Each pin shows where Kirby Adams has birded....and shows how much open space he has left to tackle
I've managed to get around North America quite a bit during my five years as a serious birder. At least it seems like I have. When I plot a map of every checklist I've ever entered at eBird, it looks like I'm neglected large swaths of the continent. What's with the interior plains? The west coast south of Olympic National Park? Alaska isn't even on the map because there were no pins there, so I cropped it out.
So while I've traveled far more than the average person on the street, I have some places that are topping my list of must-sees. This isn't a bucket list. I want to get to these places in the next year or two and I have no plans to kick the bucket anytime soon.
It's a crime that I haven't been to this iconic park in the heart of the continent's signature mountain range. Even if I weren't a birder, I should have been there by now for the scenery alone. Of course, I'm always birding, even when admiring a vista of fourteeners. Rocky Mountain National Park would net me a few lifers, chief among them the rosy finches. The Gray-capped Rosy Finch, Black Rosy Finch, and Brown-capped Rosy Finch can be had in the Colorado Rockies. The one issue is that you need to be there in the winter. Not being a skier or winter sportsman in general, I've tended to avoid the mountains between snowmelt and first snow. If I want some stunning looks at rosy finches in stunning winter scenery (or at a visitor center feeder) I need to toughen up and get out there. Perhaps that's a trip for Christmas this year.
The other bird I could snag in Rocky Mountain National Park is a White-tailed Ptarmigan. I've never seen any of the ptarmigans, having failed to find a Willow Ptarmigan during a grueling hike in Newfoundland's Gros Morne National Park. The White-taileds are birder favorites in the Rockies. Ideally I'd like to see this bird in winter as well, when it's not a brown bird with a white tail, but a snow white bird with a white tail. Then again, I can think of one potential problem with finding a 'snow white' ground-dwelling bird in the mountains in winter. I might be better off trying for that one early in the winter when the birds are still sporting some of their summer coat.
Since I already labeled it criminal to have never set foot in Rocky Mountain National Park, I'm not sure what it says about me that I've never been to Grand Canyon National Park. I've seen much of Arizona's stunning scenery, but never the really big one.
Obviously I need to look into the mile-deep canyon to truly appreciate it, but I have to admit that the real draw in that park is the California Condors. I grew up hearing that condors would likely be extinct soon. It was something that could have happened literally any day back in the 1980s. I imagine I'll become emotional at the sight of one in the wild. There are more than 400 of them alive today, up from 21 back when I was in high school. They aren't out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but they've taken a small step back from the metaphorical brink. To see evidence of that recovery, and view them from the actual brink of the world's most famous canyon will be humbling. I hope to get there this April.
Big Bend isn't really 'on the way' to anywhere else, so I can somewhat forgive myself for this. Still, it's the only reliable place in the United States to see the Colima Warbler, so I really need to get there and hike the Pinnacles Trail. I'm not getting any younger and that trail isn't exactly easy. Late April is a great time to track down the warblers and I'll possibly be driving across Texas on Interstate 10, so this is a possibility.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park
I've been to the Smokies, but I've never taken a dedicated birding trip there. It's the most-visited park in America largely because it's a not-too-long drive from many of the East's metropolises. It's also one of the best summer birding spots in the East, yet I've never stopped and listened for warbler song there.
I've spent plenty of time in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which boasts a tie for first in the National Park System with Great Smoky Mountains for the most nesting warblers (23, if you're counting at home), so it seems only right that I'd sample the southern contender for the title. The elevation gradient in the Smokies provides bird distribution quirks rarely seen in the east. Black-capped Chickadees and other northern species I'm used to in Michigan are found atop the mountains and higher ridges, while the valleys are full of more traditional southern birds like the Carolina Chickadee. Traveling from Black-capped to Carolina Chickadee range by foot on a mountain trail is far more fun than crossing the same imaginary line in the middle of an Ohio cornfield.
It's possible I could add all four of those parks that are sorely missing from my park life list, and snag a few birds for the list at the same time. Feel free to gloat about having seen some of these birds in these parks. It's birder tradition to gloat about such things, and I deserve it!
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Comments
Kirby, you need to come to the center of Nebraska for the crane migration. There are several places that will cater to you to make sure you see them either in the morning or evening.
nebraskanature.org/crane_tours
rowe.audubon.org/
when Don and Dorothy Farner, Richard McPike Brown, and Dr. G. C. Ruhle among many others promoted an outstanding Birding educational
program. They were even banding crows and Clarks Nutcrackers to learn their migratory and feeding habits. Among the many references to read:
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v054n06/p0365-p...
http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/planning-visit/activities/birding.htm
http://www.westernbirdbanding.org/NFBB-WBB/WBB-v43%201968.pdf
In recent time, birding has not been given similar meaningful status.