My 2015 Birding Year

 I ended the year with 522 species, plus a non-countable Cockateil, which far exceeded my goal of 450 species worldwide, partly due to the 26 species added on an unexpected business trip to China in December and a good number of birds in the UK with David following my Spain bird tour. I made my 250 Arizona bird target exactly courtesy of a couple of staked out birds on December 12th. I saw 166 species in Coconino, and my target of 150 was easily attained. I was happy with my ABA total of 306 species although this was less than my totals from the previous four years. I had left the state for short trips to Illinois in August, Washington/British Columbia in November neither of which delivered many species; my out-of-state birding was saved by a week in California in May.

I did not find everything of course - with some easy species missed. I did not catch up with Hermit Warbler, Red Crossbill or Gray Flycatcher although they were around in good numbers. I looked for Califonia Condor, Common Nighthawk, Arizona Woodpecker and Leconte's Thrasher without success.  I also failed to see Burrowing Owl, Merlin, Prarie Falcon or any species of longspur. In Arizona I also failed to find Common Loon, Wood Duck and Forster's Tern.

I had 77 lifers in 2013, many more than I had expected. My bird tour in Spain gave me 56 of these - including Wallcreeper, White-headed Duck and Lammergeier - and the trip to China another 17 - including Chinese Hwamei. Elsewhere I finally caught up with California Gnatcatcher, found Yellow-chevroned Parakeet withoiut looking for it, ran into Spotted Crake in the UK and then successfully chased a Tufted Flycatcher in Ramsey Canyon.

My bird of the year had to be Lammergeier. My first sight of this bird took my breath away. I also got to enjoy 7 shrike species, and saw several of my favourite birds - Hoopoe.

My year end totals are as follows:

Life List
ABA List 563	569
Arizona List	397
Coconino County List	278
Yard List	97