LBRC Photo and Record Gallery

Evenings this summer have been spent working on a project on the LBRC website to create a template that all accepted and published LBRC records can eventually be uploaded and linked to.  At this point, all of the published synopses of accepted and unaccepted records for every species currently on the Review List have been stationed on individual species' pages, and linked to the digital records from the LBRC site. Eventually all of the old paper LBRC records and photos will be scanned and posted as well. 

The next step is to include the pages for the records of species that have been removed from the Review List. Following that, published synopses (anonymous) of unaccepted records of species not on the Review List will be added.  

Each species page contains a date graph and a parish map for accepted records 

as well as the accepted and unaccepted records and synopses.  Where pictures are available, a representative photo is included.  

The portal is at the LOS LBRC site, under the link "Photo and Record Gallery," specific address: http://losbird.org/lbrc/reviewlist.html

If you browse the site, be sure to let me know about any errors, of which many must have crept in.

1, 2, 3...

Who's perched atop the pile? 

Maybe because we're in the summer doldrums,* a friend recently got the itch to tally up his Louisiana list to submit to the ABA, and he urged me and a few others to do the same.  My total (403, see Booby post below) doesn't measure up to the others in the exercise and probably never will.  I've seen all of the "easy" birds for the state, so each addition to the list now becomes a mini-Everest, and that means there's a whole lot of Himalayas between my list and those in the 420s and 430s.

In comparing the lists of the leaders, we had to figure out what birds are eligible for lists. There's no List Police, but obviously a level playing field is in order.**  We basically went by the common sense rules that have been employed in the past for Louisiana Big Years: Species can't count if they're not on the U.S. list (House Crow), not on the Louisiana list (Monk Parakeet, feral/introduced Canada Goose, Budgies, other exotics), or pertain to sightings of individuals that weren't documented and/or weren't accepted into the state record.

Most of their list totals will make their way to the ABA site little by little.  Feel free to pass my total, I'm not in it to win it.  I may know how to count, but I just want to see birds.  

*I actually like the summer doldrums, and even though I wasn't able to watch birds much this summer, a recent trip in the suffocating heat revealed roadsides loaded with ragweed and ready for migrants.  Fall is in the 100 degree air!

**The issue of creating a level playing field has come up before and might reemerge soon.  A recent glance at eBird shows that a couple of birders are in the 320s/330s on their year lists and stand a fair chance of breaking the state Big Year record if they get lucky.  The only complication is that no one really knows what the Louisiana Big Year total is.  The lists of past competitors that have claimed the title aren't available, but I think the number to beat is about 350, give or take a bird.

Seabirds of the Summer Doldrums

I recently ventured outside of my SWLA comfort zone on a boat trip with Dave Patton and Danny and Rob Dobbs to see the Lake Ponchartrain Brown Boobies. Despite trips to the Dry Tortugas and offshore Louisiana, this had been a jinx species for me. My life Brown Booby turned out to be 20 of 'em.

The species is number 403 on my state list, which may sound like a lot, but I think I'm the lowest ranking member of the 400 Club, well behind most of the others who have crossed the 400 milestone. And I must be one of the last birdwatchers in Louisiana to add Brown Booby to the life experiences list...

The presence of these birds in Ponchartrain may make sense to the boobies, but it baffles most of us.  This species had generally been found only offshore--or at least on the beach--until a few years ago. The 20 individuals we saw outnumbered the total number of Brown Boobies ever recorded in Louisiana prior to the event.  

The boobies at the lake were first found a couple of winters back, and even though many of the birds there now are adults, whether some of these birds are the same individuals from before is a matter of speculation.  Keep in mind that 3 Brown Boobies were also found in a lake south of Lake Charles a few years back, and in one of the oddest bird records I can remember, Steve Cardiff saw a Brown Booby flying over the SWLA ricefields last winter in close proximity to geese. Records are piling up. Something's going on, and as is probably often true, people may be the last to find out what it is.   

The boat trip was a good end to a summer that saw me doing far more yard work and spending more time at home than in a long time.  It was a great summer, and here's to a good fall and a great school year!