Recent additions

On Sunday, I searched in vain for a Barnacle Goose that was being reported just across the Massachusetts border. There were several ups to the trip though, such as finally meeting Jacob Drucker, another New York young birder, and adding Black Vulture and Killdeer to my year list, bringing it up to 103. When I got home from the trip with Dad, I discovered that the IOC had put out version 2.4 of their world bird list. This update involved a few changes for my list. First and foremost, the Yellow-rumped Warbler was split into four different species: Myrtle Warbler in the east; Audubon's Warbler in the west; Black-fronted Warbler, a non-migratory species from north-central Mexico; and Goldman's Warbler, also non-migratory, but this time living in western Guatemala. So, despite missing the Barnacle Goose, my life list increased to 653 on Sunday. The other change that affected my list was the recently split American Scoter was changed back to Black Scoter because the European species was switched from Black Scoter to Common Scoter.

On Monday, yesterday, I picked up my first Fish Crow of the year while down at RCDS for AP European History review. When I came home, I started putting in the changes from the IOC update to my lists. While opening various documents, I stumbled across my trip list from my first SCA crew to Dinosaur National Monument. On it I found a bird that I had never put on any of my other lists, yet casting back in my memory I could remember our truck stopping to let eight female Greater Sage-Grouse cross the dirt track. But it wasn't on any of my lists! I checked the IOC world list, and found that ABA's "Greater Sage-Grouse" was simply called Sage Grouse. This addition brought my life list up to 654 and my ABA list up to 495, only five away from my goal of 500 by June 11th.

Today, on my way down to school to take the AP European History exam, I picked up a flock of five Common Grackles, bringing my year list up to 105.

I got into Williams College (early in the regular round) just yesterday, and I'm leaving for Spain with my choir on Friday! One heck of a week.