If I were doing an Ontario Big Year....

I've been mentally keeping track of species seen in Ontario this year, inconjunction with my 2015 Ontario year list. 2015 is turning out to be quite a good year, in terms of species seen in the province. eBird lists 351 species seen so far, a fair bit higher than last year's 345.

So far this year I've seen 301 species, a pretty good total by my standards, particularly for someone who hasn't chased the 'easy' species I'm missing. Having said that, I was down at Pelee in May for 2 weeks, which really helps my 2015 species total.

Going by JV's rules/codes from 2012, I've seen the following Code 4-6 birds:

Pink-footed Goose
Neotropic Cormorant
Little Egret
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Mississippi Kite
Swainson's Hawk
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Chuck-will's Widow
Fish Crow
Kirtland's Warbler
Swainson's Warbler

(It's kind of interesting/crazy to think species like BLVU, ECDO, and FICR are now 'pretty much' established in Ontario; you just have to go look for them).

Anywho, based on my species list seen in Ontario this year, the following species are near certainties had I tried for them:
1. Pine Grosbeak
2. Whimrel
3. Black-billed Magpie
4. Great Gray Owl
5. King Eider
6. Le Conte's Sparrow
7. Nelson's Sparrow
8. Barrow's Goldeneye
9. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
10. Northern Hawk Owl
11. Arctic Tern*
12. Purple Sandpiper
13. Franklin's Gull**
14. Gray Partridge
15. Willow Ptarmigan
16. Smith's Longspur
17. Boreal Owl
18. Black-legged Kittiwake
19. Western Meadowlark**
20. American Three-toed Woodpecker
21. Pacific Loon*
22. Gyrfalcon***
23. Northern Bobwhite (Walpole)
24. Black Guillemot***

* assumes going to Hudson's Bay Coast
**assumes going to Rainy River
***assumes going to James Bay in late fall

Assuming I saw all 24 species mentioned above, I'd be sitting at 325, 18 species shy of JV's record (343). If I had been chasing species left, right, and centre, the following species would allow me to tie the record.


326. Western Grebe (Sept. in Toronto)
327. Eurasian Tree-Sparrow (May Pelee)
328. Black-headed Gull (May Pelee/Novemer and December? Niagara)
329. California Gull (May Pelee)
330. Western Sandpiper (August or Sept at Presqu'ile)
331. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (June Ottawa)
332. Western Kingbird (Septemer Ottawa)
333. Lark Sparrow (April or May Kingston)
334. Lark Bunting (May Flamborough)
335. White-winged Dove (July Rondeau)
336. Wilson's Plover (May Toronto)
337. Gray Kingbird (May Hillman)
338. Tricolored Heron (April Holiday Beach)
339. Mottled Duck (May Hillman)
340. Say's Phoebe (September Rondeau)
341. Gray Kingbird (May Hillman)
342. Worm-eating Warbler (May 17, Pelee, 1 bird twitchable)
343. Townsend's Solitaire (October Col. Sam Smith)

Now, before I hear the comments "Ken, you can't think that you would've gotten ALL of those species??". My reply is, well, why not?? If I had been doing a big year I'd be chasing everything...I'd likely miss a few species in the process, but I'd like to think that I'd find a few species not listed above which would let me be sitting at a tie as it stands right meow.

Anywho, I just thought it was interesting to ponder a "what if" scenario.