Subject: [Tweeters] County Yearlist Project update for Jan/Feb 2016 up at WA
Date: Mar 23 05:47:57 2016
From: Matt Bartels - mattxyz at earthlink.net


Hi Tweeters & Inland-NW-Birders -

An updated version of the 2016 county year list project is up at Washington Birder. I?m a bit late getting this up, but we?ve received updates from most [but not all] counties with details through the end of February. County compilers, especially for the underbirded counties, would appreciate receiving reports of any birds seen in their counties.

As of the end of February 259 species had been reported across the state, 230 species in western WA and 198 in eastern WA.
The state total [259] is four lower than the end-feb totals in 2015, but higher than the 4 previous years.
The Western WA total [230] was one below the total from last year, and two above than the total for 2011, 2012 & 2013 .
The Eastern WA total [at 198] this year was five higher than last year, eight above 2014, and five above the 2013 total at this point.

Overall, things are remarkably similar to the last few years at this stage -- we seem to be finding a relatively 'normal' set of birds every wnter in WA. (The posted version of the list only covers results through the beginning of March, so recent arrivals may not have made it onto the list)

I took a look at Common Redpolls (CORE) though to see whether the irruption we?ve talked about is apparent:
Here are some recent year totals for counties w/ Common Redpoll sightings in the first 2 months of each year:
2016: 24
2015: 5
2014: 2
2013: 22
2012: 25

Prior to 2012, I don?t have the end-Feb totals handy, but here are the year-end Common Redpoll tallies for earlier years [a year-end tally essentially gets to try for CORE in parts of 2 different winters, so totals might reflect a mixed story]
2011: 20
2010: 8
2009: 9
2008: 17
2007: 24

Waves of wide-spread sightings for a couple years, followed by a couple years w/ fewer reports seems to show up pretty nicely. And it maybe bodes well for next winter also being a decent one for CORE.

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:
http://wabirder.com/county_yearlist.html <http://wabirder.com/county_yearlist.html>


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


Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA