Hi Tweeters & Inland NW Birders

An updated version of the 2016 County Yearlist Project is up and available at Washington Birder. We've updated almost al the 39 counties as of the mid-way point in the year. Thanks to everyone who has contributed by sending county compilers their sightings &/or posting on eBird.

At the mid-year point, as summer gets into full wing, this is a decent time to compare totals with previous years.Twenty counties have reported higher species counts this year compared with last year. 14 have lower totals this year, and 5 counties have exactly the same mid-year total as last year.

Statewide, the total [369] compared to last year is lower by 5. Western Washington is running 9 below last year?s mid-way total, and Eastern WA is one up on last year.

Here?s a side-by-side comparison with mid-way totals for the past 5 years [if the table comes through legibly]:

Year 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Washington State 364 369 358 369 370
Western Washington 323 334 320 325 334
Eastern Washington 302 301 299 308 299



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 2016 county yearlist & the list of county compilers contact info:
http://www.wabirder.com/county_yearlist.html <http://www.wabirder.com/county_yearlist.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