2009 birding

Got 70 species today to start off 2009, in order I found them:

[Eurasian] Magpie
[Eurasian] Blackbird
Common Gull
Carrion Crow
[Eurasian] Robin
Wood Pigeon
[Winter] Wren
Moorhen
Mallard
Goldcrest
Stock Dove
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Grey Wagtail
Song Thrush
[Common] Kingfisher
Coal Tit
Chaffinch
Treecreeper
[White-breasted] Dipper
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Black-headed Gull
Rock Dove [Feral Pigeon]
Long-tailed Tit
[Eurasian] Nuthatch
Dunnock
Mistle Thrush
Jackdaw
Mute Swan
Tufted Duck
Herring Gull
Water Rail
Common Teal
[Eurasian] Wigeon
[Eurasian] Coot
Grey Heron
[Eurasian] Jay
Reed Bunting
Starling
Collared Dove
House Sparrow
Canada Goose
Goosander
Great Cormorant
Common Goldeneye
Pochard
Rook
[European] Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Common Kestrel
Common Snipe
Jack Snipe
Lapwing
Pied Wagtail
European Golden Plover
[Eurasian] Oystercatcher
Redshank
[Eurasian] Curlew
Great Black-backed Gull
Brent Goose
Stonechat
Dunlin
Sanderling
Ringed Plover
Rock Pipit
Ruddy Turnstone
Common Eider
Northern Shoveler
Ruddy Duck
Pheasant

Resin

Very cool!

Yes, very cool! Where did you see so many birds? I thought I was doing good with my piddly 31 birds!!

Are you kidding me Resin! Wowee!

A zoo or museum? Or maybe Bird Files. :-)

What a way to start the year!! Way to go

Good lord that is a lot!! Wish I had today off to go birding too :(

Just within 15km of home, on my bike . . . a good way to run off some of the post-christmas bloat ;-)

Fortunately I've got a nice mix of habitats within easy reach - woodland with a stream, a few small lakes, some farmland, and the coast. And most important of all, a climate where the winters aren't brutal.

Resin

Wow Resin. Very cool way to start the new year. I participated in my first ever New Years Day bird count at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Buffalo. Here is our collection:

wild turkey
great blue heron
cooper's hawk
mourning dove
red-bellied woodpecker
downy woodpecker
hairy woodpecker
blue jay
black-capped chickadee
tufted titmouse
white-breasted nuthatch
brown creeper (and my personal first)
American robin
chipping sparrow
dark-eyed junco
northern cardinal
house finch
pine siskin (and my personal first)
American goldfinch

That's very good Resin!

Nice ones OP!

Resin ... for a lot of people that's a life list... not a DAY list...
Happy birding to all of you in '09. God bless.
Judy

Great start to 2009, Resin. You may have mentioned it before, but ....... what was your total for 2008 ? And, what is your life total ?

Thanks.

Yes I am curious to know this also!

It would be neat to go birding with Resin - instead of having to try and take pictures of everything so you can come home and spend hours trying to ID the birds, Resin could just see a quick glimpse of it and say "oh there's a ............."

You'd get much better results with a pro like that!

Oh smackaroo Resin, And it's just the first day of the year!!! What's your goal for the year?

2008, got 213 in my home county (Northumberland , in northeastern England), another 3 more elsewhere in Britain. I'll be satisfied with anything over 200 in Northumberland for 2009.

Life: 333 in Northumberland, 403 for Britain, 248 for North America (2 trips), 712 World. My Northumberland list is pretty good (in the top 20 Northumbs birders), British list mediocre (several British birders have broken the 500 mark), World list not very good at all (not done enough travelling!).

Resin

wow. i'm not even sure i've reached 100.

I am not touching this with a ten foot pole.....


Great start Resin!! :)

Great start to 2009 and Happy New Year everyone.

Resin ... I am envious. I don't have many more than 70 birds on my entire life list. Now I know why you're such an expert on identifying our feathered friends. And, as always, thank you for your help in identifying them when I'm clueless.

To start off the new year, I added this one (a golden eagle) to my list. I've seen them in zoos; but this was my first sighting in the wild.

Are there any birds left in Northumberland that you haven't seen? LOL
You've seen more N.American birds in 2 trips than I have in an entire lifetime!

Nice shot, Jane, and congratulations.

Resin, quite impressive for someone so youthful :-)

I'm not a true birder, I guess, because I don't carry binoculars. My camera and lens serve that function and I only keep track of those that I photograph. I currently have photographed about 130 different birds here in Maryland. That's not very impressive considering one gentleman photographed 307 in Maryland, just in 2008. Unfortunately, and selfishly speaking, I don't spend as much time in the wild as I would like to. You must go to them. Only so many come to you ....

Happy birding in 2009 !!!

Resin, some people, like you, have the privilege of living in areas with a large numbers of species. In three hours of driving around birding, in sub-zero F. temperatures, today I was able to count only 8 species.

When I look up Northumberland on the Internet, I discovered it was a park instead of a city. The satellite photos did show a verity of habitat. But, I couldn't figure out what the things, in photos, which look like rows were. Though they might have been rows of young trees.

Do you live in the park or just near it?

I may have seen a greater total number of birds though. This is a shot of a few of the Bohemian Waxwings in the largest flock. The trees look like this in all direction, over parts of several city blocks.

Happy New Year Everyone.

Gary



This message was edited Jan 2, 2009 6:05 PM

GASP again Gary. I'm not sure what is more spectacular, that tree or all those birds.

Nice flock of waxwings, Gary! Haven't had any this year yet, maybe tomorrow. Northumberland is a county, not a park (wish it was!!), though there are various parks called "Northumberland Park" named after the county.

Today, went on a trip with a couple of other birders to the next county southward (County Durham), to see a Glaucous-winged Gull, just 48km from home . . . yep, you do read that right, a Glaucous-winged Gull. Britain's second-ever record, it was found a couple of days ago, in a big gull flock at a landfill site (oh the scenic delights birding can lead you to - NOT!!!). There must've been well over a thousand other birders also all came to see it, from all over Britain, biggest crowd I've seen in years. Last time I saw a Glaucous-winged Gull was in California, 8,000km from home.

Other birds new for 2009:
Greylag Goose
Pink-footed Goose
Gadwall
Little Grebe
Little Egret
Guillemot [Common Murre]
Razorbill
Red Knot
Purple Sandpiper
Red-throated Diver [Loon]
Sparrowhawk
Total: 82

Resin

Added Bohemian Waxwing (flock of 107) and Redwing (a species of thrush) today

Resin