Thank you, Blair, for joining us all together, adding such joy to every adventure in nature throughout 2021. Thank you to all our FamilyBigYear contributors for the friendly competition and sharing your curiosity. I have loved hiking in beautiful wilderness and near wilderness locations for a long time, enjoying the journey one step at a time relishing every destination. Adding birding, with first sightings of the year and often first lifetime sightings, brought an extra layer of joy and mindfulness to the present. Sharing all my birding outings with Dean was pretty damn great. Sharing birding outings with Blair, Peter, Alison, David, Shane, Holly, Cindy, Bill, Sue and Terry – what could be better? I loved being outside and spotting the birds but it is thanks to Dean’s photography and his patience scouring those photographs that Team Lynn and Dean have accomplished the identification of 239.
I have put together my top 15 birds from those 239. I intended to make a top 10 list but alas I couldn’t stop at 10. Some make the list because of the bird itself, some because of the journey to see it and some because of the company and events at the time of sighting. These are not in any order of preference except #1- the Elegant Trogon.
- Elegant Trogon – seen 12/7 in Madera Canyon, AZ
This spectacular bird is referred to in Madera Canyon, AZ as the “Holy Grail” of southern Arizona birding.. Dean and I decided to hike one of 2 trails that were described as the best chances of seeing this treasure despite being told by an Audubon Elegant Trogon “counter” that they were scarcer this year for unknown reasons. As we hiked along the riparian habitat I stopped to look at the creek rock shore and there it was. It allowed us to observe it for a long time appearing to be curious about us. How and why did a creature evolve to look like this??
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-LT3PGzT/A - California Condor – seen 2/24 in Pinnacles National Park,CA
Dean and I had seen one condor in 2019 soaring high above in this NP and decided to try again. We were treated to many sightings of this enormous magnificent bird – seated on rock cliff edges and flying above us. At one point there were 9 soaring above in our field of vision. To think that their numbers were down to about 30 on the brink of extinction when brilliant caring scientists and individuals saved them. We were seeing 9 of the approximately 400 individuals not in captivity on the entire planet all at once. Amazing.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-8CgjSck/A - Island Jay – 4/12 in Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park, CA
Dean and I took the Island Packers boat from Ventura to Santa Cruz Island where we have visited many times before, with one intention – to see the Island Jay found nowhere else on earth while on a beautiful hike. We were not disappointed.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-T3jbpnx/A - Burrowing Owl 3/11 Salton Sea, CA with Blair and Peter
Blair and Peter joined us on day #3 of our Salton Sea birding adventure. While at the Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge center a fellow visitor asked us whether we had seen the owls that had taken up residence in a pipe on the ground. We saw these cuties in the pipe on the ground and more along the side of the road that Blair and Peter spotted as we were driving from one birding spot to another.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-MG54nrp/A - Northern Cardinal 10/12 Midhurst, Ontario, Canada
While visiting family in Canada for the first time since pre-pandemic October 2019 Dean spotted a female at a bird feeder across the street from “The Ponderosa”. The Northern Cardinal was my father’s favourite bird. Being in the presence of a cardinal always makes me feel like I am in the presence of Dad. We saw more of these favourites in Southern Arizona in December.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-swkx3ZF/A - Kestrel 1/6 Sulfur Mountain Trail , Ojai, CA
I just love these tiny raptors. They were plentiful on this trail close to home that we were enjoying oblivious to the violent tragedy befalling our democracy at the Capital.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-k4JmR5p/A - Stellar’s Jay 5/8 Mount Rainier National Park,WA with Alison and David. First seen in 2021 in Pinnacles National Park ,CA 2/24 but best enjoyed by me in Mount Rainier
This most beautiful of Jays was a numerous visitor around the Mount Rainier Lodge porch where we enjoyed outdoor breakfasts with Alison and David after having not seen them since Shane and Holly’s wedding 7 ½ months earlier.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-bPH3v4v/A - Ruffed Grouse 5/11 Hoh River Trail Olympic National Park, WA.
We were almost entirely alone on this 10 mile out and back along this rain forest trail. We encountered a young woman sound technician who was recording nature’s sounds and excitedly told us about her encounter with the spectacular wing flapping chest bloating display of a large bird. Fortune struck twice when we were treated to the “display of an accelerating series of muffled thumps produced by beating wings”. OMG it was incredible.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-TTZTWLT/A - Great Horned Owl 5/16 Skagit Wildlife Area, WA with Alison and David
Along this Washington trail we were joined by other birders enthralled by these owls that included adults and 2 adorable cuddling juveniles.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-pJDBPXV/A - Canada Jay 5/8 Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, WA
As we hiked up a snow covered closed road to the Hurricane Ridge trailhead we could see Vancouver Island in the not very distant distance. Many Canada Jays accompanied us in the trees beside our route. How fitting that the Canada Jay accompany us along a trail from which we could see our homeland. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-9LMnrXm/A - Lazuli Bunting 12/9 in south eastern Arizona
Getting to see this beautiful bird in the closing month of our FamilyBigYear that adorns the Sibley Birds West cover that I’d been referencing all year gave me a sense of full circle. The book was given to us by Alison and David at the start of our birding adventures.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-k5VMS7C/A - Western Tanager 5/21 in Bishop, CA with Blair and Peter
This is such a beautiful bird! We found it around the small lake at the start of the High Sierras Bishop Ultra races that Blair and Peter ran this day. I was distracted from my typical race day anxieties by this beauty.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-9w4LPZJ/A - Wood Duck 5/26 in Davis,CA with Shane and Denver and again in Ottawa, Canada 10/21 with Sue Whelan and Terry McKinnon Meandering along the UC Davis Arboretum with Dean, Shane and Denver, who was fascinated by the Canada Geese, we saw a scruffy female Wood Duck. Watching Denver’s puppy excitement in this water bird environment added to the fun of the first sighting of this nondescript bird. Seeing the breeding male version later in Canada though – anything BUT nondescript.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-wGbTCrj/A - Wild Turkey 9/17 in Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Shane had been telling us for months that we would see Wild Turkeys in Davis because they frequently walked down the street he and Holly live on. We did not have that treat in Davis but hiking up the Timber Creek trail on our way to a spectacular alpine meadow at 10,800 feet we rounded a bend in the trail and found 2 enormous feathered dinosaurs crossing the path. They were spectacular and nonplussed by our presence.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-8BZqZLT/A - Lewis’ Woodpecker 11/18 in Ojai Meadow Preserve, CA
Dean had seen an Instagram posting about a 12 year old having spotted the rare woodpecker in this local reserve. So away we went the next afternoon with the hope of seeing it. While walking in the preserve far away from the entrance we happened upon a woman walking her dog. We stopped to chat and she mentioned that she had seen this woodpecker flying back and forth between a building and a post close to the preserve entrance. We back tracked and sure enough, exactly where she had described, we saw this very different looking woodpecker. Serendipity.
i. https://deanryanphotography.smugmug.com/Wildlife/2021-Big-Year-Birds-Collection/n-tD6Qc7/i-GVQRRFL/A
Happy Continued Birding Everyone, Lynn
The Big Year 2021 