Glad you got a Swamp Sparrow, Mrs. Ed. :) And how did jury duty go, Elphaba? I was able to get out of it last time.
We did it! Today we reached 100 and then some. Number 100 is the Myrtle Warbler AKA Butterbutt. We also got Cliff Swallow and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.
Edited to put in the correct Swallow name, the Northern Rough-winged Swallow is a lifer.
This message was edited Apr 20, 2012 7:34 AM
#46 Eastern Towhee. A few weeks late!!!
Congrats Chily! It's always great to hit a "0" with a warbler!
As for jury duty, sat in the jury assembly room for 3 hours and then was dismissed. Total waste. I ran out to High Island that afternoon and did get some birds though.
Resin, nice group. Jealous of the Tawny Owl!
Mrs. Ed, congrats on the towhee. That's a cool bird.
I'm up to 253 in Texas. My friend that I'm having a "friendly" competition with is at 299. I was depressed until I realized that he's taken birding trips to south, west and northern Texas which I have not. I could still catch up!
253 was a Yellow-breasted Chat in the backyard! Pic 1
Other cool ones:
Wood Thrush -- lifer -- Pic 2
Scarlet Tanager -- Pic 3
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Ovenbird
Lousiana Waterthrush
Painted Bunting (only females so far though)
170 Reed Warbler - only heard for the moment, hidden in the reeds, will see them easily later in the spring
Resin
48 Killdeer, 49 Turkey Vulture, 50 Great Egret, The killdeer was actually #45, but I forgot to enter it.
Love that scarlet tanager, E. I had one once in the yard last year. I about had a heart attack! I hear the Rose-breasted grosbeaks are in the area, so I should see one of those in the next week or so.
Thanks to this thread, this will be my first year list. So far, I have 133.
Being in Texas, it should probably be higher, but if I don't get a photo good enough for ID, I usually don't count it since I don't trust my ID skills (or lack thereof ^_^) yet.
I was fortunate to get in a trip to South Texas the last few days during spring migration, so added 43 birds in 4 days.
Patti
Patti, I used to do that too. I only counted birds that I photographed. That's much, much harder, so 133 is great! There is a couple who are raising money by doing a photographic big year. They're only counting birds that they photograph and they take pledges per bird or something like that, and their target number is much lower than most people who would be doing a big year.
I have to get myself to south Texas!
51-Brown Thrasher
I think I heard about that couple, Elphaba. There are so many big year blogs I cannot keep up with them, so I haven't looked at that one in awhile.
YAY!, Mrs. Ed. We had one here for a few days waking me up with his song, but must not have found a mate or suitable nesting spot. I let our front shrubs grow out a bit to be better protection for the birds, but no takers yet.
I've discovered one thing about doing a year list. I am afraid I will double count something, like when we see something early in the year and don't see one again until later, we forget about it. I know I will have real troubles in the fall when spring migrants come back south.
Patti, I am sort of like that, but when we are with the birding club, we can trust getting a good ID. I am sure without their help, we would have totally discounted the Peregrine Falcon for a Red-tail.
No new year birds since my last post, but we gained a Wilson's Snipe as a yard bird. We count flyovers as long as we are absolutely sure of the ID.
171 Common Whitethroat
I've discovered one thing about doing a year list. I am afraid I will double count something, like when we see something early in the year and don't see one again until later, we forget about it. I know I will have real troubles in the fall when spring migrants come back south.
Another tip Chilly, is that I use Google Docs to track my list. Could do the same thing in Excel or Word I suppose. It's nice to have everything in cells so I can sort. This way, at the end of the year, I can make yard and county totals. Also serves to tell me first date seen and compare with next year.
Thank you for the suggestions. :) Right now, I just have the list in a "text doc". I use our email program and just type in any new birds with the date and it's saved as a draft. It's easy for me to get to. I should get it into something better. We use Linux for our operating system, so our writing program is Open Office and I think we can do what you have Mrs. Ed. I just need my in-home computer guy help me on that. And I can get the checklist to take with us. I've seen other birders with the Iowa checklist and they mark what they see.
ah. well if you use open office with the word processing, you can virtually do the same thing, you just have to make a table. I know, I make it sound so simple, right. hahaha.
Ah, the lists... Pelle got me started with yardbirder.net b/c it was so easy, but now I'm doing ebird which is a pain, but does make it easy to keep track and create reports, and you get those handy "needs" lists from ebird when someone sees a bird that you don't have yet.
Added 11 birds! Let's see if I can remember what they were:
Tropical Mockingbird (lifer and 1st record in US!)
Black-whiskered Vireo (lifer)
Blackpoll Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Veery (lifer)
Clapper Rail (walked out on the street in front of my car!)
Least Tern
Dunlin
Upland Sandpiper
Eastern Wood PeeWee
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Most of the pics are pretty awful. Here are a couple though -- the Tropical Mocker and the Veery.
Elphaba,
Wow. You got the Tropical Mocker! Wonder how long it will stay around. I can't get out there until next week. Was it hard to find? And, do get out to South Texas if you can. It is awesome.
Patti
Easy, easy to find. It hangs out near the pavilion. All you have to do is wait and it eventually shows up. It's hanging out with a Northern Mockingbird, but you can tell when you see the Tropical b/c its wings are very dark with no wingbars and its tail has a scalloped shape and the white markings are different.
Decided not to count Black-whiskered Vireo. I heard it but only got glimpses of it and decided that was not enough. However, I realized that I forgot Dickcissel and Horned Lark, so I'm one up!
I submit to Ebird, but not every bird, so even though my life list is at 141, ebird shows 117. Like that Northern Rough-winged Swallow. We only knew were were in the Des Moines area. I had no idea of the specific location, so I didn't enter it.
