Birdspotting 2008: The saga begins

Technically this project is already several months old, and started somewhat serendipitously when I realized I was taking a lot of bird photos and it would be good to keep track of them. Birders generally keep what is known as a "life list" where they often quest to exotic locales to check off rare and unusual species, sort of like trading baseball cards to collect an entire year or team's cards.

Anyway, I'm certainly not that motivated or insane, but since I am taking a lot of treks and photos of birds it made sense to start tracking these sightings in a more orderly fashion. Thus, Birdspotting 2008 was born.

The rules are simple:

1. All birds must have been spotted on or after January 1, 2008
2. The bird must be readily identifiable (thus no fleeting visions of a random wren and later speculation about what species it might have been.)
3. All birds must be photographed (although here, crappy photos are acceptable but subject to replacement by better shots in the future.)
4. All birds must be observed in the wild (no zoo or farm birds)

Simple enough, and around here at this time of year there are plenty of migrating birds to observe. Right now most of the birds have been limited to large birds of prey or seabirds, in part because they're a lot easier to photograph and locate, so we'll see how rule 3 pans out in the long term, or if that needs revision when I discover just how hard it is to capture a picture of a brown creeper in the dense underbrush.

Continue after the break for the list thus far, along with a link to my photos of each species on Flickr.