Favorite Birds of 2022
At the end of last year, I set a goal for myself to finally reach the 200 mark on my life list of birds. I had a good year in 2021 with 52 new bird sightings ending the year with 183 birds in total since I started bird watching in 2018. So making my way to 200 seemed achievable.
I religiously started checking eBird alerts, Facebook groups, harassing other birders with a smile, and even reactivated my defunct Twitter account. I added some new birds at the start of 2022 and at the end of June I realized that I was going to reach my goal during my visit to Boothbay Harbor with my college friend Megan and her daughters. For our trip, I had booked a boat tour to see the Puffins at Eastern Egg Rock and as we left the harbor, I quickly checked the Merlin app on my iPhone to confirm that my life list was still 198. My friends daughters also kept asking and cheering me on as birds flew by and I looked for something new. A roseate tern was the first to fly past, 199. I was close.
Wilson’s storm petrel. Not easy taking pictures on a moving boat.
But before we reached Eastern Egg Rock, a dark, white rumped tiny little bird — no bigger than a swallow — caught my attention as it flew across the stern of the boat. I pointed it out, and the boat’s bird guide informed me that it was a Wilson’s storm petrel. Making it number 200 on the list. Atlantic Puffins would be number 201.
That evening I checked my life list to see my 200 sightings and reminisce over my previous adventures, but I then remembered that I never listed a great horned owl in order to protect its location. I also noticed that Merlin had added the common eiders I saw on that day’s boat tour as new birds for ‘22. Eiders are large diving sea ducks that I always seem to find near rocky jetties or shores, hunting for mussels and other shellfish. So for all that pressure I put on myself to find 200 birds, it turned out that I had no freaking clue how many birds I’d accurately seen in my birding career. And it was in that confusing moment that I realized that it was time to take a chill pill and maybe stop counting.
I began bird watching in 2018 not only because I needed a new hobby, but I found that the activity was helping with the anxiety and depression I was feeling at the time. After realizing my error, I felt a sense of regret that maybe I had rushed my birding adventures and was losing my appreciation of what the birds had given back to me. Had birds become just a number for me? Was I really enjoying what I was doing or was I putting too much pressure on myself, counteracting the stress relief that birds had once given me?
Life happened at the end of 2022. My father’s illness worsened and he succumbed to prostate cancer on October 23rd. My dad was always the first to like and comment on the pictures I posted on Facebook or Instagram. He always either laughed at my crazy encounters or just said “oh jeez.” He loved my independence but he was also afraid of me being out in the woods on my own. I wasn’t really birding that much during that time or after, and when I was, I hardly took any pictures. On some walks or even at my Sunday volunteering at the Stateline Hawk Count, I recognized that I stopped looking and listening, lost in a fog of grief. Really not good for the Hawk Count. Sorry, Karl.
When I look back at the pictures of the birds I saw this year, I do remember the joy I had in those moments. Lately, I’m also encountering cardinal images when I least expect it. A colleague gave me a painted rock with a cardinal, another person held up their phone and asked me what bird they found, a Christmas wrapping paper with cardinals, and more. Cardinals are a symbol of everlasting life and a sign that a departed loved one is with you. I think these indoor images are messages from my dad to go back outside.
I know I will find myself out there again, but I’m not putting any pressure on myself with any goals for 2023. Me and the birds, we will find each other again soon and one way to remember them are by revisiting and sharing my sightings from 2022. And so here are a few of my favorites.
