Journey to 1000 bird species

     The work to move to one of the standard checklists was pending. I had birds written down in an Excel sheet which I was updating periodically. I stopped updating it for North American birds and moved to ABA checklist. I thought I will keep a similar checklist for India. Then, I realized it is better to keep a single checklist if I wanted to bird throughout my life all over the world!          My Indian bird book had Eurasian or Common Teal as a distinct species from Green-winged Teal, while ebird had them clubbed. The Herring Gull I saw in England was treated as a distinct species from the Herring Gull in US by my 'Birds of Europe' book. ebird recently split up Mexican Duck from Mallard, while American Ornithologists Union have not accepted the split. ebird appears to follow Clements. I was taking the worst case in terms of counting to not count any of these and more. From a brief search it looked like India follows Clements. I went to...

Mexican Violetear      Green Violetear was split into two species with Mexican Violeter being the bird seen in US. Most US records are from TX during Apr to July. If my memory is right, it is seen once in a couple of years and that too in feeders of private residences mostly. That makes it hard to chase. The one around Reagen Wells (3 hour drive one way) was seen for several weeks and sounded reliable in a relative way. I was hesitant to chase it until last week. I am keeping details to a minimum since it was at the backyard of a private residence. I got the directions from a local guide by texting him. The first attempt was sad because we saw the bird very briefly after I arrived for an unsatisfactory look. Before I could focus my binoculars the perched bird was gone. It was calling and it was huge, so we knew it was the target. I wanted a better look to count it as a lifer and waited for hours with no luck - https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57355510 . The other s...

Red Phalarope - breeding female      Red Phalaropes are pelagic and seldom seen away from the ocean, except at their breeding grounds in north Alaska, arctic and a part of Greenland. Late Saturday morning, I got a report of a Red Phalarope north of Houston. Over the afternoon more people were reporting it with good close photos. I read that the bird was co-operative and sometimes feeding within 10 feet of people. Importantly it was a female in breeding plumage. Phalaropes look colourful in breeding plumage, and the female is more colourful than the male, unlike the other bird species. Driving five hours to see this bird versus maybe seeing it in Alaska when I need to target the Eiders was a thought that was playing in my mind. I let Saturday go through. It was reported on Sunday morning too. So, I decided to see it and be back before evening. I ate a quick breakfast, made tea and left home around 9:30 am. I reached Jersey Village Jogging Trail near Houston arou...