No yard birds, but some pics of interest

Male Garganey. This bird has returned to a small pond every year for the last four years, always in February, which is a few weeks earlier than the species normally occurs here (they are a rare but possibly overlooked breeding species, and the only duck breeding in Ireland that is a summer visitor).



Male Yellowhammer. Declining due to changes in farming practices, but still locally common. There are still good numbers in eastern County Cork, which is where this bird was seen.



2cy male Eurasian Sparrowhawk. Still waiting for one in my garden (yard), should get some overhead at least later in the year, when juveniles have fledged and are wandering. This bird landed so close that the pic above was digibinned...

Rare clip

This AM my local Sharpie appeared suddenly on the brushpile (again), clearly eyeing something the bottom of the pile and scheming how to get at it. Instead of letting this play out without documentation, I decided to try capturing the chase with the video feature on my digital camera. After 1.5 minutes of filming, the bird finally was able to flush at least 1 passerine (a junco I think) and possibly something larger (MODO?) which I didn't get a good look at. Anyway, enjoy this rare clip (the hunt was unsucessful, BTW):

Baikal Teal...not in my garden

Hi all,
Not much to report from the garden, the best being a male Blackcap today, which may or may not be the same as the bird last seen in January, and a flyover Eurasian Goldfinch again a few days ago.
Last Friday (19th), a male Baikal Teal was found at Tacumshin, Co. Wexford by a little-known local birder called Killian Mullarney. I was busy that day, doing Atlas fieldwork in probably the least productive 10km square in Co. Cork, and fancied a lie-in the next morning, but I got a text from a friend at around 10am, and by 11am we were on our way. Having gotten lost briefly, we arrived to find that the bird wasn't handily lined up, but we soon located it and got decent views...this was just as well, as, after 5 minutes or so, the bird flew off, and we never relocated it (it was seen the next day, however, and subsequently). 'Back-up' birds included a Green-winged Teal, a Long-billed Dowitcher (found while we were there), huge numbers of wildfowl (three swan species, including my first Bewick's Swans for a few years (they are very rare in Cork nowadays, only seen a flock of 7 ever here), hundreds of Pintail and Shoveler etc) and a Hen Harrier. We missed the lingering Glossy Ibis, but others saw this also.
Now, it is very possible that this bird was an escape...the species is held in captivity, though apparently it is difficult to breed in captivity...and, indeed, for many years, most records in western Europe were tainted with the escape stigma. However, isotopic analysis has as good as proven that a bird in the early 20th century in Britain, and also a bird shot in Denmark as recently as 2005, were genuinely wild: the juvenile feathers had isotopes consistent with having been grown in Siberia, and the 2nd gen feathers consistent with having been grown in western Europe. As a result, and also due to a record from 2002 having been accepted to Category A in Britain, any record of Baikal Teal at the right time of year that doesn't seem like an escape should at least be given due respect: even if this bird fails to make Category A here in Ireland, it is being taken seriously. It is unringed and unpinioned...

A Sharp looking visitor

I was visited by a diminutive hawk with acutely angled Tibio-tarsi today. It was a very sharp looking adult indeed. After gazing upon it with my nockers for a couple minutes I realized my camera was in the other room and I ducked out to get it to try and digiscope the guy. When I returned he was still perched but either my movement, or the realization that he wasn't going to get any prey by sitting there, caused him to take up and leave. Such a cool bird, and from the amount of times I've spotted this sp. in the yard I'd say he wasn't a year round local. Yeah, you all know what I'm talking about, it was the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Year Yard bird No: 46. Rack'em and stack'em. 23 species for the site survey today. What the heck is up with the totals sidebar? When I go into try and edit it it looks normal, but from the blog view, its all messed up and doesn't show a third of our names or totals including mine. What gives? Tired of seeing how devastating a loss you are all suffering?

