[cobirds] Re: Yard list questions: How many of CO's 520 species have been seen (or heard) from a yard?

Love this discussion, Thomas! I started birding before I had a car, so yard birding has a dear place in my heart.

I've been yard-listing for around 6 years in Larimer County. I was very obsessed with birding in my yard for the first 3 years, submitting up to 4 complete checklists a day during migrations. I have had to resort to more casual yard-listing since I started my UG. I am pretty happy with the 81 species on my Timnath yard list, especially considering how it is not in the "birdiest" of locations. I've had some fun Larimer birds: SUTA, CORE, PUFI, TOWA, BWWA, CAKI, HOWA, CATE. One of the most memorable experiences was when I finally, after two months of taping nocturnal audio in the summer, got a Barn Owl screaming while sitting out on my driveway. The Hooded Warbler was my first yard rarity, and I remember having Nick Komar and Joe Kipper come over to see it. The Common Redpoll was another fun one that Josh Bruening and Joe Kipper got to pick up as well. I'm in the middle of the Summerfields Estates subdivision, so again, not super birdy, but there have been some miracles. I also took my yard birding to silly extents, setting up a scope on the patio and scoping as far out to the foothills as possible to catch raptors and a few other large species that I would have otherwise not gotten. Ultimately, yard-listing taught me a lot about birding that I take outside the yard: bird every bird. Bird every common bird. Bird until every bird seems boring, because nothing has prepared me more for recognizing and finding rarities than the hundreds of hours I've spent birding the expected species. I've also gotten to see some really neat behavioral phenomena, and the cherry on top is that I didn't have to spend any gas money. ;)

Happy birding, everyone!

 - CSA

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