Oh dear! The Park Manager is doing another Big Year.
What's a Big Year? An attempt to observe and list as many species of birds in 2020 as possible. Why should you care?
The park will be hosting, sponsoring, leading a number of bird-related events this year. If ever there was a year to invest time in learning how to identify the birds in and around the parks, Almo and the upper Raft River Valley, it would be this one.
This Friday park rangers will be leading the annual Jim Sage Mountain Christmas Bird Count. Meet at the visitor center at 7 a.m. and also check out the event details listed here on our website or on our Facebook site. Meanwhile, you can keep up with the park manager's birding adventures here.
Birder's Log 1/1/2020
Traditionally the Big Year begins with an all-out effort to list as many species as possible on the first day - so that during the doldrums of January to March, one can still feel a sense of accomplishment - that the birder is still on track to reach some lofty goal (let's say 300 by 12/31). I had planned to help with the Buhl Christmas Bird Count on New Years Day, which likely would have me resting comfortably at 50-60 birds by nightfall, but 5 inches of snow overnight, and raging winds forced me off the track. I stayed home (home includes the parks, Almo Valley and Raft River Valley upstream of the Narrows).
Birding can be a lonely business - miles of muddy roads, wandering cattle searching for a windbreak, and the obligatory raven flyover. I encountered only two vehicles the entire morning, and one was the snowplow. I rarely stepped out of the Jeep today for fear of heat-loss; still I managed to list 22 species - including such delicacies as Evening Grosbeak, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Lesser Goldfinch, and Pinyon Jay. A good start, but nothing to get all uppity about, especially since so many of my birding buddies north of the blizzards likely listed +60. ...and so it begins.
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January 01, 2020
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Last updated: January 16, 2020