Doppelgänger

It wasn't in my yard (thankfully) but I did document this Doppelganger (Silly puttius) in Delta County yesterday - it appears as if it was having trouble feeding (it was with a flock of House Sparrows and starlings). I'm thinking it might be a first county record and only the second or third winter record for the U.P. (one was in the Sault in Jan.). But I'm not sure - they are secretive.

Not certain if I'm even going to submit it - I'm thinking it could be a hybrid.

Thoughts?

Harry visits my yard!

Oh, I guess that would be Hairy...not Harry. Sorry for the confusion. So I added HAWO for the year (19). I guess I would take a HAHU in the yard too. That would have merrited a top spot in the vagrancy competition!

EABL & SACR

In search of Red-winged Blackbird (had singing Sun about 1/4 mile from home) this morning before work I found 3 Eastern Bluebird (27)singing from the western boundary and Sandhill Crane (28) flying over. The sandhill were too high to judge numbers, but their calls were heart-stopping! Even with the 6 inches of snow we got Mon spring is in the air.

# 25 The siskins have come home

After weeks of (possibly weasel-related) birdlessness at my feeders, things have been hopping the last few days. Pair of Cardinals, MODO, BLJA, both nuthatchs, 3 spps of mutiple individuals in woodpeckers, a flock of long-lost juncos, it's nice to have birds in the yard again after the slowdown.

My sizable House Finch flock brought in quite a few Goldies today, and with them- 3 Pine Siskins. It's been too long.....

So a taste of what my place looks like (besides an unwashed hobo's North Woods jungle abode).

First the view from my window of the feeding station

 And from the street

And here is the Chickadee that is excavating a cavity outside my office window.

DuPage River Finally Paying Off

It's about time! The DuPage River is exactly 1.18 miles to the east of my living room window. Common Merganser is a common wintering species along this river and it's been open pretty much the entire winter. Just so happened to look out my window this afternoon and had a raptor flying away. I was hoping the raptor was a Coop but it turned out to be a female kestral carrying prey so it looked unusually large with the naked eye. As I tracked her with my bins, she brought me into a sight line that intersected two male Common Mergs flying north along the DuPage. Year bird #13 and yard life bird #36.

Given the paucity of overall bird life at The Wastelands, it pulls through every now and then with a good 'tick'. I see that I now have two species seen nowhere else in this comp...haha! And the only yard to ever 'check' COME is Fitzpunk's WI yard birding insanity.

Lest I get a big head, I will now end this post. Come spring, I'm going to get smoked on the warbie front.

Hasta chumps-

HERG = #12

What's next at this point?

The drought is OVER!

American Robin (18) chattering from the top of my large oak tree in the backyard today. First year bird in a long stretch! Won't be long till my yard will start to wake up. I'm itch'n for spring!....one more month to go.

Sympathy for the House Sparrow

Please allow me to introduce myself - I'm a bird of filth and waste

I've been around for a long, long time

Stole many a cavity nesters place

and I was around when Swamp Kat

had his moment of yardbird gain

made damn sure that Blogger

tallied his 4th place fate

Please,please, please to meetcha

Hope you guess my name

and please, please,please

don't bring back your mate

#25 & #50

Cackler officially puts me in the game

Numero Once = Cackling Goose flyover at approximately 2:30 PM today...

I spy goldeneye

New for the year and new for the yard: Common Goldeneye. That's 26/149. Two flew over this evening heading for the big lake and their buddies. There are several thousand along the coastline right now.

Its time to keep an ear out for American Woodcock. This is the week I usually start to get them. Who will be first? Those with the right habitat around their yards? BEWA? CAPU?

The rest of today's yard tally:

Location: Home
Observation date: 2/20/10
Number of species: 16

Common Goldeneye 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Herring Gull (American) 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
American Crow 9
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 3
European Starling 2
Dark-eyed Junco 22
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 11
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 12

Sidebar Spacing

OK chumpz. Check yoself before you wreck yoself. When you go into the sidebar to update your totals, note that for some reason blogger often (but not always?) adds double-spacing to the everyone's totals. Now that like 2 or 3 of us have done this without fixing the double spacing, we have triple or quadruple spacing now.

