Top Ten of Infamy

 Let's talk top ten, in this case, the top ten birds I need for my US life list.

According to eBird, I've seen 272 unique species in the area they define as the "United States".

I decided to check my top ten list to see if there's any that I have a hope of seeing in Polk County, FL where I live.

#1 is a species of Hummingbird in the west.

lol.

Almost all the birds in the top ten are not likely to be seen where I am. I highlighted number 13, "Rose Breasted Grosbeak" because there will likely be at least 1 report this spring of this bird here. They do migrate through in very small numbers. There's a March 2020 report of Red-breasted nuthatch, and a January report of Golden-crowned kinglet from 2025. I remember that because it was a "one and done" type report from Circle B Bar reserve, and I had just been there. There's a couple of birds missing from Polk county altogether that kind of surprised me given where else in the state they've been spotted. The number 9 bird on my list, Brown creeper, is one of them. I've seen that one in Louisiana, but only as a kid. My parents have an oak tree in their front yard, and one morning I watched it from my bedroom room window spiral it's way around the tree, probing for bugs in bark. The most recent sightings in 2020 came from the east side of the state, and the closest sightings to me occured in 2008. 

At some point in time I'm sure it will appear on my state list at least. the other bird that's missing from Polk's list that I need on my "US" list is Common Merganser. That bird could be out there right now. I need to study the habits of this fishing duck to determine a good place to anticipate them.

I can dream. 

I can also focus on nailing some birds I still need for Polk County:

These are the top 10 (13) I need for Polk county, FL. Some of these birds I've seen already, even in this state, like Northern Pintail.

First of all, I doubt every Monk parakeet sighting reported in Polk. We have Nanday parakeets here for sure, and i've seen them many times. Usually right where Monk parakeets are also reported. I circled the red-cockaded woodpecker because I can go see that year round, but it will require a trip out to specialized habitat. The green highlighted whip-poor-will is another bird that requires a trip to the boonies to see, but there's not as much hassle seeing/hearing them. There's a chance i can see them before they migrate back north too.

American herring gull is blue because chasing this bird has made me blue.  I've chased reports of this bird for at least 6 years. I've also put myself in the areas I would expect them when there haven't been reports. Chasing this bird has been frustrating. It's also been rewarding in other ways, usually in tern and/or duck species. The fact that Bonapartes gull made it to my eBird list before Herring gull is hilarious to me. This has the ubiquitous distinction of being the only bird on my Polk list that I've seen in Polk county, but not since starting  my eBirding list in 2014. 

I highlighted the American Pipit in Yellow because I'm cautious about reports for this bird. I've chased them out at the sod fields in winter, and come up empty handed, but I did see many palm warblers. It's possible I've misidentified some pipits as Palmies, but I just don't know. I need to see a group so I can judge for sure.

Spring migration is here/around the corner. Resident mockingbirds and thrashers have already hatched a brood of chicks, Carolina wrens too. I even saw a freshly fledged mourning dove last week.

Time to get into the field and see some birds.