The Big Year 2015

This year we decided to do a Big Year. Mason has loved birding ever since we put up those little peanut butter bird seed wreaths outside our window in Oregon. We've loved identifying them as they appear! In fact, the first thing we did in the airport after moving to Hawaii was to identify his first bird :). This year I went to Kauai and Mason and Cliff went to the Grand Canyon, so we were excited to see how many we could put on our list in one calendar year.

Of course, we started the year off by watching The Big Year, which is a movie about three crazy birders (Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson) who go to great lengths to beat each other out for their bird list. Hilarious! Anyway, Kaiah decided to get in on the fun and join us on our island birdwatching adventures as well.

 

 

Crazy kids.We went all over the island. Waimanalo, the shore near the Halona Blow Hole, Diamond Head, Kapiolani Park, Manoa, Tantalus Drive, Ewa, and even Kaena Point. We only went searching for birds specifically twice. The rest of the time we just sort of kept our eyes open. Birds we found on accident were the Saffron finch (while waiting for the kids to finish their scuba certification), the Francolin and quail (getting off the freeway), the White Tern (we noticed these just before we were rear ended in downtown Honolulu), and the Rose-Ringed Parakeets which we never would have found if I hadn't shown up for Kaiah's endocrinology appt a day early. 

These are a few of the birds we had regularly visiting our birdfeeder and who lived on the grounds of our condo:

I have the early morning call of the Red-Crested Cardinal etched in my memory, because it's so repetitive! And the Bulbuls (who are real bullies to the Japanese White-Eyes)... this is the kind the cats brought inside our house and played with while we were gone. We came home to so. many. feathers. But the White Rumphed Shama was our favorite. It had the most beautiful song. I loved having those singing in our plumeria throughout the day.

The Plover is a fascinating bird as well. In the bottom middle of the next set of photos, it has an extremely far migration. It starts in Micronesia and Hawaii and they travel as far as Alaska. You know they are preparing to leave when they get a beautiful black marking on their chest and belly in the spring. They are gone all summer and then return in the fall. Some people have theorized the way people first found the Hawaiian island chain was by following these birds. They would follow them, then mark their location in relation to the stars as they lost sight of the birds. Then the next year, they would row to that location, wait for the Plovers to fly past, and follow as far as they could. Perhaps they took several years of following them, but it is an interesting theory!

Here are the Hawaiian birds that we wrote down after observing them: 

Nene

Mallard

Grey Francolin

Red Junglefowl (rooster)

California Quail

Laysan Albatross

Sooty Shearwater

Christmas Shearwater

White-tailed Tropicbird

Red-tailed Tropicbird  

Frigatebird

Brown Booby

Black-Crowned Heron

Cattle Egret

Hawaiian Coot

Hawaiian Gallinule

Pacific Golden Plover

Killdeer

Hawaiian Stilt

Sandpiper

Dowitcher 

White Tern

Brown Noddy

Spotted Dove 

Zebra Dove

Rose-Ringed Parakeet

Barn Owl

Northern Mockingbird

Common Myna

Red-vented Bulbul

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Japanese White-eye

Red-billed Leiothrix

Saffron Finch

Red-crested Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

Common Redpoll

House Finch

Apapane

Common Waxbill

Chestnut Munia

Java Sparrow

White-rumphed Shama

Peacock

Muscovy Goose

Pheasant

 Cliff and Mason recall seeing a few birds on their hike from rim to rim of the Grand Canyon, but they weren't able to identify any specifically. 

In Oregon we saw many birds as well! We even drove through the slough Dallas to get as many for our list as possible. Here they are:  

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Barred Owl

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallow

Kestrel

Stellar's Jay

Scrub Jay

Canada Goose

Mountain Chickadee

Black-Capped Chickadee

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

Red-Tailed Hawk

Vulture

Blue Heron

Common Nighthawk

California Quail

Belted Kingfisher 

Mallards

Cormorant

Seagull

Great Egret

Red-naped Sapsucker

Flicker

Rufous Hummingbird

American Robin

Dark-eyed Junco

House Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Rose-breasted grosbeak

Mountain Bluebird

Pine Siskin

House Finch

European Starling

Clark's Nutcracker

Blackbird

American Crow

Common Raven

Merganser

Yellow Finch

Swainson's Thrush

Spotted Towhee

Chicken

Everyone petered out from keeping track around September, but I attempted to get as thorough of a list as possible. I counted around 100 birds! In the movie I think they got around 300, but they flew all over the place just for a glimpse. I'd totally do that if I were independently wealthy... and retired. Anyway! What a fun year! I still really enjoy seeing all the variety of birds which God made for us to enjoy. We should do it again sometime!