on the list are categorized as \u201caccidentals,\u201d which means they\u2019ve only been recorded 3 or fewer times in the past ten years. That being said, I\u2019ve already successfully \u201cchased\u201d a few local species with the help of several people, including very welcoming private residents, and many excellent emails on PA Birds. I cannot, and do not, want to continue my birding quest without these fantastic \u201chuman resources!\u201d For me, half the fun of birding, is birding with other people! However, a little planning can go a long ways to seeing a variety of species. Many of our birds found in PA can only be recorded at certain times of the year, and as we move into spring, the number of possible bird species begins to increase rapidly, so trying to see new ones each week can become pretty exciting. Timing has a lot do with my birding challenge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s a few of my early stats: Recorded birds in 8 different Counties, traveled over 400 miles, met 5 new birders, fell in 3 snow banks, including tumbling down a 5\u2019 embankment while holding my camera and a Wawa turkey hoagie (dropped the camera, but saved the hoagie), got my truck stuck twice, spilled approx. half gallon of coffee on myself (see previous note on stuck truck), managed to have at least 7 thorns impaled into my arms and legs, questioned by 2 different police officers for \u201csuspicious activity,\u201d and lost one glove, twice\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026oh, and my total so far-67 species. Birding-you gotta love it! Check back in a few months for my spring update!<\/p>\n

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The snowbank (and briar bush) where the Wawa Turkey Hoagie Tumble occurred, while seeking out a secretive sparrow!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It was a crisp, cold morning when I ventured out to a local park on January 1, 2015. The time was around 6:45 am, and the eastern sky was beginning to glow with streaks of pink and orange, as if someone took a large paint brush and stroked the horizon back and forth. No other … Continue reading The Quest<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}