Summary of 2021

January 1, 2022

Summary of 2021

For the year 2021 I set a challenge for myself to do bird listing, through photography. It has been a very fun way to explore my surroundings, and to experience and learn about birds.

I think it has also increased my photography skills, specifically wildlife photography.

Statistics

In total I ended up seeing 160 different species of birds. The below graph shows how that number has increased throughout the year.

And here’s a graph showing the number of new listing by week number. Note that the first three days of 2021 are part of week number 53 for 2020 according to ISO standard.

We can, as probably expected, see a big number of listings in the first weeks. When you’re starting out, you find new birds everywhere. Then we see a new bump at about week 17-20, this is the spring bird migration season.

Then a new bump appears at week 29-32, this was the period for my summer vacation. Traveling to the Swedish mountains, and having loads of extra time on my hands, allowed for me seeing more new birds.

And finally we have a last bump at week 41-42 - the fall bird migration period.

Experiences

At two occasions have I felt an extraordinary excitement about finding a bird. The first one was together with Carl when finding 7 Red-breasted goose:

*Red-breasted goose*
500mm, 1/800s, ƒ/5.6, ISO 125

And the second one was when I found a Tawny owl myself:

The lesson I think is that going to see a bird that someone else has found can be all great and fun. But the real excitement comes from finding something yourself.

Thanks

I want to thank a couple of people for their great company going out birding, them sharing their knowledge, or giving me opportunities otherwise hard to find by myself. Thank you Hanna, Staffan, Carl, Marc, Jonas and Oscar.