End of Year Goal Check
It is that time of year were we look back at the year behind us. For the last few years I've been setting some year-long naturalist goals. These are just things to strive for and give me some direction throughout the year.
1. Have photos for 75% of my life birds.
I had this goal last year as well but only got up to 63% so this year I’m looking to move it up.
After another year, I'm up to having photographs of 76% of my life birds. So two years later, I've finally made it up and over the 75% mark. I'm not always that good to remember to take pictures of birds, unless they are rarities.
2. Audio for 25% of my life birds.
To be honest, I’m not really sure about this one. I currently don’t even own any recording equipment except a small microphone which plugs into my iPhone.
I didn't really do too much on this front this year. Right now I have 8% of my life birds recorded. I still don't have any equipment other than my iPhone (which is actually pretty good).
3. Participate in a dragonfly moon.
Inspired by Josh Fecteau’s website, I have attempted to do at least one or two moon challenges each year. In this case I will spend one moon cycle seeking out and identifying at least 15 dragonflies and damsel flies.
This spring and summer I spent a number of days observing odonates around where I lived. I added a number of new species to my life list. I didn't hit the 15 mark but I was able to learn 8 new ones. But more importantly, I found a number of new resources to help to me find and identify odonates. It also lead me to researching best practices for observing odonates.
4. Participate in a mushroom moon.
I will spend one moon cycle seeking out and identifying at least 15 different types of mushroom or fungus. This is one that I really wanted to do and it seemed liked a good mushroom year, but I didn't really spend much time working on it.
5. Screen-light summer.
Once school ends for the year then I have little need to be on a computer or my phone. So this summer, as I did a couple years ago I’m going to go screen-light and attempt to limit my total screen time to about 1-2 hours a day.
Because of some changes in my job I wasn't able to have as screen-lite of a summer as I would have liked. At the same time, because I don't work during the summer my screen usage was much lower than it is during the rest of the year.
6. Complete all eBird challenges.
I will probably talk about this one again later, but basically each month eBird issues a challenge. Each person who meets the challenge will have his or her name entered into a drawing for a free pair of binoculars.
I was able to meet every eBird challenge this year with the exception of August, September, and October. I'm still stinging from a couple years ago when eBird had a year long contest for people who met all of the monthly challenges. I thought I had made it but I had made one book keeping error in March which through the entire thing off. This year, I was able to easily meet them all with the exception of the three above. Those three are usually hard because I'm starting up school again and my outdoor/birding time drops.
7. Increase monthly bird numbers throughout the year.
I have been keeping track of how many birds I have identified on a monthly basis for the last few years and this year I am setting a monthly goal to beat my highest number.
The first three months of the year were hard, I tried to hit my monthly goals but fell short each month, but once spring started I was able to hit, tie, or crush my monthly numbers. In fact, from April until August I was able to match or beat my goal. September was a bust but I've been back on the saddle with the last few months of the year. One thing that I quickly learned is helpful for meeting this goal, was to go back and look at what birds I had seen that same month in the past few years. Then with that list I was able to focus on the gaps and make sure that easy birds didn't slip through.
8. Identify over 300 birds this year.
Each year I give myself a number goal. The last couple years it has been 300 and that keeps me busy but not too crazy busy.
This one was fairly easy with a trip to Florida during April. I was able to hit 336 species for the year, which is a new personal best for me as well. I don't think I'll be able to put up those kind of numbers in 2019 but that I okay, because I have some other fun goals already in the works for myself.
9. Draw 1 nature picture a week.
This one is probably the hardest of the bunch, as I have no drawing skill at all. That said, if I can stick with it, then I should be better by the end of the year.
I started to do this and even started a Maine Master Naturalist class where I was asked to draw a lot. And I learned one very important thing about my self. I hate drawing. I understand the value in observational terms but the act of it is so laborious and my work is so bad. I just don't have the patience to do it with any real focus. I'd much rather just sit and watch a bird or whatever.
10. Start a blog/website as a way to share what I see and learn.
Subgoal. Post on that blog/website at least once a week throughout the entire year.
This was a goal that I set after I had set other goals. During the winter months I like to have something to do when I can't be outside or rather don't want to gear up and go outside. Not to mention the extra darkness. One can only bother the owls so many times. So I started a blog. But then stopped as the weather got nice. And finally moved everything to this journal.
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