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Re: Total Ticks



Jack,

Here is some advice on Total Tickie birding. I think of much of this as
self-evident, but you never can tell. Perhaps this can help.

1. Do your homework. Learn where birds are at all seasons of the year. Study
range maps. Find the web sites which have summer and winter range
information. Buy as many bird finding guides as you can afford and study
them. In the Total Tickies game, information is vital. Here is a snap
quiz -- how likely are Field Sparrows in California? What about Montana?
New Hampshire? Florida? You gotta know this kind of stuff cold.

2. Know what you have seen where, and what you need to get. If you are going
to visit a state at a certain time of year, develop a hit list of species
that you might get there. It's rather like playing one of those canasta like
card games with 6 full decks in play at once. You sorta have to be able to
"feel" your way to a good strategy. This ability is based on knowing where
the birds are and knowing what you have already seen. Remember that you are
"sampling without replacement". This means that you have to be able to
adjust your itinerary in mid stream if you get lucky and find a species
sooner than you thought you would. You need to be able to recompute the odds
after every tick, just like on a Big Day, or like playing poker.

3. If possible, go on your birding trips during migrations. If this is not
possible then plan a summer trip and a winter trip to the same state. This
is most important in southern states, like Texas or Florida, less important
in the north.

4. Exploit the artificial nature of our political divisions. State lines,
especially out west, have little or no connection with physical geography.
You wrote that you are soon going on a birding trip to Tulsa. This is a good
example. For a beginner in the Total Tickies game a trip to Tulsa should NOT
be just a trip to Oklahoma. It should be a trip to Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Missouri, and Kansas. You need to be able to visualize a map of the United
States in your dreams.

5. When you concentrate on where states come together pay special attention
to those species which are rare in a given state, but more likely in the
corner of the state where you are visiting. If you are visiting southeastern
Kansas during migration or breeding season you need to know that there is a
bit of Ozark forest in extreme southeastern Kansas. Get a copy of Sebastian
Patti's bird finding guide, or a Kansas breeding bird atlas and see that you
need to look for species such as Kentucky Warbler and Carolina Chickadee,
which are generally absent in most of Kansas. But across the line in
Missouri concentrate more on finding Greater Roadrunner, Bachman's Sparrow,
or Painted Bunting.

6. Once you think you have your hit list developed for a state for a given
visit, ask local experts for advice. Don't ask me, for example, where to go
birding in South Carolina in June. You should ask things such as where can
you find species such as Black Rail or Ruddy Duck in South Carolina in June,
or whatever else is on your hit list. This become very important once you
have ticked off all the "easy" species in a state.

7. Be a warbler, not a vireo. My good friend Dennis Forsythe, a biologist at
the Citadel in Charleston and a great birder, has classified birders
according to their birding style as either warblers or vireos. A vireo is
slow and deliberate. It does not miss much, but it does not cover a lot of
ground. This is the correct style if you are working on your Virginia state
list, given that you live in Virginia. On the other hand, warblers flit
around nervously. For Total Tickie birding you should not worry too much
about finding rare birds in a state, at least at first. For example my
Nevada list is pathetic, believe it or not -- 4, count 'em, 4 species only.
When I go to Nevada will I go backpacking in the Ruby Mountains to try for
the Himalayan Snowcock? Probably not. On my first real trip there I will try
to hit the best and most diverse habitats possible. This is not a subalpine
cirque two days' hike from the trailhead. For Nevada it's a wetlands near
the main drag, then on to the next good spot.

8. Learn bird song.  Let me repeat. Learn bird song and bird calls COLD.
This takes years, but it is essential. What the legendary Ted Parker said
about birding in the Neotropics also applies to Total Tickie birding, "If
you actually have to SEE the bird, you're lost!" Total Tickie birding is
very much like Big Day birding. Guerrilla birding. Hit and run. If you can't
tell a Cerulean Warbler from a Northern Parula, or a Hammond's Flycatcher
from a Dusky Flycatcher by song alone, then you need to learn, or take up
another birding specialty.

9. When you are on a trip, or planning a trip, don't get too hyper about it.
The Total Tickies game is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The end
is to enjoy our country, see some new sights, have fun in "boring" places.
Life List birders tend to hit only the best places, and mostly just go where
others have gone. BOAR-RING! A good total tickies birder is an explorer. For
example, I have seen White Ibis in Missouri, a really cool bird there.
During the breeding season I can see hundreds of White Ibis at a single
rookery in South Carolina. I found the White Ibis is Missouri by putzing
about in the extreme southeastern bootheel of the state during spring
migration. I was exploring.

Some of these principals might seem a bit contradictory. This is because the
strategy changes as you find more and more ticks.
Always remember that birding is a game. Have fun. Help out the other guy.
Find those great little local restaurants and get a good meal. Find a motel
with a good hot tub. Only madmen and Englishmen bird flat out 18 hours a day
for two straight weeks. (Yes, some Brits actually do this. I am not making
this up.)  If you are not having fun you might as well be golfing.

Good birding!

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Jack & Kathy Hugus
  To: rcarter@sc.rr.com
  Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 2:23 PM
  Subject: Total Ticks


  Hello Robin,

  My name is Jack Hugus and I am a birder from VA.  We've never met, but a
good friend of mine, named Jerry Schaefer, just retired and moved to No.
Augusta.  He had the privilege recently of running into you and a Columbia
Audubon group you were leading at, I think, Phinizy Swamp.  Jerry emailed me
and spoke very highly of that outing.

  Moreover, he said that he spoke with you about my interest in Total Ticks.
He said that you offered to provide me with some advice in that arena.
Having looked up your listing in the ABA List Report, I certainly welcome
that opportunity.

  Based on my own experience in other areas, and my relative newness at
Total Ticks, what I think I'd prefer to do, if it's acceptable to you, is to
ask an open-ended question. ( I'm sure I don't know enough to ask the most
central question.)  If you could tell me what approaches or strategies have
proven key to your success, that would help me immensely.  It would also
stimulate other questions in my mind.  I do not want to become a burden -
please be honest with me if I ask too many questions.

  Thanks in advance for anything you provide.

  Sincerely,

  Jack Hugus
  Leesburg, VA