Well, I went three long days without adding anything new due to inclement weather, work and family obligations. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching my feeders hoping for something new for the year that I haven't had at my feeders very often, things like Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Chipping Sparrow. Yes, I still need these birds for the year.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch has become my nemesis for my county big year. I have not seen one since the end of November at Spring Grove Cemetery, and I heard but did not see one in December in my neighborhood. I struck out on this species again at Spring Grove Cemetery.
Next stop was to go to the gravel pits across from the Lost Bridge mudflats and see what changes have occurred in the waterfowl composition. I call these the Elizabethtown Gravel Pits. Most of the Snow Geese were gone sans about 8, and I really wasn't trying but found at least 10 Cackling Geese. No Ross or Greater White-fronted were detected. That being said, I was really looking for new birds. There were literally a handful of waterfowl species that I still needed for the year and so I was concentrating on finding mergansers and Wood Ducks. No luck with the woodies, but I did find two female mergansers common/red-breasted type, with heads tucked. Joe Bens and his friend who met up with me suspected the birds were common, but we couldn't say for sure. I scanned through the rest of the flock looking for Hooded Mergansers. I found a Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, and a Pied-billed Grebe, all of which I have found within the past two weeks for my January 100 list. On a second or third pass through the scope back at the mergansers, I was thrilled that the birds had awakened and started preening, showing the tell-tale white chin, clean white neck contrasting sharply with a dark chestnut head and white breast of Common Merganser! Shortly thereafter, Joe and Carl had come back to tell me about a field of Wild Turkeys, as I had just mentioned to Joe earlier that I still needed them for my list. I shared the info that the mergansers were in fact common. I rushed over to the location that Joe had described to find 29 Wild Turkeys in a field!
Later I went on to Kilby Rd. Gravel Pits and found many, many sparrows. I thought, I can find a Savannah in this flock. I found two Savannah Sparrows! Now the only other expected January sparrow I need is Chipping (unless a lifer Harris' shows up in the county ;-)).
Not new but still a thrill to find were about 100 Horned Larks in a corn field across from McKenzie Landscape and Gardening. After all the excitement on the eastern side of the county at Armleder with all the Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs and Snow Bunting there, I was happy to finally find some birds on the west side. The birds at McKenzie were close to the Hamilton/Butler county line but still in Hamilton county.
New additions today: Common Merganser, Wild Turkey and Savannah Sparrow, bringing the total to 86 species for January!
The Red-breasted Nuthatch has become my nemesis for my county big year. I have not seen one since the end of November at Spring Grove Cemetery, and I heard but did not see one in December in my neighborhood. I struck out on this species again at Spring Grove Cemetery.
Next stop was to go to the gravel pits across from the Lost Bridge mudflats and see what changes have occurred in the waterfowl composition. I call these the Elizabethtown Gravel Pits. Most of the Snow Geese were gone sans about 8, and I really wasn't trying but found at least 10 Cackling Geese. No Ross or Greater White-fronted were detected. That being said, I was really looking for new birds. There were literally a handful of waterfowl species that I still needed for the year and so I was concentrating on finding mergansers and Wood Ducks. No luck with the woodies, but I did find two female mergansers common/red-breasted type, with heads tucked. Joe Bens and his friend who met up with me suspected the birds were common, but we couldn't say for sure. I scanned through the rest of the flock looking for Hooded Mergansers. I found a Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, and a Pied-billed Grebe, all of which I have found within the past two weeks for my January 100 list. On a second or third pass through the scope back at the mergansers, I was thrilled that the birds had awakened and started preening, showing the tell-tale white chin, clean white neck contrasting sharply with a dark chestnut head and white breast of Common Merganser! Shortly thereafter, Joe and Carl had come back to tell me about a field of Wild Turkeys, as I had just mentioned to Joe earlier that I still needed them for my list. I shared the info that the mergansers were in fact common. I rushed over to the location that Joe had described to find 29 Wild Turkeys in a field!
Later I went on to Kilby Rd. Gravel Pits and found many, many sparrows. I thought, I can find a Savannah in this flock. I found two Savannah Sparrows! Now the only other expected January sparrow I need is Chipping (unless a lifer Harris' shows up in the county ;-)).
Not new but still a thrill to find were about 100 Horned Larks in a corn field across from McKenzie Landscape and Gardening. After all the excitement on the eastern side of the county at Armleder with all the Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs and Snow Bunting there, I was happy to finally find some birds on the west side. The birds at McKenzie were close to the Hamilton/Butler county line but still in Hamilton county.
New additions today: Common Merganser, Wild Turkey and Savannah Sparrow, bringing the total to 86 species for January!
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