A Reflection on 3 Years of Sitka Birding

I got my my first telephoto lens for my first Canon digital Rebel in Fall 2003. Shortly after that time I got a little more serious about trying to photograph and identify birds in the Sitka area. I had taken a few pictures here and there, when the opportunity presented itself, but I never specifically tried to find birds to photograph. For that reason, October 2003 stands as the marker for the start of my Sitka birding adventure.

The Lapland Longspur pictured above represents the 130th species of bird I have photographed around Sitka in the 3 years since I got serious (well, as serious as I get, anyway). Although there are a few birds that are seen relatively frequently around Sitka that I have not yet photographed, I think I’ve pretty much managed to capture all the easy ones. I’m sure I’ll pick up a few more in the next year. If I’m lucky, I might even crack 150 species by the end of 2007. After that, I’ll probably gradually pick up the occasional, casual, or accidental birds that happen to show up at a time and place that I can see them. A few years of this and I might even push up toward 180 or so species. I suppose in the long run, there’s an outside shot that I could crack 200 species, but at this point I consider it kind of unlikely.

Of course the fascination with birds is not just about seeing and photographing new (for me) species. Getting better looks and photos of birds previously seen is always exciting. It’s also interesting to spend time watching what the birds are doing. Where and when do they show up? How do they interact with other birds and the rest of their environment? What can their actions tell me about the environment I am in? What variations are there in their songs? More than enough questions to keep me interested for a long time.

The birds (roughly in the order I first got a photograph which I was able to identify):
Fall/Winter 2003

1. Harlequin Duck
2. Great Blue Heron
3. Surfbird
4. Bald Eagle
5. Common Merganser
6. Black Turnstone
7. American Dipper
8. Belted Kingfisher
9. Double-crested Cormorant
10. Barrow’s Goldeneye
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler
12. Song Sparrow
13. Willow Ptarmigan

Winter/Spring 2004 (through mid-May)

14. American Coot
15. Common Murre
16. Chestnut-backed Chickadee
17. Common Raven
18. Northwestern Crow
19. Dark-eyed Junco
20. Pine Siskin
21. Mallard
22. Winter Wren
23. Ring-necked Duck
24. Hairy Woodpecker
25. Fox Sparrow
26. Golden-crowned Sparrow
27. Rufous Hummingbird
28. Brant
29. Red-breasted Sapsucker
30. Savannah Sparrow
31. American Robin
32. Short-billed Dowitcher
33. Dunlin
34. Black-bellied Plover
35. Northern Pintail
36. Semipalmated Plover
37. Marbled Godwit
38. Northern Shoveler
39. Greater Yellowlegs
40. Western Sandpiper

Summer 2004 (mid-May through mid-August)

41. Hermit Thrush
42. Pectoral Sandpiper
43. Lincoln’s Sparrow
44. Wilson’s Warbler
45. Bonaparte’s Gull
46. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
47. Townsend’s Warbler
48. Varied Thrush
49. Spotted Sandpiper

Fall/Winter 2004 (mid-August through December)

50. Brown-headed Cowbird
51. Yellow Warbler
52. White-crowned Sparrow
53. Steller’s Jay
54. Red-breasted Nuthatch
55. Northern Flicker
56. Hooded Merganser
57. Bufflehead
58. Mourning Dove
59. Pacific Loon
60. Pine Grosbeak
61. Long-tailed Duck
62. Red-breasted Merganser

Winter/Spring 2005 (January through mid-May)

63. Rusty Blackbird
64. Red Crossbill
65. Baird’s Sandpiper
66. Least Sandpiper
67. Greater White-fronted Goose
68. Lesser Scaup
69. Orange-crowned Warbler
70. Pacific Golden Plover
71. Hudsonian Godwit
72. Golden-crowned Kinglet
73. Green-winged Teal
74. Rock Sandpiper
75. American Wigeon
76. Red Knot

Summer 2005 (mid-May through mid-August)

77. Tree Swallow
78. Swainson’s Thrush
79. Downy Woodpecker
80. Red-winged Blackbird

Fall/Winter 2005 (mid-August through December)

81. Sharp-shinned Hawk
82. Mew Gull
83. Common Loon
84. Red-necked Grebe
85. Surf Scoter
86. Black Scoter
87. Trumpeter Swan
88. Cackling Goose
89. Greater Scaup
90. Canvasback
91. Pelagic Cormorant
92. Brown Creeper
93. White-winged Crossbill
94. Black Oystercatcher
95. Common Goldeneye
96. Horned Grebe

Winter/Spring 2006 (January through mid-May)

97. Bohemian Waxwing
98. Rhinocerous Auklet
99. Slaty-backed Gull
100. Glaucous Gull
101. Northern Shrike
102. American Pipit
103. Glaucous-winged Gull
104. Herring Gull
105. Thayer’s Gull
106. Rock Dove
107. European Starling
108. Marbled Murrelet
109. Wilson’s Snipe
110. Killdeer
111. Northern Harrier
112. Canada Goose
113. Whimbrel
114. Pigeon Guillemot
115. Black-legged Kittiwake
116. Ruddy Turnstone

Summer 2006 (mid-May through mid-August)

117. Peregrine Falcon
118. Tufted Puffin
119. Red-necked Phalarope
120. Pacific-slope Flycatcher
121. Lesser Yellowlegs
122. Red-tailed Hawk
123. Long-billed Dowitcher

Fall/Winter 2006 (mid-August to mid-November)

124. Horned Puffin
125. Wandering Tattler
126. Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
127. Thick-billed Murre
128. Snow Goose
129. Nashville Warbler
130. Lapland Longspur