Richard Wiesler

All six species that I mentioned earlier ended up being found in fives and tens anyway, if not scores and hundreds, and were joined by others, including some now found more commonly than formerly, such as American White Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Bald Eagle, and of course Canada Goose. And I reached my species goal!

And my team did very well. I'd better call our final count unofficial for a little while longer, but it looks like 665 species!

A little after the halfway point, I'm at 158 species. Later species are harder than earlier species, so I'm unlikely to reach my species goal, but likely I can get close. Perhaps I can get as close to my fundraising goal also.

Three remaining species were among the very most common spring migrants 45 to 50 years ago, when I learned that an only slightly more fruitful than typical morning in the first three weeks of May meant dozens to hundreds of Least Flycatchers, Swainson's Thrushes, Tennessee Warblers, American Redstarts, Chestnut-sided Warblers, and Magnolia Warblers. This May, my maximum daily allocations for these six have been respectively 0, 3, 10, 2, 0, and 0. We're losing our migrant perching birds at an alarming rate. The Cope Environmental Center supports these species, and, with our counts documenting their occurrence, we get to do some citizen science and provide some index of joy for what remains.