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Moviemaking and Birding

My son's cub scout den met at the Den Leader's house in Westwood this afternoon to make a movie outdoors in the woods as one of the electives for the Arrow of Light program. They will be bridging over to boy scouts in February.

While I tried to stay out of the shots as they filmed their movie, I wore my binoculars around my neck, birding in the backyard, and quickly added Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. There were two birds, a male and an immature with white throat (female?). Next, a noisy flock of Common Grackles was music to my ears, as I needed this bird for my list. Normally I would not get excited about grackles, but they added one more to my total! Later I added a Northern Flicker as it flew past my head and into the woods. We went inside to warm up with hot chocolate and rice krispy treats. As we enjoyed these and enjoyed one another's company, I turned around to look out the window. What was that up in the tree? Could it be? Yes, a Hermit Thrush! Sometimes I have a hard time finding these. This was icing on the cake for an already great day.

Additions at the den leader's house: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Common Grackle, Northern Flicker and Hermit Thrush bringing my 2018 county total to 67 species! Only six days into the month of January and I already only need 33 more to reach 100. It seems very doable at this point and there are many fairly common species that I still need for my county year list.
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