Kansas 2012

 With each new year comes the anticipation of starting a new year list.  Suddenly, birds like House Sparrow and Northern Cardinal become exciting again.  Anyways, my year goal for Kansas is to get 245 birds.  This may not seem like a lofty goal (after all people who do a big year in Kansas fairly easily get over 330 species), but under my current circumstances (baby on the way), I feel like it is a fairly ambitious goal.
The way I got to 245 was to give each bird on the Kansas list a code number from 1-6, not unlike the ABA codes, on the likelihood of my seeing that species.  As of 1/14/2012, I have 77 species for Kansas.  In addition, there are 87 species that I have coded as 1; I should have no problem whatsoever in viewing these species.  Therefore, I aim to view 100% of these 87 species.  I labelled 64 species as Code 2.  These birds are uncommon where I do most of my birding (Rooks, Phillips, and Pawnee County) or common in an area where I plan on doing a little birding throughout the year (Cheyenne Bottoms, Quivira, Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, and Cimmaron National Grassland).  Of these 64 species, I hope to see 75% of them, giving me a total of 47 more species.  There are 56 species that I labelled as Code 3 (Rare but regular in my area, or uncommon in one of the aforementioned areas where I plan to do a bit of birding).  I hope to see 50% of these species, giving me 28 more birds.  There are 85 birds species that I labelled Codes 4-6.  These birds are either rare but regular in areas where I plan on doing a little bit of birding, casual or accidental in my area, or birds that I would have to make another trip to see.  It's possible that I could make another trip somewhere in Kansas, but I don't want to plan on it.  I hope to see 6 of these Code 4-6 birds.  This gives me a grand total of 245 birds.
I also hope to get my Rooks County total up to 200+.  I am currently sitting at 176 after lucking upon a Golden-crowned Kinglet at a creek crossing yesterday.  Part of the beauty of moving to a place to different geographically from West Michigan is that birds that were plentiful there (such as a Golden-crowned Kinglet) are much harder to come by here.  But species I wouldn't have even dreamt about there (Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Harris's Sparrow) are to be expected here.  You gotta love birding!
Another example of why birding keeps things interesting.  Yesterday I saw a hawk circling above Stockton after school.  I assumed it was a Red-tailed, being by far the most numerous Buteo around.  Usually, my thought process would be the following: "Great another Red-tailed.  Who cares."  But I don't yet have Red-tailed for my yard list here in Stockton.  So I raced home, ran into the house for the binoculars, and threw open the door to view the bird.  Sure enough, Red-tailed.
Anyways, here are some of the photos of the birds I have gotten in Rooks lately:

                                           First-year female Snowy Owl seen at Webster SP.

                                               First-cycle Thayer's Gull seen at Webster SP.

                                             Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk at Webster SP.
                            Interestingly enough, this may be the first immature Sharpie I have seen.

                                                         Adult Bald Eagle at Webster SP.

                                              Very bold Northern Bobwhite at Webster SP.

                                             Flock of white geese at Kirwin NWR.  Can you
                                                                  pick out the Ross's?

                                                    Adult Sharpie very close to my house.

 One of 5 Northern Shrikes I spotted in the area in November and December 2011.  Now it's 2012, and I can't find one!