2BY14: Cormorant? January 4, 2014
Posted by indigobunting in Uncategorized.trackback
Dan’l, our third partner in the Big Year project, sent us his species list on New Year’s Eve. Tim combined our three lists, and together we got a total of 201. So, at least we hit that number as a group, even though I did not manage it on my own.
Dan’l had ducks and shorebirds we didn’t have, to be sure. But among them was this one: double-crested cormorant.
Somehow, I’d never put that bird on my list. And I saw lots of them this year.
So, what’s that about? What other birds did I see, and knew them when I saw them, and never noted them? Are some of the commoners so common that I think surely I’ve noted them already? Even when I haven’t?
How unfair to commoners.
Or am I just sloppy?
Or, as I bemoan almost every day of late, am I just getting old?
Anyway: Double-crested cormorant. Of course.
Route 153 
I would hardly expect a dazzling indigo bunting to notice something as drab and pedestrian as a cormorant, even a double-crested one.
I’m in awe of your ability to identify birds. In my neighbourhood I can do the tui. And seagulls. Maybe a wood pigeon. That’s about it. So don’t beat yourself up for forgetting one you take for granted.
Shame on you! No, really I agree with Helen and Mali.