I’ve been looking forward to the new birding year but the weather means that it will begin quietly. Flagstaff has had 17.2 inches of snow in the last two days and it will stay below freezing for a while. Frozen lakes and a snow covered golf course means that we may lose some of the good birds I’d been hoping to start the year with. Humbug! But my gloomy mood has improved slightly today after reading a 5000 word posting by Tommy DeBardeleben on the Arizona-New Mexico birding list serve claiming a Maricopa County Big Year record of 303 species (plus Peach-faced Lovebird). Congrats to him! Tommy managed 137 species in Maricopa in January 2010. With a winter wonderland around me but some out-of-town trips on my agenda, I will set myself the simpler goal of 114 species by the end of January, the number I saw in Arizona in January 2009 during my personal big twitch year.
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