It’s mid-summer and the frenzied pace of adding species to yard and patch lists has likely slowed down for a while. I thought it would be interesting to see what the first 6 months have produced. There are some very impressive yard lists from the first half of the year in all size classes. At least one person has managed to top 50 species in every category and the largest yard class– 5 acres or more in size– has 4 yards with over 100 species. Overall, 21 out of 46 yards have topped the 50 species mark. Check out the full listing and consider entering your own yard into the contest. It is definitely not too late to start and just involves entering your sightings into eBird. Detailed directions here.
There are also some pretty impressive patch lists. There are 88 entries in the patch contest and the top 14 are all over 100 species. Mike Lanzone is closing in on 200 species at Somerset Lake, still just one shy after an impressive shorebird migration that included Ruff, White-rumped, and Baird’s Sandpipers. 48 of the patches have recorded over 50 species and over 20 checklists have been submitted in 33 of the patches. Like the yard contest, it is not too late to enter, and now is a good time to do it before fall migration starts to heat up. Detailed directions here.