Hi Tweeters & Inland-NW-Birders -

An updated version of the 2011 county year list project is up at
Washington Birder. We've received updates from almost all the
counties with details through the end of April. County compilers,
especially for the underbirded counties, would appreciate receiving
reports of any birds seen in their counties.

This update's cut-off, coming at the end of April and in the middle
of spring migration, makes any precise comparisons a bit more
difficult than usual -- there's just too much moving in to know
whether a couple fewer or extra species on any list is significant in
any way.

As of the end of April 321 species had been reported across the
state, 283 species in western WA and 247 in eastern WA. About half
the counties have reported over 150 species this year, though no one
has crossed the 200 mark yet. The 2011 year list is running ahead of
the 2010 list at this point -- 321 this year for the state vs 303
last year -- Western WA in particular has had a wider diversity of
species reported already compared to last year. But that said, I
think the next update will be the more meaningful, at the end of June
when almost all the regular migrants have settled in or moved through.


If you'd like to take a look at where things stand, the list and many
other interesting files are at the Washington Birder website:

<http://www.wabirder.com/>http://www.wabirder.com/


A direct link to the 2011 county yearlist & the list of county
compilers, including a growing number of direct links to individual
county year lists with more details and more frequent updates:


http://wabirder.com/bartel.html


Thanks to all the compilers and all those pitching in to sketch a
picture of another year's birds in WA.


Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA