John Weigel, the Australian who leads this year's North American Big Year effort has seen 771 bird species as of Oct 23. Two of those are provisional, awaiting acceptance by a committee of the American Birding Association. Number 770 (technically 768) was a Least Storm-Petrel found off the California coast on Oct. 21. Number 772 was a Great Scua seen two days later from a cruise ship heading for Nova Scotia from New York City. I believe he now has seen every regular NA species, now awaiting visitors and vagrants. BTW, 20 of the birds on his list were seen in Minnesota in June. He visited Murphy Hanrehan Park Reserve, Cliff-Fen park in Burnsville, Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, Duluth, McGregor, Lost Lake, Sax-Zim bog, Crow-Hassen Park Reserve, Spring Lake Park, and the Miesville Ravine County Park.
I have no current number for Olaf Danielson, the North Dakotan also chasing Big Year numbers.
Follow them on their blogs:
Weigel — Birding for Devils
Danielson — The Bad Weather Big Year
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Our warming world is not waiting for you to pay attention.
