2013 and beyond

It's pretty simple: the most birds seen or heard from one's yard during 2013 will be the "winner". Want in? O.k....then do it despite that.

2013 promises to be a lot less mean but still a carbon-free birding competition, even if slightly less exciting than a MEGA x EPIC hybrid.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Speckle-bellies like crazy!

I already talked to Caleb about a truly spectacular movement of geese that winged their way northwest over SE Wisconsin today. In my first three hours of goose watching on the ridge with the scope and such set up I tallied an amazing 54 Greater White-fronted Geese (#43) among about 5k or so of Canada's. When I came back from work in the evening and the majority of the goose flight had died down, I tallied an additional 39 GWFG for a grand total of 93 GWFG flying over my yard in only 3.75 hours of watching... The phenomonen wasn't unique to my yard, others reported that almost every large flock of Canadas had accompanying GWFG with them today in SC WI. While the white-fronts stole the show, I also noted 7 Cackling Geese and one each of a blue and white phase Snow Geese (#44).
Other ducks on the move included 9 Common Mergansers (#45), 29 Northern Pintail (#46), 1 Gadwall (#47), and 5 Lesser Scaup (#48). At least three Killdeer (#49) flew over, finally managed Cedar Waxwing (#50) for the year as well. 17 Rusty Blackbirds (#51) were scattered throughout the at least 600 RWBL and COGR flocks that were going over. A sharp looking male Northern Harrier (#52) cruised along the ridge while I was on the phone with Caleb and in the evening I had a real nice look at a dark morph Rough-leg the wheeled before drifting northwest. Calling Northern Flicker (#53) in the adjacent woods and finally the stupid Rock Pigeons (#54) decided to fly over the yard. Oh yeah, PISI continue and 3 different small flocks totaling 11 WWCR (69 for the year Curtis...) were noted in the morning hours going over. 43 species all told for the day. What a way to jump start spring! And yeah, this really isn't going to be a competition guys - sorry...

1 comment:

  1. Here's the eBird checklist:
    Greater White-fronted Goose 93
    Snow Goose 2
    Cackling Goose 7
    Canada Goose 6070
    Gadwall 1
    Mallard 125
    Northern Pintail 29
    Lesser Scaup 5
    Common Merganser 9
    Northern Harrier 1
    Red-tailed Hawk 6
    Rough-legged Hawk 1
    Sandhill Crane 17
    Killdeer 3
    Ring-billed Gull 29
    Herring Gull 12
    Rock Pigeon 3
    Mourning Dove 4
    Great Horned Owl 1
    Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
    Downy Woodpecker 2
    Hairy Woodpecker 1
    Northern Flicker 1
    Blue Jay 1
    American Crow 8
    Horned Lark 3
    Black-capped Chickadee 2
    Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
    White-breasted Nuthatch 2
    American Robin 9
    European Starling 14
    Cedar Waxwing 11
    Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 15
    Northern Cardinal 2
    Red-winged Blackbird 530
    Rusty Blackbird 17
    Common Grackle 90
    Brown-headed Cowbird 1
    House Finch 8
    White-winged Crossbill 11
    Pine Siskin 2
    American Goldfinch 4
    House Sparrow 1

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