Los Angeles County 2015 Big Year

At the beginning of 2015, I started what I am calling a “Pseudo Big Year”. A Big Year, in birding parlance, is when a birder spends a year of focused effort trying to observe as many bird species as possible in a defined area. In my case, this defined area is Los Angeles County, California. Why “Pseudo”, you ask? Because, unlike many birders, the pursuit of a large number of bird species is not the sole focus of my existence during this effort. I still have a job, I still have a family to spend time with, and I still am spending a large amount of my free time as a trail runner. All of those things take up a large amount of my time. The thing that is different for me in 2015 is a significant effort to make time specifically for birding, and a significant effort in using ebird and other sources to “chase” particular species that have been observed by others. As a birder, even when it was a primary use of my outdoor time, I was never much of a “chaser”, so this is all new to me.

I never intended to use a blog to document what I was doing, but I had multiple friends and colleagues request that I do. I will not go back and write about everything that occurred in January (there was a lot), but I did end the month with 176 species, which is only 22 species short of my total for all of 2014. From this point forward, I will write new posts when significant events on this journey occur.

To get automatic updates when new content is posted please enter your email address and click the Subscribe button below.

Join 2,189 other subscribers

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

%d bloggers like this: