Greetings,
We hope you are all doing well and managing to get out and enjoy fall
migration. No doubt many of us are also excited to see what rarities this
fall may bring, especially since Virginia has already been off to a good
start with the stateâs first Scottâs Oriole in the beginning of the year,
followed by the first chaseable Bellâs Vireo in many years as well as a
nice male Garganey at Chincoteague and, most recently, the stateâs first
European Storm-Petrel. Who knows what the fall may bring! And on the topic
of rarities, weâd like to take a moment to introduce and solicit your input
for a project that several of us are putting together.
Rarities are one of the most exciting aspects of birding, and certainly
many of us have spent time thinking about when, where, and how this or that
species might be spotted in Virginia. Part of the fun of birding is
applying our knowledge of status and distribution, historical records,
population trends, geography, and many other things to the business of
predicting which species might turn up. Of course, itâs even more
gratifying when those predictions turn out to be accurate!
In this spirit, weâd like to invite you all to participate in compiling a
report on Virginiaâs Next Dozen bird species. This is a chance to offer up
your thoughts on which species you believe will be likely future additions
to the state list. Cumulatively, this will be a fun way to see which
species are on our collective radar, and maybe which ones arenât, but
should be! This sort of report has been compiled in other states, including
Maryland (they just published their excellent 3rd edition of the âMaryland
Next Tenâ this summer).
WHAT TO DO
Simply send us your votes for the next dozen new species you think will be
added to Virginia's list. You can send them in any format. Please also rank
your top three choices. With a dozen slots to fill, we encourage everyone
to think outside the box and not neglect those longshot species! Surely
Lucyâs Warbler, White-crowned Pigeon, or Brewerâs Sparrow would have made
very few Top 10 lists if this had been done a decade ago! Likewise,
neighboring states have experienced similarly unexpected additions in the
past ten years.
If inclined, please also include comments or speculate about when and where
(maybe even by whom!) the species will be found. Any lists or comments
submitted will be considered public and may be shared in the final report,
which will ultimately be published online and hosted at
BirdingVirginia.org. Please email your submissions to vanextdozen@xxxxxxxxx
For reference, Virginiaâs official state list can be found at the VSO
website, under the âVARCOMâ tab. The list, which was most recently updated
on July 27, includes 479 species. Please restrict your voting to full
species and do not include subspecies or other identifiable forms. Although
we are all ardent eBird users, we ask that you do not refer to the eBird
list, which includes seven species not represented on the VARCOM list
(Ruddy Shelduck, Passenger Pigeon, European Storm-Petrel, House Crow, Great
Tit, European Goldfinch, Bachmanâs Warbler).
A few species require specific instructions with regards to the voting
process:
Please exclude European Storm-Petrel. A sight record of this species from a
pelagic trip in August 2020 was well-documented by experienced observers
and is currently pending final review.
Tropical/Couchâs Kingbird. A record of this species pair, documented by a
single photo and not heard vocalizing, was accepted by VARCOM but there is
no strong speculation about the species ID. Both Tropical and Couchâs
Kingbird *ARE* eligible for consideration.
Greater/Lesser Sand Plover. A well-documented record of this species pair
was accepted by VARCOM as a slash, but is widely believed to have been a
Lesser. Please exclude Lesser Sand Plover from consideration.
âWesternâ Flycatcher. A well-documented record of this species pair was
accepted by VARCOM as a Pacific Slope/Cordilleran Flycatcher, but is widely
believed to have been a Pacific Slope. Please exclude Pacific Slope
Flycatcher from consideration.
** Please submit your votes by Monday, September 28 **
We have done our best to circulate this announcement to birders we think
would be interested in this project, but we also invite you to pass this
along to anyone else you know who may be interested. We do ask that all
participants provide serious submissions, and we reserve the right to
exclude from final consideration any submissions which we deem are not in
the spirit of the project. Naturally, the goal is to broaden our thinking
about what rarities are possible in Virginia and get birders thinking about
when, where, and how to find them. That being said, please donât send us
lists including penguins, ostriches, non-migratory South American
passerines, etc.
Once submissions are received, we will compile the votes and create a
report which presents the final results as well as some annotated comments
about many of the species that received votes. We anticipate needing about
a month following the close of voting to compile this, and will endeavor to
produce it as efficiently as possible.
Thanks in advance for everyoneâs participation, and we look forward to
seeing what species make your Next Dozen!
Cheers,
Matt Anthony, Todd Day, Nick Newberry
--
---------------------------------
Todd Michael Day
blkvulture@xxxxxxxxx
Culpeper County, VA
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