The year 2010 is, to date (Sep. 2015), the year in which I've seen the most new birds for my life list, and the only year where I saw over 100 lifers (117 total). Nearly half (54) of them were seen on a mid-March trip with my HSU classmates to Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas, including 25 in one day, a personal best; on that day, one of my 25 lifers was #300, an Ovenbird. In the fall, our class went to Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah for the annual conference of The Wildlife Society, on a trip where I only added 7 lifers (though Sagebrush Sparrow retroactively became an 8th when it was split from Bell's Sparrow). That December, on my birthday, I saw 2 lifers, one of which was my rarest bird up to that time, a Code 4 Brown Shrike overwintering in Humboldt County (the other was Snowy Plover). Yes, 2010 was a great year for this birder.
