51

I was pretty excited yesterday. I've been participating in the NY Breeding Bird Atlas since it started five years ago. It's been an amazing experience, learning new behaviors, new ways of doing things, and a wonderful number of new things about the birds we see every day. (Many thanks to the regional coordinators who have guided me though a lot of getting it wrong, until I mostly get it right now.)

Anyhow, I thought when I went out to count birds on the farm that I was looking for confirmed species number fifty for my personal count. Last thing I knew I had found 49 species that were breeding in the Randall CE block, where we live, which is a priority block for the atlas.

I hoped if I really put some effort in I could find just one more and make it an even fifty.

Much to my delight I encountered a family of Eastern Bluebirds, lots of fluttering blueberry babies and a hard-working set of really pretty parents. I was nearly sure they hadn't been confirmed yet, and turns out they had in fact only been coded "probable".

When I came to the house I checked the Randall page and sure enough, bluebirds were newly confirmed. However, I also discovered that earlier this year we confirmed Common Ravens when Ralph and Liz found a nest on our cross-mow hay elevator...species number fifty. (52 species overall in the block, as House Sparrows were confirmed by another birder we know).

So now it's 51 found by Friers, mostly right here on the farm. Happy dance!