This included me starting to research in
earnest an even more ambitious goal for 2019 that would likely press me orders
of magnitude more than the State Park effort did this year that I’m still far
behind on recounting in this blog. Though I haven’t 100% committed myself to going
after this new goal of getting 10,000 county tics in 1 year in Minnesota I’m
working very hard putting several hours a day into the research and discussion
needed for something like this to be possible while holding down a full time
job. I even drove to Duluth for a day of birding and discussion with Alex
Sundvall to get some perspective on what is possible and not possible in such a
massive goal. I have another meeting planned with the very well-traveled Liz
Harper to further discuss this plan and the level of complete lunacy that it
contains. I sat down for a period of time with good friend Peter Nichols to talk about this lunacy as well.
At the core I’m trying to super-charge my
own experience in MN birding in hopes to propel several elements of my
interests in birding; covering writing, presenting, and educational platforms.
I feel like extending my state-wide knowledge to the next level will help add
credibility to much of the platforms that have opened up to me in the last 2
years around guide work, presenting, etc…
I still want to get my writings completed
for the remaining state park efforts that I engaged in this last year, but they
will probably continue to trickle in slowly as I put a serious amount of effort
into this goal research and preparation. Not to mention the number of new State
Park stops that will be included in a year such as this one I’m proposing as
many State Parks are basically super collectors for given counties that can
help warp the effort needed in some counties. At an average of 115 species per
county it almost seems possible, until you realize while staring at a State map
that there are 87 counties to do that in during the year. Many problems exist
with this plan, but I’ve gotten a number of pledges for help in counties that
others know really well so it starts to seem more and more possible if you can
count on those support efforts during the entire year. This may be my chance to
extend out my birding efforts to include birding with online friends that come
together in various Facebook groups.
This all seems like a grand
adventure that can add to what I started with the State Park Big Year. More to
come as I’ve continued to bird at a heavy pace while brain storming new ways to
do something epic.
