Lynn Barber's Alaska Big Year – and Beyond

Almost all of the time I really try to stay upbeat about things, especially about my big year, which has been a great year! However, the combination of a cold, drizzly, freezing rain all day today and my being suddenly overpowered last night by my second sniffly, sneezy cold in less than a month has caused me not only to not leave the house today but also to feel a bit whiney.

I did feed the jays though, including “Beaky” who stayed on the porch quite a while all puffed up and periodically preening (his picture sort of looks like he felt as grumpy as I did today). I also saw Black-billed Magpies out in the yard so the day was not a total loss.

I also did a chart of the locations where I first saw each of the Alaskan bird species this year (so far). Because I began the year in Kodiak (Jan. 1-2), it wins the prize for the number of birds added to my year list, with Ketchikan second, Anchorage third and Juneau fourth:

ADAK 16 ANCHORAGE 36 BARROW 2 CHICKEN 1 DELTA JUNCTION 10 DENALI HIGHWAY 1 DUTCH HARBOR TRIP 6 FAIRBANKS 1 GAMBELL 14 GUSTAVUS 2 HAINES 1 HOMER 17 HOONAH 4 HYDER 20 JUNEAU 24 HAWKWATCH SITE 4 KENAI 5 KENNY LAKE 1 KETCHIKAN 38 KODIAK 52 NOME 17 OTHER 3 PALMER 1 SEWARD 1 SITKA 4 ST. PAUL ISLAND 20 SUMMIT LAKE AREA 1 WASILLA 1

303 species so far