Yardbirder sounded interesting, but I cannot sign up. I am having a hard time with their captcha. One word is so clear and easy to read and the other is a mess. I cannot fill in the feedback form because it uses that same word verification.
We gained another cool yard bird today. Double-crested Cormorants flying over. It am amazed at what we can recognize now from a year ago.
Hopefully soon we'll see the Dickcissels. We really like those birds. :)
52 White-crowned sparrow.
I am a little jealous, Mrs_Ed. I have yet to see a White-crowned this year, but one of the children has.
We are up to 105. We had hoped to see a Long-billed Dowitcher that was reported near here, but nope. We did see Spotted Sandpipers and as life birds some Semipalmated Plovers. First time seeing any Plovers that were not Killdeer. But I enjoy those Killdeer, such cute little things and we see and hear them when we go outside.
I am glad we went yesterday evening. The winds are blowing something fierce today.
don't be jealous Chilly, it's only one and it just got here. They are always later than the white-throated. I should take a pool, next arrivals should be:
Swainson's thrush, ruby throated hummingbird, Rose-breasted grosbeak or Ovenbird. Sometimes a warbler will sneak in there.
Yesterday's additions:
172 Common Swift
173 Lesser Whitethroat
174 Whimbrel
Resin
I went birding yesterday too and had a surprisingly good day. The Texas coast in the spring time makes for some pretty great birding.
At Sabine Woods:
Northern Waterthrush
Bank Swallow
Yellow Warbler
At Sea Rim State Park in Sabine Pass:
Piping Plover
Snowy Plover
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Reddish Egret
American Avocet
At Smith Oaks on High Island:
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
American Redstart
Philadelphia Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Patti, the Tropical Mockingbird is still at Sabine Woods although I saw him in the road at one point and he almost got hit by a truck. Also may or may not have seen the Yellow-green Vireo at Smith Oaks. There were 4 different vireos in the same 2 trees and differing opinions among the zillion people looking at them as to which was which. I haven't counted it yet. I saw all 4. One of the four was probably the Yellow-green, but I don't have that woohoo feeling.
Also may or may not have seen the Yellow-green Vireo at Smith Oaks. There were 4 different vireos in the same 2 trees and differing opinions among the zillion people looking at them as to which was which. I haven't counted it yet. I saw all 4. One of the four was probably the Yellow-green, but I don't have that woohoo feeling.
I'm at 278 in Texas and 290 overall. Decided not to count the Yellow-green. I didn't feel good about it, and I want my list to be solid. My friend is still way ahead of me, but I'm goint to south Texas later this week and hopefully I can even the score!
I just added a few birds in the Hill Country. Was hoping for an Ash-throated Flycatcher, but it wasn't definitive. I really need to learn to either record sounds or pay attention to them. The bird was singing its heart out, but I didn't remember the song. That might have been the info that would have clinched it.
134 = Dickcissel
135 = Cliff Swallow
136 = Barn Swallow
Elphaba, I'm sure you will find a lot of birds down south. I don't know what the wind is doing down there, but we had gale force winds in Hill Country last night, so maybe if same on coast and it's in the right direction, some birds will be stopping a while.
P_Edens, Beautiful Dickcissel! We're looking forward to ours returning. I remember my first one, "That's an odd looking Meadowlark." :)
No new year birds here, but now I understand why people do county lists. We were pretty excited when we saw a couple birds at the creek close to home, but they already are year birds seen in other counties.
That's funny Chilly, in the winter of 10/11, there was a snowy owl here. It was sighted on the boundaries of two counties. Some birders were so excited that it "flew across the road" and then they could tick it off it in two counties. I thought that was so funny.
LOL, one of my friends is like that too and not just with counties. He gets excited when it flies across the river into Mexico and he can count it in two countries!
Gorgeous pic Patti!
oh man. that would be awesome. Two countries. Of course those of you in Europe are so used to everything being so close, you can do that.
So the two birds I saw today were not even on the list of those I thought I'd see next in the yard. Myrtle Warbler and Common Yellowthroat. A friend in town had Rose-breasted grosbeaks today, so I guess those might be next.
LOL, one of my friends is like that too and not just with counties. He gets excited when it flies across the river into Mexico and he can count it in two countries!
That's funny Chilly, in the winter of 10/11, there was a snowy owl here. It was sighted on the boundaries of two counties. Some birders were so excited that it "flew across the road" and then they could tick it off it in two counties. I thought that was so funny.
106- Clay-colored Sparrow, which is also a life bird.
We had storms last night that kept us up, but it brought in this bird, so will try not too complain of tiredness too much.
Added Indigo Bunting today, in the yard. He was here and gone quickly though. just one out of focus picture.
Added Ruby-throat hummingbird to the list this morning.
Today, our year list surpassed where our life list ended 31 December 2011.
107 Bobolink
108 Dickcissel
109 Eastern Kingbird
One child thought he saw a Common Yellowthroat, but couldn't be absolutely certain, so we're still waiting. He saw a flash of yellow and black coming from the lilac bush, but that could have been a Goldfinch.
We're still waiting for the hummingbird and Indigo Bunting. We saw them last year and the year before, only in June. Brief stops but then they moved on.
Today, our year list surpassed where our life list ended 31 December 2011.
Go Chilly.
I have a few to add. Putting me at 56. Some of my math was bad before.
Eastern Bluebird
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Oh, I forgot. 57 Baltimore Oriole
This message was edited May 7, 2012 8:14 AM
Three new today, spring looks to be re-starting at last
176 Garganey
177 Sedge Warbler
178 Grasshopper Warbler
Resin
Good for you Resin!
58 Gray Catbird (yard)
This message was edited May 7, 2012 8:17 AM
I was watching a very busy white breasted nuthatch in a friends garden today.
