2013 Yearlists

Patti, I'm so glad that you got the Tundra Swans! Congrats on all those birds.

Thanks Elphaba. I was very excited to see those swans. They were all by themselves and quite visible, but very far away. Hopefully there are not other swans out there, because I really couldn't see them well enough or get photos decent enough to identify. This is all I got and you can see from the uncropped one (shot at full zoom on my little Canon Powershot SX-50 HS which is 1200mm) that they are far off. A couple stopped behind me and asked what I was seeing. I pointed the swans out and the guy got out his spotting scope and confirmed that they were Tundra Swans. He was from the UK and said he sees them all the time, so ??? hopefully right ID.

Yep, Tundra Swans, adult (standing; black bill) and juvenile (sitting; pink bill)

Resin

Thanks, Resin. I feel a lot better about counting them, but have no clue how you could tell what they were from those bad photos.

Also, thanks for identifying my other mystery birds. Now I have 4 more to add to the list ...

77 Brown-headed Cowbirds
78 White-crowned Sparrows
79 Vesper Sparrow
80 Black-bellied Plover

Patti

This message was edited Jan 26, 2013 7:25 AM

The only real options are Mute Swan and Tundra Swan; Trumpeter would be even more out-of-range than Tundra in southern Texas. Mute Swan can be excluded by bill colour, and its longer tail (pointed, and usually slightly cocked up).

One new for me today: 114 [Eurasian] Woodcock.

Resin

44. Trumpeter Swan

I was going crazy seeing those ebird Needs alerts for my county, so we went out to see if we could find those swans. Yep, there were more than a dozen. And we saw TONS of Canada geese. I really, really like those things. If it wasn't so cold, I could have sat there all day just watching and listening to them.

Way to get your bird Chilly.

We are having gorgeous weather, but I'm under-the-weather, so only birding from the window in my fluffy robe and slippers. Managed to get one year bird though.

165 -- Bronzed Cowbird

Been forgetting to update - these are from 27 Jan:

115 Cattle Egret
116 Brent Goose
117 Black-tailed Godwit
118 Meadow Pipit
119 Great Northern Diver (a.k.a. Common Loon)
120 Black Redstart

Resin

35-Common Redpoll (finally)

Four more today:
Gannet
Fulmar
Velvet Scoter
Little Gull

Resin

Chillybean, Great find on that Trumpeter Swan!
Resin, You get the coolest birds. I've never even heard of some of the birds you get.
Mrs. Ed, Sweeet. A Common Redpoll! No way I'll see one of those in my neck of the woods.
Elphaba, I hope you are feeling better!

I just got back from spending a few days in South Texas. I intended to go for Spring Migration, but I had to go see that Flammulated Owl everyone is talking about. And after three days of looking, I finally saw it.

I added quite a few to my list ...

81 Red-winged Blackbird
82 Great-tailed Grackle
83 Eurasian Collared Dove
84 Golden-fronted Woodpecker
85 Green Jay
86 Roseate Spoonbill
87 Lesser Scaup
88 Tropical Kingbird
89 Red-breasted Merganser
90 Bufflehead
91 Loon - type hopefully to be determined by Resin ^_^
92 American Bittern
93 Tricolored Heron
94 Kiskadee
95 Plain Chachalaca
96 Black-crested Titmouse
97 Altamira Oriole
98 Harris's Hawk
99 Least Sandpiper
100 American Kestrel
101 Ruddy Duck
102 Greater Scaup
103 Ring-necked Duck
104 Eared Grebe
105 Green Kingfisher
106 Long-billed Thrasher
107 Black-bellied Whistling Duck
108 Least Grebe
109 Lesser Yellowlegs
110 Orange-crowned Warbler
111 Green-winged Teal
112 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
113 Yellow-crowned Night Heron
114 Flammulated Owl
115 Reddish Egret and White Morph
116 Olive Sparrow
117 Long-billed Curlew

I might have a few more, but they are pending ID.

Resin, I hope to see a Cattle Egret some day. Our neighbor described one a couple years ago. so we've been hoping.

Glad you got your Redpoll, Mrs. Ed.

Elphaba, I hope you're doing better by now. Four of us are home from church today and feel pretty miserable. Just common colds, probably. I thought I had strep, but the throat pain subsided dramatically. Oh, I don't like those sore throats.

