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