2025 Year in Review

     Another year, as they all seem to lately, went by quick.  Winter is officially not even a month old, and I am already fed up with the cold and wind outside.  With warmer weather months (or a plane flight, or daydream), away, there are no planned excursions yet on my horizon.  To make use of the down time, I thought I might as well reflect back on what I saw and shared in 2025.

 I did manage a few trips this year outside of New Jersey (252).  With family, I made several trips to Rhode Island (64); two to Florida (101); and one trip each to California (92), Arizona (63) and Massachusetts (20).  Of course, driving to Rhode Island also took me through New York (9) and Connecticut (1), but those were not destinations.  I also found my way in Maryland (4) waters on one of my pelagic trips.  On the birding front, I racked up 334 species.  The parenthesized numbers represent the number of species I saw in that state for 2025.
New life birds, clockwise from top left:  Lazuli bunting, crissal thrasher and canyon towhee.  © S. Weiss
                                                                          
 For the past year, I added nine new birds to my life list:  tundra bean-goose (RI), western warbling vireo (CA), Lazuli bunting (CA), Bell’s vireo (CA), black-throated sparrow (AZ), crissal thrasher (AZ), canyon towhee (AZ), chestnut-collared longspur (NJ) and Swainson’s hawk (NJ).  I also added a few new sub species to my list.  Southwest interior Stellar’s jay (AZ) and red-backed and gray-headed dark-eyed juncos (AZ).  I also added a new exotic/escapee that was living in the wild, a northern red bishop (CA), which I mistakenly thought was countable in Southern California.
Stellar's jays.  (Left) Southwest interior ssp., Arizona, 2025.  (Right) Coastal ssp., Washington, 2023.  © S. Weiss


Dark-eyed juncos, clockwise from top left: Red-backed ssp., Arizona, 2025; gray-headed ssp., Arizona, 2025; slate-colored ssp., New Jersey, 2020 and Oregon ssp., California, 2019.  © S. Weiss

Northern red bishop, California, 2025.  © S. Weiss

When people ask me what my favorite bird is, my answer is usually one of the newest birds I have seen.  Of the new birds I did see last year, I think the black-throated sparrow was the neatest.  I feel it is such a striking bird despite its simple and basic coloring.  It is definitely a refreshing contrast to the common white-throated sparrow here in New Jersey.  Some other favorites from last year, though not new, were birds that I found on my own, such as greater roadrunner (AZ), long-tailed jaeger, pomarine jaeger and white-faced storm petrel.
Left, black-throated sparrow, Arizona, 2025.  Right, white-throated sparrow, New Jersey, 2022.  © S. Weiss

Left, white-faced storm-petrel, New York, 2025.  Right, long-tailed jaeger, New Jersey, 2025.  © S. Weiss

On the non-avian front, I whale watched in three states.  I dipped on California whales.  I had a few humpbacks in Massachusetts but dipped on Sei whales.  In New Jersey I did well with humpback, fin and Minke whales.  I also had my best ever looks at a Cuvier’s beaked whale.  For the year I spotted three more named humpback whales: Diver (NJ), Jabiru (MA) and Nile (MA).
Humpback whales, clockwise from top left:  Diver, Nile and Jabiru.  © S. Weiss

Cuvier's beaked whale, NJ.  © S. Weiss
The animal's tusk is slightly visible at the tip of its beak.

Left, Tamanend's bottlenose dolphin, NJ, 2025.  Right, Common bottlenose dolphin.  © S. Weiss
Common bottlenose dolphins, up until last year, had two distinct populations- the smaller inshore population (Tursiops erebennus) and the larger offshore population (Tursiops truncatus).  The offshore population kept the common bottlenose name, and the inshore population was renamed, Tamanend's bottlenose dolphin.

I added at least 11 new animals, not including insects:  western banded gecko (AZ), stripe-tailed scorpion (AZ), greater earless lizard (AZ), common side-blotched lizard (CA), Clark’s spiny lizard (AZ), Cuban tree frog (FL), By-the-wind sailor (CA), southern toad (FL), southeastern mud turtle (NJ), Jonah crab (NJ) and speckled nurse crab (FL).  
Left, Western banded gecko.  Right, stripe-tailed scorpion.  © S. Weiss

Left, Clark's spiny lizard.  Right, greater earless lizard.  © S. Weiss

Left, Cuban tree frog.  Right, By-the-wind sailor.  © S. Weiss
By-the-wind sailors are jellyfish-like creatures.  They are not actually jellyfish but hydrozoans, like the Portuguese man o’war.  They float at the ocean surface and their movement is at the will of the wind.  They have a sail-like feature that catches the wind and moves them across the over the water.  In Carlsbad, CA I came across hundreds and hundreds of them washed up along the beach.


I added many, many new insects in 2025.  Most of them were Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) or Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies).  The more memorable of those species were: queen butterfly (FL), Io moth (NJ), harnessed tiger moth (NJ) and rosy maple moth (FL).

Left, rosy maple moth.  Right, harnessed tiger moth.  © S. Weiss

Io moth.  © S. Weiss

I don’t know where I’ll be taking trips to in 2026, but wherever I go, I’ll surely be looking in the sky, on the water or under rocks to find something new.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Birds of Ocean County in Print

Image
     Following up on my self-published book, Birds of Island Beach State Park in 2023, I am proud to announce that Birds of Ocean County, NJ is now available.  Birds of Ocean County is an account summary of all the bird species that have occurred in there.   eBird lists 404 species of wild origin for the county with one provisional for 405.  Using eBird records, bird banding records, historical ornithology periodicals and bird records committee reports I have found 421 bird species and another 15 species not of wild origin through 2024. Front and back covers.   © S. Weiss The paperback book is 264 pages with an account of each species.  The accounts are each accompanied by a representative photograph and a colored distribution map.  The birds are presented in the most recent eBird taxonomy and divided into family groups.   The book is fully sourced and referenced.  It includes an Introduction, Table of Contents, Reference p...
Read more

Whales, Shearwaters and Some Tuna. 7/27 - 7/28/25

Image
     Last week I was able to get out on the water twice.  Sunday afternoon I met my friend Jason in Keyport, Monmouth County and we took a whale watch outside of the Sandy Hook area.  Less than 12 hours later I joined my friend Captain John on a tuna fishing trip out of Barnegat Inlet, Ocean County.  During the 24-plus hour span I was treated to several up-close whale interactions, saw hundreds of shearwaters and dolphins, and even caught a few yellow fin tunas . On Sunday the whale cruise took us out of Sandy Hook Bay to just a few miles east of land.  Other than the usual inshore seabirds, there was not much marine activity.  But from inside the harbor and out to the ocean we saw many pods of Atlantic menhaden , or bunker as we call them in New Jersey, which was a good sign.  The juvenile bunker is a targeted food for much of the local recreational and commercial fish species.  It is also a favorite food of our whales.  The capt...
Read more

Greater White-fronted Goose X 24 - 2/17/2005

Image
     I have noticed this winter to be a decent year for common mergansers and geese other than the widely distributed Canada goose species.  Common mergansers and other-than-Canada geese are not local breeders and are uncommon or, depending on the species, rare around Ocean County.  There are very few spots in the county to find common mergansers when they are around.  Many times, some of the sightings for common mergansers are incorrect identifications of the much more probable, red-breasted mergansers .  Sightings of the former are up this season.  They have been reported in several locations with as many as 135 at one location.  I saw mine for this year in January while checking a popular waterfowl hotspot at a local retail shopping mall.  While I was scanning the variety of duck species on the water, five common mergansers dropped on the water in front of me.  They were a nice change to see from all the red-breasted ones, and ...
Read more