The Enthusiastic Birder: Big Year Update: May

With the COVID restriction eased and I back out to work, I tried to make up for the lost time. I did that by stepping up my after-work birding and while I am still behind in both challenges I was able to draw closer to were I envision I would be at this time of the year.

Big Year 2020

For the Big Year challenge, I added 3 more species. The first one, a Yellow-crowned Parrot (Amazona ochrocephala) came on my Truncated Global Big Day 2020 on May 9^th. The other two species came as a result of after-work birding, like the Black Swift (Cypseloides niger), seen on an afternoon at Long Pond on the 20^th,and then on the 25^th at Oistins a Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) sitting on the ice pier among Royal Terns (Thalasseus maximus) and Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla). While this bird is a yearly visitor, it was earlier than expected but a welcome sight none the less. At the end of May my challenge stood at 79 species compared to 84 species this same time last year. That year, 2019, I concluded the year with 106 species, telling me I am off the mark by 5-6 species, hence my goal for the end of June is 87 bird species.

Photo Big Year 2020

Even though I did not make a post-update for April, I was able to add some images during the lockdown month (you can see them here). For May I added 13 images to the Photo Big Year 2020. I am starting to get the best out of the cheapo Canon 75-300mm and came to realize how to get the best out of it, resulting in more keepers.