And so the Big Year begins with high hopes and plenty of sleep

One of the many nice things about birding is that even the most common of species, like the Blue Jay, can dress elegantly.

The game is on.

My brother Phil and I have officially launched our Big Year. It began yesterday, January 1, as the second hand passed 12:00 midnight. We were not birding at the time.

So far, between us, we’ve seen a total of eight species. The count began with a Mourning Dove and continued with House Sparrow, European Starling, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Red-tailed Hawk and Dark-eyed Junco.

Okay, so it’s not much of a list, mostly just the backyard species you’d expect from somebody who glances casually out the window. And that’s pretty much what we did. It was New Year’s Day, after all. We had other concerns.

Phil and his wife Susan were recovering from a nasty bout with the flu and stayed in. My wife Fran and I slept a bit late, had lunch out and took in a movie – our traditional New Year’s Day program.

I figure you can’t do it all in one day. You have to sort of ease into these big projects. So on Saturday, Fran and I will take a drive out to Smithville Lake, which is maybe 25 or 30 miles from our home.

The people who report rare-bird sightings on the Internet have been seeing Snowy Owls, Tundra Swans and lots of other goodies on the water and shore. We’ll see if the unusual ones have stuck around for us. My brother and Susan will be in Florida where I’m sure they’ll pick up some nice additions for the list.

I’m hoping to hit at least 50 to 75 species by the end of January. That will take care of most of the common birds around here, with a few rarer ones thrown in. After that, things will get tougher. But spring is coming and so are some more trips – for Fran and me to California in late January and then to Nebraska in late March for the annual Sandhill Crane migration.

Maybe by the end of March we’ll surprise ourselves with a list of a couple hundred species between us. We’ll be keeping the scope handy and the binoculars around our necks.