Big Atlas Weekend

 

Disheveled and downright soggy,
this poor Red-tailed Hawk was being mobbed
by Blue Jays as well as getting wet.
Did I mention it was raining?

Several state breeding bird atlases are having a late June event to get folks out and counting during a very busy time for baby birds.

One of the goals is to get birds discovered and coded in blocks that are not well birded. The block we live in, a priority block, is complete. Somebody who birds like it was their job just happens to be based there....I won't name names, but if you click the link....

Anyhow, the boss was kind enough to take me birding this morning in this block, quite local, also a priority block, and only having two species confirmed. 

It was fun. I used to keep my first-ever, long ago, horse, Magnum, at a farm within the block, so I know the roads by heart after riding them so many times. Things have changed since those Stone Age days though...new houses, new woodlands, no more Red-headed Woodpeckers, which used to be common there.

Savannah Sparrow,
a fairly common grassland bird. 

We found two more Common Raven nests on silo platforms, making five that we have observed in Montgomery County now. Also a good showing of grassland birds in the farm fields, a nice group of Veerys, all singing like mad, and assorted other summer visitors.

I am pretty sure we will not, however, even attempt to complete the block. Most places we bird we are a familiar sight and no one pays any attention to us. (Although someone did shoot at us last month!!!) In this new area, we will probably be viewed with suspicion, especially if we try night birding. I don't want to hear the sound of someone racking a round while I'm recording with Merlin.  Also there aren't many good places to pull off the road and there is a lot more traffic than in the Magnum days. 

I did discover that the area where we bird Lyker's Pond is also a priority block, but then again, that's where I heard a rifle nearby and saw the projectile kick up water about thirty feet from me....

Another Common Raven nest on a silo platform