P_Edens, what a great list. I think the Green Jays are cool looking birds and hope to someday see one.

45. Sharp-shinned Hawk Thought it was a Cooper's until looking more closely at the photos. Thanks to Resin for comfirming it. Now we're going to have to really study any of those hawks who come by. We used to only get Cooper's. I am glad they don't come by too often, though.

One more for me today, Eurasian Bittern

Resin

Four more from the trip to South Texas Rio Grande Valley - two ID'd by Resin (Thanks, Resin!) and two were ID'd by the naturalist at Santa Ana NWR in e-mail exchanges.

118 Common Loon
119 Brewer's Blackbird
120 Least Flycatcher
121 White-tailed Hawk

Chilly, Those Jays are quite entertaining. The ones at the rest area were gathering acorns and stashing them in a palm tree. They were busy running off the doves and blackbirds.

Patti

I'm feeling much better. Thank you. Online assessment said that I had the flu which just made me kick myself for not getting vaccinated!

FABULOUS list Patti! I'm so glad that you got Flamulated Owl. I have to get down there!

Mrs. Ed, congrats on the redpoll!

Didn't go birding today but did go down to Freeport. Decided that I had to check out Bryan Beach while I was there. I was so excited because I thought I'd found a rare gull. I had found a pretty rare gull but only after half a dozen people found it before me! The ebird alert and texbird notice came after I'd left the house. Glad the bird was still there and that I found it even though I didn't know that I should be looking for it! I'm also impressed that I figured out what it was on my own. It was pretty obvious -- big white gull, but still...

166 - Glaucous Gull (lifer)
167 - Lesser Black-backed Gull

36 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Seems king of early, but I'm happy to see it.

Edited to say not early at all. HA! I checked last year's record and was here 1/25.

This message was edited Feb 4, 2013 11:13 AM

First Blue Jay in awhile showed up. Red bellied woodpecker as well. He left so DH could replace the suet cake.

Cool bird, Mrs. Ed. I haven't seen a sapsucker at all.

Elphaba, Glad you are feeling better. Great find on that Glaucous!
Mrs. Ed, Is that sapsucker drilling holes in your trees? A few years ago we had one punching holes in our loquat tree. The tree died the next year. I think the drought killed it though, not the sapsucker.
Iris, You have some cool yard birds. I love to listen to those red-bellied woodpeckers.

A few more to add to my list from South Texas. I'm still going through photos and getting help (Thanks Resin) with ID on some.

122 Piping Plover
123 Ruddy Turnstone
124 Spotted Sandpiper
125 Dunlin
126 Solitary Sandpiper

Wow Patti, you cleaned up down south!

I just went south, but I was not birding. I did stop at Goose Island to get the Whooping Cranes and there were some Redheads off the coast. It was the middle of the afternoon, so not much else. Turns out Redheads are already on my list. A little while later a Roadrunner flew out in front of my car. So I got a total of two birds.

168 -- Whooping Cranes
169 -- Greater Roadrunner

I'm including the Redhead pic b/c it's the only good one! The Whooping Crane pic makes you long for clarity. The poor Roadrunner's eye is obscured by barbed wire.

This message was edited Feb 6, 2013 10:16 AM

Wheee. A Whooper! That is so cool. The photo is great - makes me long to see a Whooping Crane. Wouldn't mind stumbling across a "Beep Beep" bird either.
Patti

oh you guys are leaving me in your dust.

37 - Cedar Waxwing. Helping the robins to strip the holly berries off my two bushes.

Bet those Cedar Waxwings looked lovely in the Holly Mrs. Ed.

Went to a friend's house yesterday who has six hummer species although she said that she had only seen five that day! I went to see an immature Black-chinned but an adult male Black-chinned showed up. We were quite excited. It was the first adult male that either of us had seen. He was so beautiful! She also had four species of warbler one of which was a year bird for me and also a lovely adult male.

170 -- Black-chinned Hummingbird
171 -- Wilson's Warbler

126 - Red Grouse

Resin

edit: miscounted ;-)

This message was edited Feb 8, 2013 7:23 PM

jealous about the hummingbirds!!

