2019: The Year of The 5MR

In 2018, White-throated Sparrow was a county bird, a Five Mile Radius bird, and eventually a yard bird! This was the #1 bird I was hoping to see at Rancho de Bastardos that I kind of expected to show up eventually, and this looker spent a few days here right before Christmas. Sadly, it abandoned us before 2019. Another fun fact: every White-throated Sparrow I've seen in my home county has been in my radius! I would grade my radius as being middling for sparrows, maybe even above average. Fingers crossed for a Harris's this year, though it would not have to show up in my yard to make me happy. 

By this point, every regular BB&B reader has heard about the Five Mile Radius (5MR) and has one of three opinions on it.

Opinion A: 5MR is a fantastic idea and I'm already doing one!

Opinion B: 5MR does sound interesting but not interesting enough for me to start one...yet.

Opinion C: 5MR is stupid. It is stupid because listing is stupid/I am too invested in rabid county listing all over the state/I am busy because I am always doing a big year and need to spend hella time driving or flying/not everyone is doing it so therefore I will not do it/I suck.

If you are of Opinions A or B, or even the highly unlikely Opinion D ("What is 5MR?"), then this post is for you. If you are of Opinion C, well, god help you.

My 5MR is very good for sapsuckers; I saw Red-breasted (above, fairly common here), Red-naped and Yellow-bellied all in 2018. 2019 started with Red-naped (a different one) and Yellow-bellied...nope, no Red-breasted yet! If a Williamson's ever shows up it will probably be in a little park or cemetery no one birds, and 5MR is all about birding places like that. Photographed at Almaden Lake County Park.

I am not going to punish regular readers with describing what 5MR is all over again, but in case you are wondering what all the fuss is about, you can read this BB&B post and check out Flycatcher Jen's new handy little 5MR FAQ page.

BB&B is world-renowned for being a leading trendsetter, influencer, and tastemaker for birding in the 21st century, but Flycatcher Jen, PNW's blogging darling, gets full credit for launching this concept...we are just here to preach the radial gospel. I am a 5MR missionary, if you will, and in the end many of you will be converted, or in other words, saved. The birding paradigm is beginning to shift. So what is new with 5MR birding?

Last fall was excellent for Willow Flycatchers in Santa Clara County; this one was in my yard for a few days in September. There are a number of decent places in my 5MR to check for migrant Empids, but kingbirds are much tougher.

The 2019 5MR challenge is what is new. Jen has invited birders everywhere to come join in; she is tracking everyone's 5MR for 2019, and is at almost 150 (!!!) participants in many states and multiple countries! It's really all about birding your 5MR (or 8.05KR if you are metrically inclined) a lot this year, and we will be tracking many more metrics than just the usual who-will-get-the-most-species stat. She is even doing monthly challenges! You can read all about it right here, and if that grabs ya check out some more of the nerdy, jaw-clenching metrics right here. She also set up a Facebook group devoted to 5MR, which is (somewhat unexpectedly) really flourishing - go here to check it out and join up. No need to sign up for the 2019 challenge to be in the group!

Birders of all levels and all stripes have embraced the 5MR, and you should too! Bird Police, civilian bird wizards, "young birders", geri birders, intermediate birders, and probably some stringy ones...we are all here! Come revel in the places less birded and the luxury of never having to drive more than 20 minutes from your home! Become the master of your local eBird hotspots, or if there aren't many, you can bring them into existence yourself! Of course, there is no need to sign up for the 2019 challenge to enjoy the fruits of 5MR, but I think it will be fun.

Easily one of the best birds in my 5MR last year was this Blackburnian Warbler, which I dipped on twice before connecting. I'm still figuring out how readily findable fall vague runts are in my 5MR, but clearly searching for them is not a fruitless endeavor. Incredibly, in December I got to see another one only 0.3 mile outside my radius. Photographed at Vasona Lake County Park.

