A Pretty Big Day

Daybreak over the field behind the folks' house

We fielded two teams yesterday for the first time ever for the Mayfield South section of the Johnstown CBC. The weather was expected to hold bird numbers down, but although we missed quite a few common species, we saw some great numbers of certain birds. It did snow off and on all day and the light was simply awful. Matt and Lisa chased around for a long while after the bluebirds, because they could barely see any color on them at all.



There were two hours of walking, 77 miles of road travel, some pleasant conversations with nice folks walking dogs about what the heck we were up to, and one yelling at from a guy who didn't like us scoping out the mourning doves in his apple tree.

In no particular order we saw:

Common Crows 
Tree Sparrows
House Sparrows
Song Sparrows
Gold Finches
House Finches
Black-capped Chickadees
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
White-breasted Nuthatches
Rock Pigeons
Tufted Titmouse
European Starlings
Common Redpolls
Mourning Doves
Mallard Ducks
American Turkey
Canada Geese
Dark-eyed Juncos
Northern Cardinals
Red-tailed Hawks
American Kestrels
And Matt and Lisa walked our aunt and uncle's farm and added:
Eastern Bluebirds
Cedar Waxwings

American Robins
 plus adding to the numbers of many of the other above birds. 

Dusk, back at their house again after a long, long day

CBC

Tomorrow. For once I managed to put the map away where I could find it. Gotta charge camera batteries and pile up field guides. Anyone else have the dilemma of which is the best one to drag along? Suggestions as to your favorite?

The boys often give me Amazon gift cards for birthdays and such, so I have a good selection.

Of course I could take them all....but dang they are heavy.

Weather is supposed to be pretty cruddy, windy, cold, not too sunny, but there are sheltered little hidden places we know how to find and that massive flock of snow geese has been seen this week all around the edges of the count circle.

Maybe we will luck out with a few of them or some of the winter finches that seem to be all over the place. Hope so anyhow.

30th Anniversary

Of the Johnstown Christmas Bird Count yesterday. The weather was not so hot and the traffic was horrendous, but we saw a huge number of geese on farm fields and in the sky, a few mallards, and a nifty red-bellied woodpecker, among a bunch of the usual suspects. (Those are robins in that tree)

I was tickled to be able to pish the wood pecker out of hiding right from the front seat of the truck. He was doing gymnastics trying to see what was making that funny noise.

 The Mallard mob

Thanks to mom and dad and the brothers for making it possible, by driving, navigating, providing a warm, welcoming home base (complete with homemade spaghetti, which was mighty fine) and all the stuff that makes the count go smoothly.




The poor economy and the high cost of sunflower seeds was made very evident by the dozens of empty bird feeders, some of them ones that we have counted for years and years. I am sure the birds aren't much inconvenienced, as there is really no snow yet and lots of natural food, but it was a bit of a handicap for count folks.