New Birds John Saw in 2005
I started 2005 while still vacationing in Alabama, visiting relatives there, so my first two new birds of the year were eastern species (White-throated Sparrow and Eastern Towhee). I'd return back east in the summer, to Philadelphia this time, when my dad took the family along on a business trip, and at a local wildlife refuge there I saw Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, and Baltimore Oriole, plus Purple Martin in Amish country. 2005 was also the year I saw my first "rare" bird, namely Yellow-crowned Night-Heron at Tijuana Slough NWR in San Diego - but that was an unexpected find, and I wouldn't actively "chase" rare birds until some years later, when I was in college. Otherwise, I was still mostly picking up common California birds at this point.
avg. score: 7 of 33 (23%)
required scores: 1, 2, 3, 5, 15
