10 Things We Learned From Keeping An eBird Checklist 365 Days In A Row

As of today, we’ve completed an eBird checklist 404 days in a row.

The main thing we love about birding is how good it makes us feel. Simply being outside and observing any bird brings us so much joy and a sense of connection to our natural world. In 2018, we decided to focus on exploring our county and its birds. We wanted to set a measurable goal we had control over, and decided upon keeping at least one checklist every day, no matter what.
 
This goal was an unequivocal success! We submitted 669 checklists over the year and birded a total of 1,020 hours! (Data culled from eBird.)

We came up with a list of 10 things this steady-eddie goal taught us.

1. Our patch rules! 

Regularly birding our home patch hammers home how good we have it. Getting to intimately know a small radius just outside our door is extremely rewarding. Not only do we tune in to seasonal changes and patterns of our local flora and fauna, but we also end up interacting with our neighbors more frequently which increases our sense of community.

2. Our county has a lot to offer

Sonoma County is extremely biodiverse. Not only has birding every day inspired us to explore our neighborhood in great depth, but it’s also taken us to locales in the county we never knew existed. The variety of habitats is astounding, and the beauty is unmatched. We’ve lived here for nine years, and still, the opportunities for exploration seem endless!

3. Sonoma County birders are incredibly nice

We’ve found Sonoma County birders to be so supportive, helpful and encouraging. From experts volunteering to lead free walks to friendly local birders we’ve met in the field sharing tips of the trade, we are always blown away by the welcoming and inclusive nature of our birding community.

4. Birding leads to wildlife encounters

Birding inherently requires us to be quiet, still, and with a heightened awareness. This is a great recipe for seeing critters. One evening, while walking down a rural road, we noticed a Gray Fox laying nearby. We watched the fox as it got up, stretched, walked into the road, and sat down. Soon, a small group of California Towhees joined the scene, completely unbothered by the fox’s presence. Eventually, the fox sauntered over to a rock closer to us, curled up, and fell asleep. We felt honored to witness this slow dance. In 2018, we also had the pleasure of close encounters with coyotes, bobcats, deer, minks, river otters, harbor seals, and a skunk.

5. We’re never not birding

During our 365 days of checklists, there were times we had to take what we could get. Once, it meant walking around the field before our nephew’s baseball game, where a Say’s Phoebe was flycatching from on top of the dugout. Another time, it meant counting the scaup and Ruddy Ducks while staring out the window of Oakland International Airport. And another time, we were surprised to see two Red-breasted Sapsuckers while wandering the grocery store parking lot (listen below, and see #12 from Our 15 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2018 post). Making an eBird checklist every day cemented the facts that we can always be birding and that non-hotspots can be as interesting as hotspots!

6. Binoculars are conversation starters

Curious folks often ask what we’re looking at with our binoculars. Lots of people enjoy birds casually and love to share personal bird stories and county knowledge. Not only are these conversations with strangers enjoyable, but we often learn things about the area. For example, a local nature-lover clued us in to a tucked-away coastal trail frequented by roosting Barn Owls and a resident bobcat. We’ve enjoyed looks at the owls and bobcat multiple times now!

7. Birding is infectious

Committing to a checklist a day means that we inevitably bird around non-birder friends and family, and its seems that looking at birds is contagious! We’ve had several friends send us bird photos asking for identification help. It’s almost as if there’s an on/off switch when it comes to noticing birds. Once it’s turned on, there’s no going back – and it pleases us to no end to inspire others to take a closer look!

8. Going outside is a “Never Regret”

We have a concept called “Never Regrets.” Never Regrets are activities that we sometimes don’t feel like starting, but always make us feel good in the end. Some of our Never Regrets are exercising, turning off our phones, going to bed early, and sometimes even going outside. There are times when it’s cold or pouring rain, or we’re just feeling lazy. But wait – we promised to do a checklist today! We’ve never regretted forcing ourselves to get up, walk outside, and observe the bird action. Identifying Never Regrets has powerfully impacted many areas of our lives.

9. Birds are endlessly fascinating

Looking at and thinking about birds every day made it clear that we’ll never run out of things to learn about them. First we just wanted to be able to ID a bird, then we wanted to know who was making each sound, then we wanted to understand more about behavior, then we wondered about their distribution and migration patterns, then we wondered what each fledgling and juvenile looked like, then we wondered about different plumages… and so on and so forth, forever!
 
Kenn Kaufman has a great quote that sums up the never-ending fascination birds can provide:

“We can go out into our backyard and see new things we haven’t seen before with common birds. In a thousand lifetimes, we wouldn’t run out of things to see with the common regular birds.” — Kenn Kaufman

10. We want to keep going! 

There are only upsides to birding every day. Setting this goal has propelled us to connect to our community, build new friendships, get outdoors, and stimulate our bodies and brains. And, maybe most importantly, it’s solidified our passion for birds. Here’s to Year Two of birding every day!

If you’re an eBirder, we encourage you to join the eBird 2019 Checklist-a-day Challenge! Don’t worry if you didn’t submit a daily checklist during January, as eBird’s challenge is to submit “an average of at least one checklist a day.” We promise it’ll be a Never Regret!