97

 

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

*We ended the day with 97 species, not too shabby what with the heat and all...

**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