Hello all!

Michael Hobbs and I have updated the WA Birder Excel spreadsheet and the one page county checklists for the new year.

The Excel checklist combines all the county codes in a sheet that allows you to tally your county totals [and do a bunch of other fun things]. Both the ‘enhanced’ version and the plain version are available at the Washington Birder website at:

http://wabirder.com/combined_county_list.html

Worth noting: If you fill in your sightings, a feature that allows you to generate a one page pdf of any county list with all your species checked off automatically. This addition Michael created makes entering your ’ticks’ into the spreadsheet even more worthwhile.

The new checklist includes state firsts from recent years for Lesser Nighthawk, Great Knot, Marsh Sandpiper, Song Thrush, Siberian Pipit and Cassin's Sparrow. It also lumps together the Western Flycatcher and the Redpolls in light of recent taxonomic updates. Finally, we include many county firsts and updated codes for Jefferson and Kitsap counties

Background:

Every year since 2003 I've updated this checklist, adding new species and county firsts, and revising it to comply with the latest taxonomic updates produced by the AOU & ABA. In addition, the checkist can be sorted by the eBird (Clements) sort order.

If you are looking for a color-coded way to track your county lists and/or see how abundant any species is in a given county, give the list a try.

With the 'enhanced' spreadsheet, you can generate county needs lists, see which counties you've seen or need any given species, and more. Instructions on using the spreadsheet are on the same page linked above.

Instructions on transferring your data from an older copy of your spreadsheet to the new one are included at the website as well.

The one page pdf blank county checklists are available at the following link: http://wabirder.com/county_map.html

If you want to move away from the screen and enjoy some time filling in checks on a list, print out a few county lists and start marking it up.

Summaries of all the 2024 and 2023 “County Firsts” are available at this link: http://www.wabirder.com/county_firsts.html

Finally, a reminder that your 2024 totals are due by the end of January— I’d encourage everyone to take some time and fill out the portions you track. It is always a great community event to pull this info together into one annual report we can share.

List Report (and Big Day) forms are available on the Washington Birder website: http://www.wabirder.com/forms.html.

We look forward to feedback or suggestions, and would be happy to help troubleshoot problems if you run across them.

Matt Bartels

Seattle, WA

mattxyz[at]earthlinnk[dot]net

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