Date: 1/15/26 4:36 pm From: Becky Lutz <0000035ce3242aa3-dmarc-request...> Subject: 2025 Birding Year Review (No Sighting)
Already starting the third week of the new year…. 2026 is moving along quickly.
I finally had a chance to reflect on my 2025 goals. I knew Ihad met them, but I wanted to look a little deeper. To review, my goals were tomake sure all the Franklin County Hotspots (currently 36) had at least one picture,to bird at least one cache/spark site every month, to record at least onespecies in each of the MO counties (114), and to finally get into the MO Top100 birder list.
After a quick review of hotspots missing pics, I was able tofinish up this goal fairly easily. Now looking through some of the pics though,I need to remember to continue taking pics as some are snow-covered only and afew of the locations have seen some major changes, so I need to keep that inthe back of my mind for future visits.
A couple of months into the monthly cache/sparks birding, Irealized I was basing my “weeks” off how they laid out on the calendar and thatdidn’t really fit very well on some as some months had 5 weeks. So after decidingthere’s no such thing as a dumb question, I reached out to Edge to have herexplain to me what a week was. LOL! Then panic set in as I realized that wasn’thow I had been doing it and I may have already failed. A quick review of mytrips gave me a sigh of relief. It was close, but I was still on track. Whew!! Iwas lucky that most months had a location within an hour of my house, but I didvisit some on trips to the in-laws, weekend get-a-ways, and even a few spotsrunning around on my county trips.
Speaking of county trips, I needed a bird in 22 counties. Asyou can imagine, most of them were border counties, so nothing quick and easy.I was fortunate to join Josh and Jim for a couple of trips which made the longtrips not so long and I always learn something. Those northern counties arekinda brutal. They’re 5 hrs from me, pretty spread out, and lots of dustygravel roads. Hubby says my car looked like the Peanuts character Pig-Pen was drivingit when I got back. I just laugh and tell him that’s where the birds were. Haha.A secondary goal to birding all the counties, was to also have double digits inall the counties as opposed to the obligatory interstate turkey vulture orunderpass rock dove. I had the 22 zero counties and 25 single digit counties.All of my zeroes turned into double digits, and I bumped up some of the singles.I’m down to just 16 single digit counties left, so I’m pretty happy with thatprogress.
The success of previous goals led to accomplishing the finalgoal of getting into the top 100. I’m usually lucky if I get to Loess Bluffs onceevery couple of years, but I was able to go twice last year. I usually only get toRiverlands 2 or 3 times a year, but I went 6 times. I was able to pick up 17 MO lifersand I think 7 came from these 2 locations. The others were scattered about thestate, including 3 that found a home in a “neighbor’s back yard”. I was able to see many of them with some of you. Much appreciationto the homeowners that allowed strangers into their homes to see a bird fromtheir kitchen window, back deck, or living room. Fingers crossed I get anawesome bird in my yard. You’re all invited! Just don’t laugh as I may stillhave all the Christmas trees up.
2025 was a fun birding year. In 2024, I had the goal ofbeing my best year. Without even trying, I was able to surpass my 2024 bestyear numbers pretty handily. I spent about a week in May in South Texas with mymom. We both got several lifers and boosted my lifer list over 400. We bothalso got several more lifers in MO. I started the year with 296 and ended with313 (maybe 314). I had lots of little happy dances this past year. One of my happiestexperiences though, was stumbling across a Chimney Swift roost on my way homefrom work one day and then meeting up with my mom and dad later that week andwatching the show! Sometimes the best things are in your own “backyard”!
Thank you to everyone that shared their sightings, yards, andscopes. I ran into a lot more folks throughout the year and was able to put somemore names to faces. I truly appreciate all the help along the way, includinglooking at some exceptionally subpar pics of ibis, gulls, and shorebirds. Yourpatience is a gift.
This year my husband (not a birder, but I’m still trying)and I have a trip to Aruba and hiking at the Grand Canyon/Phantom Ranch. Lookingforward to lots of new birds and fun stuff. If you have any tips or must do’sand see’s, please share with me.
Hope you have a great 2026 and I can catch up with you somewherealong the way!
Becky LutzFranklin County636-432-9442
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