HARRIS'S SPARROW AND MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, NEW JERSEY

Hi!
I got Purple Sandpiper, Rusty Blackbird, American Woodcock, Winter Wren, Vesper Sparrow, Mountain Bluebird, and Harris's Sparrow at Cape May!

-Red-necked Stint 

P.S. My total is now 658!

December Part 1: chasing, failing to chase, and the Christmas Bird Count

It happened..... the Hawaiian provisionals escaped, bringing Lizzy Pusche (pusche) to 3rd place, and Matt Smith down to 5th. The Red-necked Stint is at 650, with 2 provisional's (Pink-footed Goose and Hook-billed Kite). I have been changing my Midway Atoll trip for the Pink-footed Goose, hoping for something good when I make my trip tomorrow (Laysan Albatross?). I am not trying hard since the game is almost over, but my goal is to get in the rank of 199, so I can escape Rank 206. But I still got my binocs on first place next ABA Big Year.

Akikiki is still at a whooping 858, leaving Rails_N_Quails and Lizzy Pusche (pusche) in the bobwhite's dust bath

Budget Big Year 2020 is now official! 

Christmas Bird Count:
I am excited for the CBC as I might get to the 700 club! Fort Lauderdale the 14th, New Mexico the 26th, and Buckeye, AZ the 27th etc. 

So hooray for the CBC! 

-Red-necked Stint

Tufted Duck in NL

Well, now I got the Tufted Duck Bowring Park in St.John's last night. Hook-billed Kite and Black-throated Blue Warbler in Provisional. 

-Red-necked Stint

Now what do I do!

I started FanBirding in July, after getting basically all the birds I can get now (need Northern Shrike and Tufted Duck), I don't know what to do! I was chasing the RGV Birding Festival (and got the Aplomado Falcon), and I am currently looking for the Tufted Duck in Newfoundland. I missed out on the Black and Yellow Rail Festival. I don't know what Hawaii is up to right now. If anyone has suggestions, drop a comment. 

Here is what I got at the festival:

Eastern Screech Owl

Fulvous Whistling Duck

Palm Warbler

Blue-headed Vireo

Aplomado Falcon

Wood Stork

Wilson's Plover

Redhead 

and Groove-billed Ani escaped Provisional! My total is now 627 with 3 in provisional

Now what do I do?

-Red-necked Stint 

I've returned, with too many new species

I am back! But one thing is, that has changed since I last wrote in my blog, is that fellow Fantasy Birder, Connie Bickerton passed away due to a sickness. Her last bird was the Code 4 Yellow-browed Warbler that was in Canada, which is not a bad bird (especially for your last one ever). 

Let's hear some happy news!

I recently wrote in the Fantasy Birding Monthly Award email (Thanks to Matt Smith for letting me do this!). Now, I have been chasing the RGBV Festival! And added a lot more species (11 new species). Here is the list:

Today:
White-tipped Dove
Roseate Spoonbill 
Altamira Oriole
Black-throated Green Warbler
Groove-billed Ani (Provisional)
Common Pauraque

Yesterday:
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
Ross's Goose
Sprague's Pipit
White-tailed Hawk
Olive Sparrow
Audubon's Oriole

The Farallon Islands! ( Nov 1st-5th)
Ashy-storm Petrel 
Clay-colored Sparrow
Barn Owl
Burrowing Owl
Lesser Scaup
Canvasback
Tundra Swan
Eared Grebe
ALSO TWO RARITIES: Black-tailed Gull (main reason why I went to the islands) and the 2nd island record of RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


Now I really want (or need) Aplomado Falcon! 

I am now at 617 species (Provisional:4) (Rank: 237)

Thanks for reading and maybe Matt Smith will beat Andy Bankert (Matt: 847 and Andy: 849)

-Red-necked Stint 

Hawaii and Barrow, AK

Hey peeps,

I've been stalking the ABA Hawaii Rally. It payed of yesterday when I got, 

Erckel's Francolin,
Ring-necked Pheasant, 

Warbling White-eye
White-rumped Shama

Chinese Hwamei,

Apapane,

Anianiau,

Kauai Amakihi

Kauai Elepaio,

Scaly-breasted Munia,

White-tailed Tropicbird,

Red-crested Cardinal

in my Provisional

Akikiki and Akekee 

On October 12th I got an Ivory Gull in Barrow, Alaska and on the 16th I a Ross's Gull.

Updates later. I am up to 561 species in the ABA Game.

-Red-necked Stint (A.K.A Tony)

BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ST.PAUL 10/4 -10/6

St.Paul has been my default location for a while now. But I did leave St.Paul on the 4th to go to British Columbia (Canada) to chase the Brown Shrike (Code 4). I (thought) I might have a fine chance of chasing it, but NO! I miss it. I luckily ended up with 6 new species in BC. And now for St.Paul! On the 5th I got the.... Hawfinch! And Bohemian Waxwing. On the 6th I got a Common Goldeneye and the GRAY WAGTAIL! But this Fanbirder just saw that he got the GARGANEY on the 5th! What a week! My total now is 539 (would be: 545, if all my provisional birds would get out)! And my rank would be in the 290s. 

What a week for Fantasy Birding!
- Red-necked Stint 

My Provisional List

My Recent list. 

*UPDATE* CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS

Hey y'all
I posted that about how the Yellow-green Vireo that I got on the 1st I got more species that day that I did not add on that blog post. Here is the list:

Western Grebe, Clark's Grebe, Virginia Rail, White-faced Ibis, Red-breasted Sapsucker, White-throated Sparrow, Western Meadowlark. Provisional: Hooded Merganser, Yellow-green Vireo (obviously), Virginia's Warbler, and Blackburnian Warbler. 

Texas (today and yesterday):
Neotropic Cormorant, Great-tailed Grackle, Purple Gallinule, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, and King Rail. 

I am now up to 530 (would be 534 if all of the birds would get out of my Provisional list)

Now, I am chasing the Brown Shrike tomorrow and the Hawfinch on the 5th.

- Red-necked Stint

Golden Gate Park, California. 10/1/19

Today on Fantasy Birding I went to Golden Gate Park in California in search of the Yellow-green Vireo.

Today's List:
Since I got a lot of birds, I will list the new ones I got. 

Red-breasted Sapsucker
In my Provisional list (the new birds): Hooded Merganser, Yellow-green Vireo, and Virginia's Warbler! (I also got Rustic Bunting in St.Paul yesterday)

- Red-necked Stint

Introduction to Fantasy Birding

Fantasy Birding is basically the bird-watching version of Fantasy Baseball. Except you don't wait for players and drafts, you wait for the bird to appear on the screen. Matt Smith's hit game is generally for birders and for people who want to do a Big Year without putting miles on a van or spending a dime.So I thought I would write about the basics and the advanced way of playing Fantasy Birding!
THE BASICS:
Step 1: 
Create an account. Virtually everything you do online you have to create an account for. Make it what ever you want! A certain bird name, your name, etc. 

Step 2:
Set your avatar. You created an account, and that's great.But you might want an avatar.TO SET YOUR AVATAR: Click on the gray bird on your top right. When you press it you, you will see a word that says "Set Avatar." So look at all the species photos and choose one. Then press the photo and it will bring you back to the main screen.
Step 3: Start a game! In order to actually play the game, you have to JOIN A GAME. There will be a tab on the home screen, that says Join Game. So press it. There will be a variety of games from BIG YEAR 2019 to GLOBAL BIG YEAR 2019. I personally like the BIG YEAR 2019 (ABA Area game) over the GLOBAL BIG YEAR for one reason. TIME ZONES. The biggest problem about the Global game is the time zones, for example: India is 9 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES AHEAD OF THE EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME (EDT). My opinion, though. I am in the BIG YEAR 2019, which is the ABA Area game (Canada and United States). 
STEP 4: SET YOUR LOCATION! Once you joined a game and stuff, you might or should I say NEED to set a location up. So got to your calendar and press "SET LOCATION", when you do that you want to obviously set a location. Choose a local hotspot or far away hotspot. When you press your hotspot, you will see a big red circle, that means you choose your spot. Regular inland hotspots will be a in a 10 killometer radius and pelagics in 50 killometer radius. Pelagics are a great way to add species to your list. (I will discuss pelagics in other post in the coming week or two). You won't be able to set your location on the date you are at (e.g., if you signed up and set a location on Oct 15th). You will have to set it as tomorrows date (e.g., Oct 16th). Cause you can't set a location pass 6 AM of the date that your on. If you could set a location pass 6 AM, It will give you advantage of the TIME ZONES. 
STEP 5: Enjoy The Game: If you saw the "Big Year" movie, you will know it is a hassle to do a Big Year. But lucky for FanBirders, all you have to do is sit on your butt and wait for the bird!

ADVANCED:
Chasing Rarities:
Your finding the common birds and want to find interesting birds. So chase rarities! Matt Smith made this game so good, that you can chase rarities. On the Home Screen, there will be a noticeable screen with that says "Hotline", below that is a pink banner that says " Sightings reported here may or may not have been confirmed, and some may have been misidentified. Chase at your own risk!". There might be something interesting, like a Black-headed Gull or Little Gull. And sometimes something even rare, like a Bahama Mockingbird. All you have to do is press "Chase". And that is it. 

Looking at your list:
In order to look at your list, there will be a tab on your personal game screen that says "List". When you press it, there will be other tabs. But to look at your list, loom at the tab that says "Valid". And there is your full list. And then there is a tab that says "Recent" that is your most recent species. And then there is the Provisional, that is where the rarities are until they have been accepted. Sometimes birds will be REJECTED!! Meaning that they did not accept the rarity.

Hope this helped y'all!
- Tony (Fanbird alias: Red-necked Stint)

JACK SNIPE AND EURASIAN SKYLARK. ST.PAUL AND HAWAII

I checked my Fantasy Birding stats and saw that I got the Code 4 JACK SNIPE and Eurasian Skylark (Code 2). But I also got Gray Francolin, Spotted Dove, Zebra Dove, Common Myna, Saffron Finch, and Java Sparrow in Hawaii! I am now up to 517 species.

- Tony

St.Paul 8/26-27 19

Hi!
I recently just been in St.Paul for a while now. And have gotten Mottled Petrel, Siberian Accentor, and Little Bunting. Jack Snipe and Eurasian Skylark are in the Provisional tab. And then creator Matt Smith tells me that Aaron Lang and Gaylee Dee had a possible Long-legged Buzzard at St.Paul IRL! Hopefully ID gets accepted!

Tony