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Seen in downtown Cobleskill during that count

Six Christmas Bird Counts this season and what a nice set of adventures they were. 

First was the count at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I wrote about that one here. I am really honored to participate in such an illustrious event, even if my personal failings slow me down a bit.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Oneida County

Next was Schenectady County, much easier physically, as it is mostly done from the car. There are some incredibly beautiful places on that count, as well as a plethora of semi-urban birds, such as Northern Mockingbirds, which never fail to delight me, even when we are down south where they are everywhere.

Red-tailed Hawk, Montgomery County

Fulton County, up until this year my very favorite. Mom and Dad did this one almost from the start, and it is the county where I was born and raised. All sorts of northern birds are possible and this year we were rewarded with an Evening Grosbeak, a Northern Shrike and a Merlin.

Montezuma NWR

Montgomery County...home, although the territory covered by my BBB (best birding buddy,) Kris Harshman, and I is not part of our usual haunts, being farther west than our daily chases. It was a great count for raptors, including a Rough Legged Hawk, Kestrel, and Great Horned Owl. The weather that day was some of the best we have had in this challenging, cold, snowy season and much appreciated.

Trumpeter Swans, Montezuma

Then came Oneida County. This one is always interesting, as it is not an area Ralph and I have ever birded, so it is all new and different scenery and habitat. It is a good thing George can navigate so well.... The weather was harsh and windy (go figure...that has been the case almost every day since the second week in November) and it was work to find small birds, but fun, as always.

Northern Mockingbird, Schenectady CBC

Next was my new favorite, the brand new Cobleskill (Schoharie County) CBC. The boss and I bird extensively in three adjacent counties, Montgomery where we live, Fulton where I was born and raised, and Schoharie, conveniently located just to the south of us. To get to do CBCs in all three was the best treat of the winter so far. We had a long day with a mix of a few minutes of warm, sweet, elusive sunshine, bracketed by endless rounds of lake effect (my new cuss words for this winter) snow squalls and mini-white outs. 

Cobleskill

Oh, but the territory, the habitat, the miles upon miles of winding roads through a mix of grasslands, wetlands, farmland, woodland, scrub brush areas, and urban neighborhoods. We found 32 species finishing the day with a Great Horned Owl George called up on a woodland road south of Cobleskill. I really hope the Good Lord lets me do this one again next year.

Anyhow, thanks to George Steele for leading all but Montgomery County, and to my BBB, Kris Harshman for that one. There is a good chance I am the world's worst navigator, having the potential to get lost in my own closet. My two good friends cover that nicely, as well as being able to actually see the birds...

Over the course of the season, I got to meet and bird with three new people, all of whom I liked a lot, and every single one of whom has sharper eyes than I do. (I am forever grateful to be able to hear reasonably well.)

Winter is a heckin' lot shorter when the foul weather and dark days are punctuated by the challenges and fun of all these Christmas Bird Counts.

10 out of 10 (if all 10 are lunatic birders, such as myself) would recommend.

Cobleskill

Not Quite

 

Northern Mockingbird

Eighteen hours of birding, spread over two days and two Christmas Bird Counts. 

What an adventure! For the Schenectady count the weather was ridiculously nice, mixed sun and light clouds, balmy, and pleasant.

Driving around with the windows down and the sunroof open didn't seem weird at all, but then it didn't feel like December.

October maybe, but not December.

We saw throngs of birds, although no real ooh-ahh birds, just a lot of them. A lot is good though. You sure don't get bored!

At the end of the day, we had 39 species, which is not bad at all. Best bird from my point of view was a Barred Owl first thing in the morning, but the many Black-capped Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets and 3 Brown Creepers were pretty interesting as well. And who can resist 3 Swamp Sparrows buzzing up out of the marsh to greet us! I am always astonished to see them in winter, but sometimes we do.

Largest of several flocks of Cedar Waxwings we saw
There were at least 100

Day two, the Johnstown CBC, produced an abrupt turnaround in the weather. Although the temperature lingered in the 40s most of the day, there was a lazy wind...it went right through you, rather than around...and it was shiverishly damp. However, there was open water and there were ducks!

With a nasty storm impending, we again saw a lot of birds. We ended with 32 species, and once again, a tiny bird palooza of a count. It didn't hurt that friend, mentor, and leader for this part of the circle, George Steele, is a master at pishing. Within seconds after he stopped the car and started the show, the little birds came boiling out of the woods to investigate. They screamed and peeped and clucked their outrage at the invasion of noisy alarm calls. It was great fun to watch and listen, and oh, how I wish I could pish like that. I am getting better but...

