1) Iowa
Remember the 3 weeks Ashley and I stayed there this spring? It was productive in more than one way; we snagged a state bird (Snowy Plover) and I managed to add a whole slew of new counties. I now have more than half the counties in the state shaded.
2) Arizona
I was lucky to spend 2 weeks in northern Arizona for work and so my Coconino County list jumped from 2 species to 126. After the tours, I know I must have added a few county birds farther south too because... well, they were lifers! All in all, I've managed to add 29 species to my Arizona life list so far this year.
3) Minnesota
I didn't add a ton but I know we visited at least 2-3 new counties on our way up to the airport earlier this summer. Plus, once there in Minneapolis, I got out birding with a friend in Hennepin County boosting that county list from 0 to 37. Overall, I've managed to add 34 state birds in Minnesota so far this year.
4) Wisconsin
Remember the White-winged Tern chase? It turns out that I hadn't birded in Wisconsin much at all and so adding 21 new state birds that day wasn't surprising.
5) Illinois
We recently swung over to Fulton County to see if we could connect with that male Ruff. Sadly, the Ruff wasn't present... but a lot of other things were! Our little half-day jaunt over there snagged me 3 new counties and nearly 30 state birds.
Anyway, on to the map. With the addition of 24 new counties since I last calculated in May, I'm up to 782 counties (or county-equivalents) in the ABA area. To put that in perspective, that means I have a county list for about 1 out of every 4 counties in the US.
In terms of county ticks nationwide, I've added 1000+ since the last update and am finally over the 15k mark overall.
Enjoy poking around:
