Start of my Birding Big Year, with a twist

Big Birding Years typically involved viewing as many bird species as possible in a single year. The typical records for North America are around 700-800 species. As range maps and internet queries get more advanced including bird alerts it is possible to "target" very rare species. Given that I do not have unlimited money or time and I have a family, job, other hobbies, etc.... well... lets just say that this just did not seem possible on the scale that is sometimes attempted. This is not to say anything against those that can devote significant resources to such epic birding adventures! I am just not in a place to support that kind of effort. So this will be a less than stellar but sane and manageable bird year! I realize that sounds a bit lame which is why I had to put it out there on the table at the start. 

Here are the rules- Try to observe as many species as possible with the following checks in place for maintaining sanity: 

1) No trips expressly for birds that involve going more than 60 miles or so (I say "or so" because there are no hard rules here). However, I WILL commit to checking out new and interesting places in the vicinity that I might not have otherwise visited. This is one of the big benefits of this sort of endeavor-- it will get me outside more. 

2) I cannot spend money on equpment other than the $200 I spent on a used Sony 30x optical zoom digital camera. I choose this camera because of its GPS positioning as I am hoping to photograph and georeference the birds I see. More on this camera soon but I should just say the goal is not to compete with professional or amateur photography as my shots will not stand up to that. 

3) I am going a few interesting places on account of work responsibilities including Baja, Mexico and Peru. Peru, in particular, is a bird watchers paradise with over 1800 species. I will records birds there but they will not count for this endeavor. 

4) If there is a rare bird in an area with poison ivy, I will likely avoid the poison ivy and give up on the bird. 

5) I need to spend less than 30 minutes or so on this blog, maybe 2 times a week. This is fun and I would love to look up interesting facts about everything I see and link to blogs, cool pictures, etc. but that would end up taking more time than I want to put in, at least here at the start. So the writing may be a bit rough and there may be interesting things that could be added that I will just gloss over or not include. 

I term this a "Sane Big Birding Year". It could also be called a "starting birders year" or a "mid-sized birding year". Due to the scaled down expectations I find it appropriate to start things off with one of my first birds-  a Common Grackle, one of about 15 that hang out in the vicinity on a daily basis. Yes, this is a super common bird but it also is quite beautiful if we can look past some of its less endearing qualities.