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