2011 was a good year for rarities in New York State and Richard Fried saw almost all of them. His 352 species in the state for the year broke the New York State big year record of 350, which was set by Scott Whittle in 2008. Watch for an interview with Richard in the coming week here on 10,000 Birds!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
The Maine big year record was also broken!
New Jersey’s record was broken by five people. Unless there are any sightings yet to be entered into eBird, the new record-holder is Tom Reed with 362 species.
Wow. Those all still seem breakable to me. My friend Daryl did a Humboldt County Big Year here in California and ended up with 335 species. I would think if you can do that in one of our counties the New York State Big Year could still get pushed a little higher.
@Vermfly: There were a total of 378 species seen in the state in 2011, so I guess it is possible that someone could have had more. Of the ones that I know Rich missed, several were storm-tossed birds from Hurricane Irene that very few people saw and at least two other birds were single-observer birds. So while it might be possible, getting out of the 350s in New York is very tough