A Year Later...

    Today, July 14th, marks the exact date one year from when I submitted my first checklist on ebird and officially started birding. This has honestly been one of the greatest 365 days of my life, with a rapid expansion of my knowledge and appreciation for the natural world. Although I was constantly completely obsessed with nature from a young age, I previously would never have imagined that I would wake up at 5 am multiple times to catch the sunrise by bike or spend hours waiting in San Francisco on Christmas Day for a lost vagrant that would not appear. But who knew that just the sunrise, a simple thing that occurs every day, could cause tears to well up in my eyes, or that even this long, fruitless wait could allow me to meet great people who share the same interests? I guess there is always something new to experience and that is one of the greatest joys of being alive and sentient.
    It seems fitting then that in this past week, the final week before my "anniversary", that I have had the opportunity to learn even more. I am currently working on this post from Huyck Preserve in upstate New York. The program I am currently attending has been amazing in everything from the absolutely beautiful location to the wonderful speakers to the 7 other great students (more about everything in future blog posts after this "special episode"). There are two more weeks to go and I hope to get as much out of this experience as I possibly can. And again, rest assured that I will talk more specifically about my adventures here in dedicated posts later.

The light filtering through the canopy. The picture was taken just this morning.

    Now in no particular order, I will list the 5 most breathtaking and profound experiences that have occurred in the past year.

1. Birding in the rain
As said in my "Late March Flurry of Annoyances" post, one morning I decided to bike out after a downpour ended. The weather was fine as I headed out around 8 miles to the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant and birding was decent. However, on the way back it started pouring, hard enough to decrease visibility out on the bay's surface as a fine mist was created. While I biked slowly on the narrow path just next to the waters, the rain forcing me to look down, a huge flock of sandpipers flew towards me from out of the mist and parted as they went by. As they traveled, the sound of their numerous wingbeats made me feel like my heart physically skipped a beat for some reason. I just want to relive that moment.

2. Woodbridge Ecological Preserve
This was also from a previous post, "Vacation to Truckee". On the way to Truckee, we stopped by this famous area in Lodi. There were thousands of overwintering waterfowl with snow, cackling, and greater white-fronted geese, tundra swans, sandhill cranes, and many more. The ultimate moment was during the sunset as a huge flock of snow geese flew around, a sight I thought I would only get to see on a nature documentary. The amazing scene was made even more beautiful with the bubbling melodies of nearby meadowlarks.

3. The sunrise and skimmers
This appeared quite recently in "Reflections of May". The sunrise brought tears to my eyes. The skimmers brought tears to my eyes. Enough said.

4. The bobcat
This also appeared in "Reflections of May". The large cat looked at me with the most beautiful of eyes before vanishing into the forest. Definitely something that I will not forget soon or perhaps ever.

5. Oh god this was such a bad idea. I really cannot begin to list everything that awed me this year. So I'll just leave this at "everything else".

    Just for those who prefer numbers and more "official information" over my emotional soppiness above, here they are.

Total number of birds seen / heard: 253
Birds heard only: Swainson's thrush, black rail, ovenbird, barred owl
Any ABA Code 3 or above? No
ABA Code 2's: Tropical kingbird, Eurasian wigeon, yellow-billed magpie
California list: 212
Texas list: 2 (seen at Dallas airport lol)
Indiana list: 56
New York list: 45
2013 list: 184
2014 list so far: 229
5 most recent life birds: magnolia warbler, black-billed cuckoo, barred owl, rose-breasted grosbeak, bald eagle
5 most exciting life birds (when first seen): magnolia warbler, black-billed cuckoo, Canada warbler, tropical kingbird, belted kingfisher

Black-billed cuckoo seen yesterday. How fitting for 2 of my most exciting life birds of this year to appear on the same day, the one before this special one.

    Sorry for the lack of pictures. They will come soon. Now I would like to give infinite thanks to Robert Michael Pyle, author of Mariposa Road, for providing one of my sparks to start birding and observing wildlife more closely after I read his inspirational book about the first butterfly big year. I would also like to thank all the people who have supported my hobbies and dealt with my insanity. Finally, I would like to thank you all, dear readers, for keeping up with this blog. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!