Hey Tweeters,
Here's a quick rundown of my main year lists, followed by some highlights.

ABA year = 434
ABA + Hawaii = 469
Washington year = 321

Now for some highlights. I took a 2 week birding trip to the upper Texas
coast in April with some friends, from the 10th to the 25th. Did the ABA
convention and also birded the week before it. Got 102 life birds (I'd never
been east of Arizona), all of those were north of Galveston Bay. Highlight
rarity-wise was a Little Gull that I observed a few times in the Beaumont
Sewage Ponds, just a few miles from the hotel where I stayed. The other
highlights were a Yellow Rail that I got to touch (yes, I did see it before
the guy picked it up!) plus hundreds of warblers, tanagers, buntings,
orioles, and everything else during minor fallouts. I think we had a little
over 230 species that trip.
A two-week trip with my family to the Big Island of Hawaii in November gave
me 13 additional lifers (I've been the Big Island once before), including
Great Frigatebird, my 500th world life bird. The highlight, though, was a
Palila at Puu Laau on the SW slope of Mauna Kea.
In Washington, some of the highlights were all 15 species of owls, Wilson's
Storm-Petrel, White & White-faced Ibises, Mountain Plover, Black-throated
Sparrows, several Yellow-billed Loons, Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Bar-tailed
Godwit, Spruce Grouse, and Tropical Kingbird.
In Oregon, highlight was Cassin's Kingbird. In British Columbia, highlight
was definitely the amazing Ivory Gull.
And now some goals for next year. I'd like to get 335 or 340 for Washington
year.
For ABA I'm hoping to get 450, with a trip to SE Arizona and possibly North
Carolina planned. Good luck to all in 2002!

Charlie Wright, 13
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA