Thursday, November 13, 2008

An old "life bird"

I love those days when I get home from a 10 hour day at work, tired and down, and there is a new issue of "Birding" or "Living Bird" in my mailbox. The articles are always entertaining and informative, and the photogrpahy is often nothing less than stunning. It always sets me dreaming of birding in exotic far off (and some not so far off) places. Today was one of those days. The Nov/Dec 2008 issue of the American Birding Association's magazine "Birding" was waiting for me. And lo and behold, the latest additions to the ABA checklist are included, and I have just gained another tick on my ABA list. It seems that the Common Myna has finally been added to the list, a bird which I "banked" a few years ago when I joined one of Larry Manfredi's Ultimate South Florida birding tours. I feel a little better now since they took away my Yellow-chevroned Parakeet almost two years ago. Now I have to go and figure out how to change the status in AviSys...

4 comments:

Patrick Belardo said...

Congrats! Do you say "congrats" in this situation?

Christopher said...

Hmmm... I guess so. Thanks!
I'm just glad that I hit the big 6-0-0 before this happened. I think to hit a milestone via an added bird or a split would take a bit of the excitement from it. (I'm sure it has happened to others though.)

behindthebins said...

I "banked" that bird with Larry years ago too. Ditto bummed about the parakeet. What was you 600th?

Christopher said...

Hi Bev - Yep - these were the birds in Homestead. First one was on the side of the road near our hotel. I got my 600th on our honeymoon from the cruise ship -a Pink-footed Shearwater that was kind enough to fly alongside us while I watched it through the scope, checked the field guide, watched again, checked the field marks again, watched some more, etc. Couldn't have been more cooperative!