A sleepy mama Downy Woodpecker peeks out of her nest hole at Yankee Hill Lock |
Yesterday, area educator and extraordinary birder, George Steele, and I attempted a "Century Run".
That is, we set out to find one hundred species of birds in 24 hours in a given area, in this case Fulton and Montgomery Counties.
Some of my favorite people are redheads too Female Common Merganser |
It was hot and humid and the sun was like a hammer on a red-hot anvil, banging away all day. It was still a lot of fun, although I sure envied the swimmers at Caroga Lake. That water looked inviting.
This horse we passed is for Liz...thought of you when I saw it |
We traveled many miles, some by car, some on foot, and we even climbed down into a steep ravine (and back out too!) We started out well before dawn, and returned around 13 hours later.
Common Grackle looks as if he belongs on the bench with a gavel in his wing...just call me "your honor) |
Best birds of the day for me were a good number of warblers I was missing, including Prairie and Blackburnian, an obliging American Bittern, right where Ralph spotted one two years ago, and a distant Barred Owl answering George's hooting calls from far across the water at Willie Marsh.
We saw a number of gorgeous waterfalls. (I think I drank at least one waterfall's worth of water along the way trying to stay hydrated in the energy-zapping heat.)
I was as green as this water with envy Mr. Turtle looks pretty chill |
My favorite water of the day was my shower at the end of it though.
Green Heron |
**Of course this morning when Ralph and I went out for a couple of hours, as we do most days, we promptly found the Osprey we missed yesterday, a Brown Thrasher ditto, and a nice batch of assorted sandpipers that we missed yesterday.
***Thanks George for braving that awful heat so we could count birds.
Checking out Bank Swallows in a distant sand quarry (Yes, they were there) |
A smile a minute |
2 comments:
Now, that's dedication! I'm glad your suffering was rewarded with so many marvelous sightings.
Jacqueline, it was an amazing day, and we did our best. However, I ran into another, much better, birder a few days later. He and his team went out from 2 AM to 10 PM and got 132 species! I think I need to slink away into the sunset. LOL It was fun other than the hideous heat, which was...well...hideous.
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