Those of us living in urban areas tend to be very heavily biased towards months with wintering birds and lots of migrants passing through, but obviously no matter where you are, you can't forget about the birds that breed in your 5MR! Much of my radius is urban/suburban hell, but a lot of it is protected open space as well, mostly in the form of oak woodland, modest riparian corridors, and some chaparral. Good summer birds in my 5MR include Black-chinned Hummingbird, Vaux's Swift, Common Poorwill, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and Band-tailed Pigeons. I'm sure the pigeons are here year round but I don't see them around where I live for most of fall and winter. Look at this ridiculous thing mantling my tiny feeder! Need to track down Western Screech-Owl in my radius this year, among other residents/breeders.

I've said this a number of times now but there are a huge number of gulls in my radius in the winter months. I really, really want to find something rare in my 5MR (probably Glaucous, Lesser Black-backed or Slaty-backed) and in fact I'm sure they are around, it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. This Iceland was casually soaring over my yard last month.

If gulls and waterbirds are strengths, and perhaps even upland birds, the Achilles Heel of my 5MR is shorebirds. Why do they have to be so hard? Every species of shorebird I have recorded in my 5MR has been from my yard. That would be one species of plover (Killdeer, claro) and 4 sandpipers, of which Wilson's Snipe is the only interesting one, though it is the only expected one besides Spotted. It's pretty bad but I will take my snipes. Solitary is possible but I can't even fathom seeing something like a flock of peeps.

Not only do I have all three mergansers in my radius, I've seen them all from my yard! Red-breasted was a fluke though and I'm not sure if I will get another one in the radius this year. The ponds at Los Gatos Creek County Park are very reliable for Hooded Mergansers (where these cripplers were hanging out), which is probably the most heavily birded hotspot (for good reason) within my 5MR.

In 2018, I fared somewhat better than I thought I would in my 5MR. Birding at the very edge of my 5MR at Santa Teresa County Park in spring gave me some great birds like Calliope Hummingbird, Horned Lark, Grasshopper Sparrow and Rock Wren. The radius is real tricky there, with some sections of trail inside and some outside, but I finally got a good handle on it. Fall migration bestowed upon me a nice array of new 5MR birds like Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teal, Greater Scaup, Palm Warbler and Brewer's Sparrow. A Summer Tanager showed up right before Christmas, and the nearby Phainopepla is wintering at the same site again. I finished the year with 159 species in my 5MR without being really committed to inflating that total, which I'm pretty happy about - a few other 5MRs in Santa Clara County finished slightly below that number, though I have no doubt someone living closer to the salt ponds could do better than me, probably substantially so.

My 5MR has most of the expected Northern California wading species, though White-faced Ibis is not something that will be easy to find. Perhaps a Yellow-crowned Night Heron will turn up behind my house with all the Black-crowneds at some point? Yellow-crowned is long overdue in this part of the state and they have been increasing in Southern California. Until then, I will be content with the expected locals, like Great Blue Herons, when they choose to be confiding. Photographed at Los Gatos Creek County Park.

Of course, just because you don't want to sign up for the 2019 challenge doesn't mean you shouldn't do a 5MR at all! Absolutely none of my 5MR birding last year, or the year before, was done with me thinking about getting freaking year birds for my 5MR list...how embarrassing is that? It's pretty embarrassing...but oh wait I am ALL IN on the 2019 challenge so this year will be different!

Well, maybe not all in...I am about to leave for Belize. So long White-crowned Sparrows, hello Tody Motmots! See you on the other side Bushtit, pleasant good morning to you American Pygmy Kingfisher! Godspeed Hutton's Vireo, oh so good to finally meet you Yucatan Vireo!

Right, but otherwise I am heavily invested. Looking forward to checking out some new spots (a couple cemeteries immediately come to mind), tracking down a few self-found rarities, and really pinning down species that I have yet to see in my 5MR that I could reasonably expect to find here...Eared Grebe, Allen's Hummingbird, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Tricolored Blackbird all come to mind quickly, though that does not mean they will come easily. I am hoping to see some more 5MRs pop up in Santa Clara County in 2019 as well!