Cryptic little Brown Creeper

Usually the Black-capped Chickadees were first and we saw amazing numbers of them. It reminded me of the good old days doing the count with my dad, when we saw hundreds every year. Next Tufted Titmice, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Red-breasted Nuthatches, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Brown Creepers arrived. I have never seen as many BRCR, RBNU, or GCKI in one year before, let alone in one day. We ended up with 291 BCCH, 15 GCKI, 29 RBNU and 9 BRCR. 

At some stops other birds showed up too, Blue Jays, shrill and strident in their opinions, and Norther Cardinals cheeping urgently. A couple of times Common Ravens came soaring over to intone Nevermore-ishly from above.

At the end of the day, kind of cold and tired, it felt good to get home. I foolishly had dressed for Saturday's weather and it was insufficient for Sunday, alas. However, as I said to George, when he asked if I was up for another bird day sometime next year, I said, "If I'm not dead, I'm game."

And I am. If I can I will chase birds, pretty much every time, even if it's just in our backyard.

BTW, the promised storm is no joke. A local friend says water flow in the Schoharie has reached the level of the 93 flood. Hopefully the rain stops before it gets any higher!

Don't know if you can see these, but here are links to our trip reports for the two days.

Schenectady CBC

Johnstown CBC

House Sparrow, nasty things remind me of today's weather

That Grouse in the Headlights Look

Got to spend the day today participating in the Johnstown Christmas bird count. It was different in many ways, as I joined an area educator, George Steele, counting his territory, rather than leading the crew through our old area, Mayfield South.

The day started auspiciously despite dismal weather. The first bird was a Barred Owl George called up from a soggy woodland area. It was still dark, but he soon found it with a flashlight and we got great looks before it became annoyed and flew off. George is good enough at imitating owl calls that Merlin recognizes him as a Screech Owl...something we didn't find...unless he is pishing to call birds out of the shrubbery, whereupon Merlin is sure we have found a Barn Owl. 

None of them either, alas. 

This young Bald Eagle didn't seem enamored of the rain at all

The grouse mentioned above was picking gravel out of the road at almost dawn, a dull, dark and gloomy dawn. It sat happily in the light from the headlights, pecking and nibbling and glancing over its shoulder at us, until we simply had to move out of the way of potential traffic. Then it sauntered off the road and flew nonchalantly up the hill nearby.

By dint of a good deal of travel through snow, sleet and thin rain, and a lot of pishing and listening at bits of tempting habitat we ended up with 25 species, ranging from a plethora of Black-capped Chickadees to a drenched and disgusted young Bald Eagle.

All in all not bad for such a dark and rainy day. I tried eBird's new trip report feature, which aggregates all the checklists in a given time period into one report with total bird numbers and other useful information and so far I like it. I think I will use it again for Big Days and similar endeavors.

George

The Best Bird

Yesterday was the annual Johnstown NY Christmas Bird Count. Our family has participated almost since its beginning in 1982, and myself for 26 years. 

It was not the most scintillating year for Mayfield South. Traffic was fierce and birds still dispersed away from the roads, because I guess of our relatively mild....so far...winter.

Red-tailed Hawk, I think Alan took this one

Still we had a lot of fun owling even without any tangible results. Traffic was already pretty busy in the pre-dawn hours and the Barred Owl Mom has been hearing at their house refused to cooperate.

Brr, brr, brr Blue Jay

High points were three Pileated Woodpeckers, high for our personal count, two Cooper's Hawks, six Red-tailed Hawks, a mess of Mallards despite a serious dearth of open water, and two Ruffed Grouse that Alan found hidden away in some trees on a relatively deserted bit of road.

It was, as always, fun.

This spot looks benign and beautiful, but is beside a busy road and kinda scary
You press the shutter and peruse with the bins right smartly or die

However, the best bird of the day was a Common Loon, gavia immer. None of the water left in our bit of territory is large enough for a loon to get moving and get off the water. Thus unless we get a flyover, way, way, way out of season, we aren't going to see one.

This one though was given to me and Ralph by my dad and mom.

It was hand carved by my dad, in 1988, and is a thing of haunting beauty. The golden butternut body tempts fingers to stroke its silken surface....so sleek and smooth and somehow so satisfying to touch. Ruby eyes hold the secrets of the north, just as do the eyes of the real deal that we see at Peck's Lake and other beloved places in the spring and summer.

