- On Saturday morning Moria and I found all 5 expected woodpecker species on that short stretch of Lake Creek Trail between Braes Valley and the footbridge. These were Downy, Ladder-backed, Red-bellied, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (a nice male) and Northern Flicker. Above is a picture I got of the male Downy Woodpecker we saw. Moria got a great shot of this same bird caught in mid air.
- On Sunday morning in the marsh by the Parmer bridge I tried to see or hear the Virginia Rail I found there a few weeks ago, but it never responded to the recording I played. I did hear a Marsh Wren, saw a Common Yellowthroat, and saw 3 Swamp Sparrows. Here is one of the Swamp Sparrows:
- Also by the marsh I heard the first Cricket Frogs I've heard this year.
- A little upstream our 2 largest year-round resident birds were almost side-by-side -- a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret. I got this photo:
- By the last dam on the creek this Osprey flew right over me a couple times:
- In the pond above the next dam was a nice variety of wild ducks, including Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, and Gadwall.
- That afternoon in my backyard (just like the GBBC intended!) I was surprised to see 17 Ring-billed Gulls fly over, heading north. Then the north wind started blowing and I went inside!
Monday, February 15, 2010
My GBBC
I ended up submitting 4 checklists to the Great Backyard Bird Count (and eBird) from the neighborhood, all on Saturday and Sunday. My girlfriend Moria and I birded Lake Creek Trail on Saturday morning for about 2.5 hours. We started at the Braes Valley parking lot and found 36 species. That evening we took a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood and submitted the birds we saw. Sunday morning I spent about 3 hours birding Lake Creek Trail starting at the Parmer Village end and found 48 species. And that afternoon I spent about a half hour birding in my actual back yard before the cold front blew in. Here are some highlights:
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7 comments:
Some great birds. Love the photos
dan
Thanks!
It's so appropriate that even in the confines of your actual back yard you managed to come up with an unusual bird sighting, Mikael!
Too bad the Virginia Rail resisted the lure of the recording, but what a great list and photos - Moria's Downy Woodpecker in flight was super.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Wow! The extra time you put into watching for and counting these birds paid big dividends, didn't it? Love it! I hope you don't mind, but I've posted a link to your GBBC post on my own follow-up post here.
By the way, we saw a Virginia Rail a few years ago in our yard. We live in the middle of what used to be The Great Black Swamp and there are many places still that this bird can hide out. One of our cats had it cornered under a bush and I managed to rescue it and close up the cat in the garage so it could escape. I watched it fly very low to the ground to our backyard, only to have a hawk swoop down and grab it. :-( Such is the circle of life/food chain, I suppose. In any case, I was pretty excited to see this elusive bird! I doubt I'll ever see another.
Like your selection of birds.
Don't see the big ones in our backyard...fun to watch elsewhere.
Hi Kylee, I'm glad you enjoyed the GBBC. As a cat owner you have a great opportunity to have a positive and direct effect on your local wildlife, by keeping your cats inside. It's safer for the cats too.
Hi Mikael, I'm afraid that's not possible. We have two inside cats and 7 outside. No way can we keep them all inside, as much as we'd like to. We live in the country and people dump their unwanted cats all the time. We take care of as many as we can and try to find homes for as many as possible, but cats - like rabbits - are plentiful. I wish people would take responsibility for their animals and not just dump them when they tire of them. Spaying and neutering goes a long way towards helping control things, too.
Amazingly enough, we don't find as many dead birds here as you might thing, with that many cats. I keep the feeders placed high enough and none of them are easily accessible for the cats.
We do the best we can for both the cats and the birds.
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