Challenge or no challenge, hope you all have a very radial 2019!

My last Santa Clara County bird of 2018 was also my last new 5MR bird. American Bittern was the closest thing I had to a nemesis bird in Santa Clara. Ugh I love bitterns so much, happy that they are possible in my radius. Photographed at Los Gatos Creek County Park.

Prairie Shorebirds I

Shorebirds make me want to puke....with glee. Semipalmated and Baird's (top) Sandpipers on their way south from the high Arctic.

Hello Piping Plover. What it do?

I'll be the first to admit, I've kind of always had a shorebird fetish. Pretty wild and crazy I know. They were the first group of birds I really got enthusiastic about learning to identify and sort through...well, ducks were the first, but they were too easy. I grew up in coastal Ventura County, north of Los Angeles County in southern California, which has a number of good shorebird spots. There was always stuff to look for. More than once I managed over 30 different shorebird species in a day, which I reckon is difficult to do anywhere, and not something I've done anywhere else.

Shorebirds are great. For one, not only do we have a large diversity of them in the United States, but unlike flashier birds (i.e. warblers) some people can't even handle them. They are an acquired taste. And when confronted with separating Least, Western, Semipalmated, Baird's and White-rumped Sandpipers as a beginning birder...I can see why. Appreciating shorebirds is all about subtleties...from how to identify Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers to the subtle and intricate patterns that the birds wear themselves.

Always mellow on their wintering grounds, Willets turn into ferocious beasts on the prairie. Watch out, they go for the eyes.

Another reason birders hesitate to embrace our long-legged friends is that it can be bloody hard to approach these things. Looking through a flock of small birds half mile away on a mudflat is not actually fun, whether you have a scope or not. Thus it can be hard to get to know these birds, so to speak, to get to know their habits and personalities. And how can we appreciate something we don't know?

One of the birding perks in North Dakota are the number of shorebirds here, both migrants and breeders. But its the nesting birds that get ones attention....because they hate you. They want you to die. They would like to probe the inside of your skull with those long beaks. When you are close to a shorebird nest out here, most species will let you know by A) Making incredibly annoying sounds, B) Attacking you or C) Both. The snipe and the Spotted Sandpipers are discreet, but the others are not. Any experienced birder knows the agony of trying to watch shorebirds with a nervous Killdeer around...they are about as fun as listen to as a car alarm. When a Killdeer gets scared, hundreds (sometimes thousands) of other birds in the area tune in and take off, since they often use the Killdeer as a kind of watchdog (watchplover). It's quite frustrating.

Repeated attempts to rechristen Marbled Godwits as Garbled Modwits by dyslexic members of the birding community have failed.

Shorebirds also have good timing. Spring migration can last from March until June, and fall migration June until as late as November in some areas. They are always on the move, and can turn up anywhere...many species are prone to vagrancy...Little Stints, a Lesser Sand-Plover and a Curlew Sandpiper in California this year have left birders drooling and incapable of speech for days.* Several have reported to have spontaneously shat themselves upon viewing these remarkable birds, all of which I believe were in breeding plumage. In past years I have seen two of these three, but my underwear have remained mysteriously untainted.

I guess what we're ultimately dealing with here at BB&B today is a bunch of the shorebirds that you can find in the prairie states. As you all know, there are others...I'll put up the next installment soon. Ok.

*Some refer to this trend of Eurasian shorebirds appearing in the United States as "The Siberian Express". You can expect large amounts of ridicule should you choose to utter this phrase in mixed company.
























Wilson's Snipes are abundant nesters on the prairie, but they hate being photographed generally. It took two months to get this picture! Oh right, I'm not a photographer...that explains it.



















Thankfully, Lesser Yellowlegs migrate through the area in small numbers. In the foreground, a Red-necked Phalarope (left) and a few Wilson's lurk.

In the center (or perhaps the "centre") is a female Wilson's Phalarope, still in her bright breeding colors...drabber males and molting females are in the background. A Killdeer managed a good photobomb though.