Birding In January

I started this year off by getting up on January first at 7 am to restart my annual list. With a zeal that exceeds all types of weather and lack of sleep I met with the local birders that keep annual lists for county birds seen in a year,. Yes, there are several people that do this. Its a great past time and you can start afresh each year.

So January 1, 2009 at 8 am with the sky clear the temps in the teens, standing by a lake in the wind I started my new list. We visited several spots in the county and by 11 am we had counted 42 birds.

Not a bad start of the new year, considering I had a total of 37 birds middle of Feb last year. To date I am up to 63.

Some of the high lights have been life birds, Northern Pin-tail, Whitewing, Cross-bills, Tundra Swans, Gadwall, American Wigeon, and Green Winged Teal. All seen seen in the last two weeks.

I believe this has been the coldest January into February in several years and because of this all the lakes, ponds, and Reservoirs have been frozen over accept where the water fowl would keep it open for paddling around and diving for food. This has made for easy identification of birds I would probably have missed

Food fight at the back deck feeders

These guys had actually calmed down some. There were more mouths then perches and no one was willing to wait their turn.

Big Day Dec 23

Howard county is freezing. That is always promising news for birders. Today seems to be the day that a lot of rare visitors dropped from the sky. here is a partial list of Birds I saw. But by no means inclusive.
At Centennial Lake were the following: a Greater White Fronted Goose (1), Cackling Geese (3), Golden Eye (1), American Black Duck (1), Canvas backs (2) and a lot of other birds, Canadas - 1000+, Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, American Coots, Ring Necked Ducks, Ring Billed Gulls.

I also Visited Lake Elkhorn. and saw more of the same just a lot less.

The Greater White Fronted is quite rare for Howard County. The last being in 2000, or so I am told.

What is it?

What is this duck? Is this a Green Winged Teal or some knockoff brand of mallard? Black bill, pinkish legs fairly uniform brown throughout except the green wing bars. I found this bird in a mixed flock of Mallards and Mallard Hybrids.

Dec 12 again

An added bonus was while I was returning to the hotel room I spotted 2 Purple Finches along the walkway coming back from the beach. I gather that this is a very seldom seen this far south. I am sure that this pair was blown south by the storm.
Before traveling to St. Augustine Florida I tried to contact the local bird club for directions to a nice birding spot but received not response. That, I guess is a good thing because I struck out on my own and I located this rarity. Bad for the St Johns Bird club because I have no one to contact to let them know they have Purple Finches in their county.

If by some miracle someone from St. Johns County reads this posting and is interested, I would be happy to tell them where I found a pair for PF's.


Also blown in by the storm were several beautiful star fish washed up on the shore.

Dec 12, 2008. The Beach and the Willet

Florida Shoreline

Dec 12, 2008
Friday morning in St. Augustine Florida was a cold windy post storm morning. A good time to visit the beach if you are looking for birds that were seeking shelter the night before.

There were Laughing Gulls, Herring Gulls, Ring Billed Gulls, Foster's Terns, Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans, Sanderlings, Willets, and Ruddy Turnstones.