Nearly Headless Cooper's Hawk

It is a true treasure, was received as such, and will be treated as such as long as I am around to care for it.

Thanks, Dad and Mom for such an amazing and unexpected gift.

And thanks Alan for driving, spotting with those laser eyes, and feeding us well before you had to race off to another state for work today.

Misty Mallard

Thanks Amber for your patience, riding around freezing with the windows down while the loonies looked for loons...or chickadees and finches as the case may be.

Thanks Becky for keeping the paper tally while people shouted over one another, "crow", "downy", "MODO" and other garbled goodies from the front seat.

Thank you all and happy birding....or happy not birding if that is the way you roll. And Merry Christmas too.

Gavia Immer

Wish us Luck

This is an unedited shot from the river the other day
There IS a river under there.
And geese....and a train over on the other bank. However, the fog was awful

If you would be so kind. We are off to do the Christmas Bird Count this morning. Last year was pretty dismal and the past three weeks have been poor all around, so we can only hope to see good numbers, interesting species or both. Even our best spots have been pretty sparse with birds....several trips with only crows, starlings, and pigeons on "The Loop", where we more normally see raptors and waterfowl up to and including a Snowy Owl, a daily Rough-legged Hawk, and all sorts of other goodies.

The kids are on their way down right now for what has now been a family tradition for well over thirty years. Mom and Dad used to do it, then us kids, and now grandkids and whomever in the family is willing to spend hours getting in and out of a car peering into the bushes and hollering, "look a crow"!

I have the clipboard ready, although I am going to at least try eBirding our trip. I am so used to listing on the phone nowadays. We may run both a paper tally and the eBird one, and submit whichever seems more accurate. Sure is cold out......

I may have Mentioned

The Great Sacandaga on a calm day

One Particular

One of the sweet spots. Nothing here this year though

Trout ponds at Hale Creek

Trout pond overflow

Sunset in Mom and Dad's side yard

That I have a  ❤ for water light. There was plenty of it yesterday.

More on the Bird Count

A bad hair day in the swamps

We had perhaps the nicest weather ever seen on the count, and since it was after Christmas the traffic was not as bad as some years.

The most exciting birds we saw or heard, for me at least, were two Great Blue Herons Matt and Alan saw, a Brown Creeper Alan and Jen picked up in Gloversville, and a Carolina Wren heard singing "Tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle" loud enough to be heard over traffic in the Mayfield part of our area.

Matt's bluebirds

Oh, and the Bluebirds Matt got on perhaps my favorite bit of the area, Ashler Road. Sometimes Ashler is impassable, but this year it was hard and dry.

Other than that it was more large birds than small as the light was terrible for two-thirds of the day. it took real hard work to even be sure about a large flock of Goldfinches behind Mom and Dad's house early in the day. They weren't talking, so we had to peer really hard at them. I knew...and yet.....of course as soon as we were positive what we were seeing they began to call like crazy, "Che wink....che wink....."

Lots and lots of Crows. The ubiquitous Chickadees. Kegan has gotten as good an ear as you could ask for hearing the little guys. Many flocks of Canada Geese flying over. More ducks than is normal, including a good-sized flock of perhaps fourteen that flew right over the truck in the really dim light in the morning. I'm sure they were Mallards, but I didn't count them as such, not being able to see them well enough.

Ashler Road

Alan and Jen took some roads and Jen drove while he counted. They got a nice representation, plus that Creeper.

I only started keeping a total of all birds seen a couple of years ago, but this year's 1251 is certainly a respectable total, especially since we only saw a very few raptors, a handful of gulls, and not one single Robin, Cedar Waxwing, or any of a number of other normally counted birds.

A good day, and thanks to everyone who drove, made incredible chili for the starving hordes, peered through windows, and sang out for all those elusive garage eagles.

  

And an outboard motor in a motor tree

Johnstown Christmas Bird Count 2014

We saw domestic birds

Plastic birds..... this guy had me fooled until I put the binoculars on him

Drastic birds

A yellow pelican

And every single garage eagle and fake butterfly in the Town of Mayfield
At least there weren't any mailbox cardinals this year.

We also saw 1251 real birds....226 American crows, 2 White-breasted nuthatches.....etc.....etc.....

Fish From the Christmas Bird Count

We visit the Hales Mills Station every year. Usually get some good birds there and always get to see these great trout.