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.

Community Watch program

Locals keep an eye on this trouble maker. 

Pileated Woodpeckers

Saturday morning 17 degrees and clear. I decided to follow up on some postings of waterfowl located in the next county. Not having many migrents of late, Howard County has been very blah.

Piney Branch Park, located in Carroll County has a beautiful lake that abounds with waterfowl, Canadas, Ringnecked Ducks, Ringbilled Gulls, Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers, Wigeons, Great Blue Herons, Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, Black Ducks, American Coots and several others that were too far away to view without a scope.

But my highlight for the morning were two Pileated Woodpecker working the trees for insectstotally unperturbed by my presences. I watched them for maybe five minutes before they flew off .

Pine Siskins

Well, it is mid-November, and over a month since I last posted. This has been the doldrums. Between early migration starting in August with the Warblers, followed by Sparrows, and then the Accipiters and Buteos through October. Relatively little happens from the last of October and into early November. But, Mid November the Water fowl from the north start heading south for the winter months. i have seen alot of FOS (First of Season) birds but very few FOY (First of Year) birds. Without listing the few additions for the year, I will say that I am at number 148. I would like two more unique birds to reach my goal of 150 species in Howard County Maryland for the year.

Some highlights are a immature Snow Goose, six Cackling Geese mixed in with a large flock of Canadas.

Lastly, at our feeder this past weekend we have had several visits by Purple Finches and Pine Siskins. The Pine Siskins are pictured above along with one of our many regular backyard Goldfinches.