What Bird Is That Forum

I haven't done much birding this year but I did make one day of it, it yielded a lifer(Short-eared Owl).
Over all the birding hasn't been too great this year, nearly no ducks at all, and moderate numbers of sparrows.
So far my year list is 84.

A Hermit Thrush hung out around the feeders for a few days. It hopped under the deck a couple of times and I hoped it might be sheltering there, but I haven't seen it in a week.

I'm also not seeing many ducks this year. I went to a historically good spot a few days ago and came away with only Ring-neckeds.

I did get great views and shots of a Wilson's Snipe casually poking around the retention ponds at a local grocery.

I'm currently sitting at 144 species in 2026. A little behind last year's pace, but not too shabby!

I ended 2025 with my record year list both total and for Kansas. I had 307 for US and 287 for Kansas. 44 lifers ranging from a great Kiskadee to a king eider and a whole lot of other awesome birds!

Couldn't care less about my year list but i'm at 132. Just continuing to look for vagrants and enjoying getting know and understand the new California Breeding Bird Atlas!

Kansabirdguy wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 10:15 pm I had 307 for US and 287 for Kansas. 44 lifers ranging from a great Kiskadee to a king eider and a whole lot of other awesome birds!

I don't look at county or state but trips to NM and FL yielded 28 lifers for a best year of 206. That was my first year over 200.

2025 ended nicely with 342, propped up by several trips (Arizona, California, and Hawaii). Because of those trips, I got an incredible 57 lifers in the ABA area in 2025, going from 494 to 551.

(The Mangrove Yellow Warbler that I saw in 2023 also was split during the year.)

I'm at 88 so far in 2026.

Gotta share this as a few years ago I didn’t realize many of these species occurred in the state at all. This is my list of 2025’s Kansas new birds for me. Some insane (IMO) birds showed up last year.