Look for Green Herons the next time you visit Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida/Kirby Adams

I like birding New Year’s resolutions. They seem easier to keep than the traditional ones. Losing weight and giving up assorted vices aren’t really all that fun, but there’s not much about birding that isn’t fun.

After having some of the best birding of my life in Rocky Mountain National Park last summer, I’m resolving to spend more time thoroughly bird-sploring (that’s birding and exploring simultaneously) national parks. I think ten is a good number to shoot for. That includes paying closer attention to my “local” parks here in the Great Lakes. The only park with “Park” designation in my state, Isle Royale, has escaped my attention so far.

I’m also resolving to spend as much time as possible getting to know the birds. That’s an easy one, but I do sometimes forget to stop and live in the moment when other things are on my mind. That’s especially true when travelling. With only a few days in a new location, the tendency when birding can be to see as many spots as possible for fear of missing that week’s hottest hotspot. I learned that lesson well when I spent a long time watching a pair of Williamson’s Sapsuckers at Rocky Mountain in June. It caused me to miss a few other places I was hoping to see on my short two days in the park, but I’ve recounted it several times as being the most rewarding birding experience of the year. The park will still be there in the future, but an intimate morning with an invitation into the daily lives of a sapsucker family doesn’t happen often.

My favorite spot in my favorite local park is the mouth of the Platte River in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I’m resolving to get out there in the early summer and watch the Piping Plovers again. I made a quick trip to Sleeping Bear this year, but I wasn’t prepared for the water. Normally, getting to the plover beach involves wading across a river mouth sandbar in water that gets at most waist-deep. But after two winters of heavy precipitation and thoroughly freezing over, Lake Michigan is higher than its been in many years, and the “wade” to the plovers was more of a swim. That’s good in one way, as it keeps people from running dogs on the beach and flying kites over the plover nests. (The plovers perceive kites as predators like a Merlin, which stresses them.) It’s just not pleasant to be fully submerged while carrying binoculars, scope, and camera. That requires some planning.

I resolve to continue reporting all my birds to eBird. The online bird recording system from Cornell continues to grow, and the bigger it gets, the more useful it becomes as a citizen science tool. So far, 283 million bird sightings have been reported to eBird. That’s an enormous amount of data being contributed by birders around the world. If you go birding, even casually, consider using eBird. It’s easier than ever now that they have fully integrated mobile apps. Take note of the birds you see and hear while cooking breakfast at your campsite in Zion National Park this spring and tap it into eBird. You’ll be making a much-needed contribution to science. The National Wildlife Refuge System gets birded heavily, but there are surprising gaps in data for some of the more popular national parks.

My last resolution is a new one that I haven’t tried before. When I get any new lifers (a new bird on my life list) this year, I’m going to make a small contribution to whoever takes care of the spot where I found the bird. This is an idea I heard from someone at the American Birding Association summit in Ohio last fall. If he gets a lifer at a nature center, he sends them a check with a thank you note. If it’s at a national park, he’ll try to find a friends group or something similar that can receive a donation. I think that’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long time. New birds give such a sense of joy to birders, it’s a great way to give something back in a very specific way.

Those should all be pretty easy. And if the best birds this year all turn up a few miles down the trail, I shouldn’t have any problem losing 20 pounds either!