As I sit here eating lunch at one of my go-to birding spots, and thankfully on my work route, Robert H. Long Park in Southeast Michigan, I started thinking about the question I hear from people a lot when I share how many birds I’ve seen during the year. After a quick exclamation of “WOW!”, the question I get asked most is “How do you see so many birds?”

The answer is both easy and difficult.

Easy in the way that as long as you keep track of all the birds you see during any visit you can keep a running tally of those birds. Those that do keep track of their species total per year often keep track electronically by either a website like eBird.com or on a computerized spreadsheet.

And now for the hard part!

The most species I’ve seen in a calendar year in Michigan is 265 in 2020 and that’s the most birding I’ve ever done! To put that into perspective, the person who topped the Michigan list last year saw 337 species and the top bird getter in the country had 781 species seen!

In my yard which includes my feeders and along my street, I usually count around 75 species per year such as Black-Capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.

In my home county, I usually see about 175 species a year. That entails stopping at the birding hotspots multiple times a week just in case something pops up that is migrating through the region. I also drive a lot of backroads glancing at every pond, lake, fluddle (water in a flooded field that are quite a bit bigger than a puddle but not permanent like a pond) and farm field as I drive. I’m always looking for different species of sparrows, larks, and buntings depending on the season.

To get the most opportunities to add to my yearly total I have a couple of annual birding excursions. Because the state of Michigan is very bio-diverse a trip to the boreal forests of the Upper Peninsula in the winter is a must though getting there at any time during the year is a weekend excursion. Just to reach the tip of the Lower Peninsula from my house is a four-hour drive and then it is a long trip from there depending on where your destination is. There you can usually get species such as Roughed, Spruce, and Sharp-tailed Grouse, Red and White-winged Crossbills, Redpolls, Bohemian Waxwing, and Boreal Chickadee. These are species that you would be hard-pressed to find south of the Mackinaw Bridge. I usually visit the first weekend in October for waterfowl migration to nab a couple of these along with waterfowl species such as Long Tailed Duck and Surf Scoter.

My second trip scheduled yearly is the spring big day which is normally set for mid-May during spring migration. A team of us start our journey pre-dawn to hit our first stop at sunrise. We then bird all day hitting birding hot spots along the way usually netting 140 different bird species including Black Tern, Black-bellied Plover; most wood-warblers such as the rare Kirtland Warbler, Mourning Warbler, and Northern Parula; and wading birds like the endangered Piping Plover, Dunlin, and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. Then finishing the day at dusk with the calls of the Eastern Whip-poor-will.

The next thing I would need to do to raise my annual species count is I have to make my way to rarities in the state. The best way for me to be able to keep up to date on the latest sightings is by getting daily rare bird alerts and year needs alerts through eBird and a discord channel. Last year we had crazy sightings like Lewis’s Woodpecker (normally found in Western USA), Brambling (Normally found in Europe), and our South American ultra rarities Southern Lapwing and Variegated Flycatcher!

But you can’t count them all!

Birds that are known to be hunting area escapees such as the Bobwhite and Chukar, any birds in captivity like those in zoos, any domesticated birds like chickens and yard geese, and birds like Whooping Crane which are wild but also being electronically tracked cannot be added to the year list in my state.

Last year’s sighting leader for my state I believe traveled around 40,000 miles! That’s some serious dedication!

At this point in time, I would have to say that I do not have what it takes to embark on a big year. Hopefully somewhere in my future birding journey the stars will align to where I can begin to make the plans to bird on this daunting endeavor!

And of course, I will write!

Birds seen during my lunch break:

• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Ring-necked Duck
• Hooded Merganser
• Mourning Dove
• Killdeer
• Ring-billed Gull
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Black-capped Chickadee
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• American Robin
• Song Sparrow
• Red-winged Blackbird