Well i forgot to include the Robins in the count, so here's an update:

37-40
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Eastern Bluebird
American Tree Sparrow
and 41 is TBD. Some duck that I can't ID yet and I didn't have more than my phone camera. d'oh

46. Eurasian Collared Dove- I just realized I forgot to get this one on here.

We had gone to a state park earlier in the day, in hopes of finding a Winter Wren that was spotted there. Nope, but we weren't alone. We talked to other birders who also couldn't find it. They asked us if we saw the big flock of Robins. Nope. We had hoped to spot those on our way out. They must have moved on. We had walked to the feeders the park keeps filled, to at least see some feeder birds. Well, just as the birds were calming after our arrival, a big, mass of boys come bombing out of the building scaring us and the birds away. I tried consoling myself that if the boys were at the park, they were learning something about nature.

After lunch and picking up some flour from the local farm/mill, we took a detour. And we finally got some Robins and a couple other surprises. I had no idea there'd be any warblers left in Iowa. The field guides say migration only, so that was a real treat to see in the dead of winter. This sure made up for the earlier disappointment.
47. American Robin
48. Cedar Waxwing
49. Myrtle Warbler

The hummers are a delight. Now my friend has a mature male Allens. Hope I get to see that one.

Congrats on the Robins and warbler Chilly.

I'm still struggling with a few flu symptoms that I can't shake, so hadn't birded. I saw my friends pictures of Eared Grebes and Bonaparte's Gulls at the Texas City Dike and then read a report of a Great Black-backed Gull out there. Couldn't stand it any more, so drove out there in the rain yesteray afternoon. Didn't see a single Bonaparte's but did get three year birds.

172 - American Oystercatcher
173 - Eared Grebes
174 - Great Black-backed Gull

It great to see everyone see so much birds!
I have been house bound for a while so not much activity around.
But I notice the Crows and Raven are starting to come to the yard now. Hawk as well.
I should start seeing more activity by mid March.
Looking for a warm sunny day , to go out and try to find some bunting and other type of hawks and other surprises.

18. Raven

Well Burn, I'd like to see a Raven!

We do have a northern hawk around though and I joined a friend to go see it yesterday. Picked up a few other birds too.

Shoot, I just looked and I missed some birds from the last time I posted. I haven't really birded. I've just tried for birds when I'm out, so I kind of forgot!

175 -- Purple Martin
176 -- Inca Dove (pictured)
177 -- Vesper Sparrow
178 -- Harris' Sparrow
179 -- Rough-legged Hawk (2 pics)
180 -- Palm Warbler
181 -- Barn Swallow
182 -- Cave Swallow

snow brought the birds to the feeder. I have not kept track on numbers but we had juncos, plus a quartet of cardinals (I would guess last summer's family as at least one of the males has been singing for a couple days). Hairy woodpecker also stopped by.

127 Tawny Owl

Resin

I got a few for the list in the last couple of days. Yesterday, I went to see the rough-legged hawk and missed it by an hour or so. It was there in the morning and then not seen again.

127 Pileated Woodpecker
128 Black-capped Vireo
129 Sandhill Crane
130 Cedar Waxwing
131 Bald Eagle
132 Western Meadowlark
133 Blue-headed Vireo
134 Ladder-backed Woodpecker

128 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Resin

Two more yesterday

129 Green Sandpiper
130 Black Grouse

Resin

My count is down one to 133. That black-capped vireo is more likely another blue-headed.

2 (possiblly 3) white thoated sparrows & 2 Carolina wrens.

Very nice birds, all. Jealous of the Pileated and Caroline Wren.

50. Western Meadowlark 20 February
Just heard it, but it was so clear and rather close to the yard. We saw one the 30 of December which was our very latest of last year.

Robins came into our yard yesterday as well. Not a year bird, but first of 2013 in the yard. And our White-breasted Nuthatches returned from where ever. They've not been seen in the yard since early this year.

Trying to move to a town about two hours south of here, so have been traveling back and forth a lot. Added some birds in the process and made a further jog south on one outing to get the Black-legged Kittiwake. There have also been a few great birds right around here that I've popped over to see.

Let's see, I was at 182 so...

183 - Western Tanager (pic 1)
184 - Blue-headed Vireo
185 - Western Grebe
186 - Marbled Godwit (pic 2)
187 - Black-legged Kittiwake (pic 3)
188 - Gray Catbird
189 - Field Sparrow

131 Little Egret
132 Greater Scaup

Resin