Well, it's almost that time to begin another year of Big Days in Lake County to see if I can best my totals from last year. As I have been preparing for my Jan. 3, 2014 Big Day run, I reflected a little bit on why I like doing Big Days. So here goes.......
I think one of the primary reasons I enjoy Big Days is because they're competitive. I'm a very competitive person, and I like the challenge of trying to be the best. We have a large number of very skilled birders in Illinois so it's a big accomplishment to me to work hard to attain the levels of success enjoyed by other Big Day birders before me. As of right now there are no records by month of Lake County Big Days save for the month of May, so I have set goals for myself based on the Northern Illinois records. Even though it is much easier to visit a variety of habitats if one is doing a Big Day over the northern half of Illinois in its entirety, and so get many more species, I believe that it should be possible for me to get to 3rd highest for the region. So I have set my goal to be in the top 3 according to the IOS Lister's Corner for each month for Northern Illinois. This has proven to be a lofty goal as I only achieved this one month (June) in 2013. Lister's Corner publishes the top 5 regional Big Days for each month. I reached the top 5 for 8 out of the 12 months, which isn't too bad, but I'm hoping I can improve on those numbers for 2014. My biggest goal for 2014 is to crack the top 2 for a Lake County Big Day in May. I finished with the 4th highest total last year and am hoping to do much better this year. Some of the totals are incredibly high, though, so if I can just improve upon what I did in 2013, that will be a success in itself.
I also enjoy Big Days because of the challenge of putting together a solid route and sticking to a time schedule. This has really been the biggest challenge for me. Lake County is tough to get through quickly, as is any largely suburban/urban area, and it's natural areas are widely spread out once you get off the lakefront, so it really is tough to figure out which places to go to and which places to skip. I have struggled with the "when" of the lakefront for most of the year. When do I hit the lakefront? Do I start there, or do I finish there? Generally speaking, the modus operandi of a Big Day is to get the dawn chorus or woodland species/songbirds early in the morning and hit the bodies of water later in the day since shorebirds, waterfowl, and gulls don't really care about time of day as much. On Lake Michigan, however, the birds are moving across the water early during months of migration, and tend to be less active, or non-existent, later in the day. Either way birds will be missed, so in solidifying my route from month to month, I try to cut my losses. This has been challenging. I also don't want to be on the road too much, so I try to find places close together as much as possible. Another challenge to birding Lake County is that there are few places where you can just drive up and get birds. In Cook County, you can pretty much avoid walking long distances, except at Palos perhaps, but in Lake County you need to walk, bike, and canoe to get to the best spots. Looking at some of the ABA Big Day records yesterday, I noticed that a lot them had "miles by car: hundreds; miles on foot: less than 5." Not possible in Lake County to do this unless you are willing to miss a number of good spots. I usually cover over 10 miles out of my car during Big Days. It's a lot of fun, but it also sucks up a lot of time. It essentially becomes The Amazing Race to find your target birds. This has really forced me to get to know my county well.
That leads me to my next reason for loving these Days. I have learned quite a bit about birding in Lake County over the past couple of years and have spent time exploring the county trying to find underbirded or previously-unknown spots. One of my favorite spots that was pretty much unknown to me 3 years ago is Nippersink Marsh. This place is fantastic in late summer during dry years for shorebirds, but I had never heard of it before 2010 for the most part. There are a number of things that are frustrating about birding Lake County but there's no question that it has some nice birding areas. One of the more frustrating aspects to birding Lake County is the fact that there is great habitat on PRIVATE PROPERTY and one needs to know the property lines to avoid trespassing. I have had trouble with this one more than once in the past couple of years. I've also gotten permission to bird some areas that I had never known previously, as well, so that has been rewarding. The adventure continues, however.
When you get right down to it, Big Day birding really fits my personality. I'm a pretty fidgety person, and I can't stand still for very long or I feel like I'm missing something somewhere else. I suck at the hawk watch or at a lake watch unless things are moving a lot. I definitely need to learn to enjoy slowing down and appreciating the birds more, but the Big Day fits right into my wheelhouse of flitting nervously from one birding locale to another. This doesn't work so much for my birding companions, however, so I can be annoying in my "hurry up" mode. Apologies to my birding compadres for incessant hassling. It's really exciting for me to see how many species I can find in any one time period, though, so the Big Day fits this mentality nicely.
Big Days also force me to be a better birder. In order to maximize the number of species seen, one must be adept at ID'ing birds by sound and picking up field marks/behavioral cues quickly in the field. I think that I have improved greatly over the past couple of years in both of these areas. Thrush call notes have specifically been something that I learned this year which helped a great deal. I also learned a great deal about birding at night. It's amazing how many species are active at night and can be ID'd before sunrise. I looked at the youtube video the the Sapsucker team put together for their record-braeking big day this year, and I think they had 35 or 40 species before dawn! And many of them were waterfowl which I never thought of trying to get at night before. Some sparrows also are calling at night. I got Henslow's and Grasshopper Sparrows at night more than once last year. Pretty cool.
I also love the social aspect of Big Day birding. ABA rules require you to have at least one partner on Big Days, so it essentially becomes a team sport. I have been lucky to be able to share my Big Days with 5 very skilled birders for various parts of my Big Day Year. I have learned something from all of them, and have enjoyed getting to know them better over the course of the past year. It's sometimes difficult to work personal/family schedules into the Big Day, so I've been very appreciative of the time that they have taken to join me on my quest. It's been a lot of fun, and I look forward to spending more time with them, and possibly adding some new cohorts for 2014.
Then there's the adventure. The unknown. The bird that you found that blew your socks off.....or the one you missed that you never thought you'd miss in a million years. Big Days are full of surprises and adrenaline rushes, as well as incredible frustration. It runs the gamut of emotions but that's what really can make you feel alive. Nothing beats finding a new county bird on a Big Day!
Lastly, I think doing County Big Days is good for the environment and good for science. It obviously cuts down on the number of miles driven over an entire region or state, and the data collected from these Big Days can be very valuable in getting accurate pictures of distribution of species at different times of the year in different habitats. I like to think I'm doing some important research that will ultimately help in establishing natural areas for our avian delights.
Looking forward to some great birding in 2014. Have a happy holiday season and go get 'em!
