2025 Birding At-A-Glance

Diving into birding was one of the best decisions I have made. It gives me a creative outlet, a means to chase my ultimate career dreams, and an escape into nature as life can get hectic at times. This is the first real hobby I have had, I think, outside of playing video games for stretches.

One of the more loose goals I had for myself was get 100 different species of birds on camera during 2025. That, partially, stems from the fact that I went a couple of months only keeping track of the birds that I got photos/video of, not just witnessing them. Not wanting to throw off how I had been keeping track, I committed to that for the year. Now that I am keeping a less strict record of my 2026 Bird Count, I shouldn't run into anything like that this year. So, I came up just short on that list and goal, only reaching 96 species documented for the year.

Top row from left to right: A juvenile Bald Eagle and Spotted Towhee.

Bottom row from left to right: American Coot, Common Yellowthroat, and Savannah Sparrow.

The vast majority of the birds I recorded throughout the year come from Washington State. Visiting family in Massachusetts amounted to the second largest share. There are then a handful each from Florida and Arizona during a couple of quick trips for family weddings. I thought it was cool to see the differences in species that the two coasts of the United States present. The first example that comes to mind is having the Steller's Jay in Washington and the West Coast, versus Massachusetts and the East Coast having Blue Jays. While not different species occupying the same ecological niche, the Northern Flicker also has interesting coastal differences; On the West Coast, their underwing and under-tail feathers are bright red, while they are bright yellow in the East.

My favorite location from the year has to be the Dungeness Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This is not only a new area of my home state to explore, but it offered such a wide variety of habitats and, in turn, bird species. Having to take a ferry somewhere added an extra fun aspect to the trip. The Skagit Wildlife Area deserves an honorable mention. I took multiple trips here, and it is the only place I had time to take my dad when my family was here visiting.

This is the first of what I hope and plan to be at least semi-regular blog posts throughout 2026 and beyond. I'm thinking it will span many topics from things like successful/ unsuccessful trips or locations to top ten lists.