Quest for 300

Histrionicus histrionicus drake at Barnegat by Peter Massaslow CC BY-SA 2.0How many bird species can be seen in York County in a single year? A dedicated birder can tally 200 or more with reasonable effort, but what if a bunch of birders ranging from casual watchers to serious listers contributed to a single collective list?

That’s the question behind the Quest for 300. We wondered if it was even possible for such a single-year tally to occur in York County alone, but on our second year trying we made it. We will continue tracking each year, because birds are unpredictable.

Through 2017, we monitored eBird, maine-birds, and our comments section for observations to update the list, keeping records in a separate spreadsheet. In 2018, we began relying upon eBird’s tally.

Bar chart shows 12 years of annual bird tallies for York County, Maine.

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