So, pay attention when entering new totals, delete the extra spaces; big up and respek.

Good God Bird!!

Must be a good day for scoring yardbirds. As I drove down the drive way to work this afternoon I spotted a large bird flying towards the yard. Could it be? Yes, a whopper of a peckerwood winged its way over head towards the creek, I even spotted its red crest and the white under its wings. So cool! This is only the second time I've ever had this bird around the yard, since I don't really have much in the way of mature forest, they're hard to come by. What would really be cool is if he comes into the feeders. hot dang.

A bit of a northward push

All through the day, there were random flocks of high-flying waterfowl (mostly CANGs) over The Wastelands. Around 1630, some MALLs winged themselves over, making the year list hit double digits! Two new yard birds in one day is stellar (i.e., 'ancient' for Slag heap). At least some fricking birds are starting to move. Several dove flocks were moving too, so Eurasian-collared Dove is next! Whoooohoooooo!

Electromagnetic Radiation Blows

Yearbird #9 (not a yard lifebird) occurred this afternoon...finally. I check this cluster of three cell towers every day as I've previously found kestrels perched on top. On Monday, FitzPunk found a dude up on top of one of the towers but nothing of the avian kind. If kestrels use cell towers as perches frequently, I wonder how this affects their reproductive capabilities. Yikes!

Double-digits, here I come!

BOOYA- unexpected life yardbird

Finally one of my numerous late night attempts at calling in owls has paid off (why this didn't work sooner I have no clue). Had an EASO come right into the yard responding to, of all things, my Saw-whet tapes. Ran in and grabbed the mic and cassette deck but the bird was done singing by then and didn't come back. I think I am going to clean out the owl box in the backyard which has been taken over by Fox Squirrels, and see if i can get them to nest.

Life yardbird #117, yearbird #28. EAT IT!

I'm not dead, you know...

Hi all,
Well, as anticipated, I have already gotten most of the expected species for the whole year at this early stage, so I have spent the last few weeks not seeing any new species. Imagine my delight, then, when returning home, to be confronted by a Meadow Pipit flushing from the neighbour's garden and landing on a rooftop a few doors down. Some careful positioning in my front garden enabled me to see it from my own boundaries, and luckily I had my bins with me, enabling me to ensure that it was just a Meadow Pipit, and not something mindblowing like a vagrant Olive-backed Pipit (the only ever twitchable OBP in Ireland was at nearby Cobh, Co. Cork in Feb 1991: regrettably for me, I was not twitching at that time. There may never be one so close to home again...).
Recent 'non-garden' highlights include the first Western Palearctic record of a dresseri Eider (an adult male at Fanad Head, Co. Donegal, pics online at http://www.binocularface.co.uk/2010/02/13th-14th-february-2010-ireland-part-ii/ and http://www.irishbirdimages.com/pages/gallery/february2010page2.html), a (putative) 2cy Thayer's Gull at Cleggan, Co. Galway on the way home from the dresseri (http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web/Display/sighting/20335/Thayers_Gull.html), a very odd Brent Goose showing some characters of 'Grey-bellied Brant', but which is perhaps not quite right for that, a Black Brant in the same flock and 6 Common Buzzards soaring together (this species becomes ever more abundant in Co. Cork).

The winter olympics of yardbirding

Today I took part in an epic and time honored olympic event. It is a version of the biathalon, but instead of Nordic skiing and shooting, its nordic skiing and birding. The challenge is to steady one's breath and binoculars in between skiing sections and I.D. birds as they appear. In the case of spills, ahem, which don't happen for me very often, the swarovski functional bag is handy to have on your nocker strap. Today I took gold by completing the course in just under an hour and identifying a new year-yardbird BELTED KINGFISHER (rarely seen in winter at this venue, but every now and then will cruise by in summer), as well as other notables like Hairy Woodpecker, Horned Larks, White-throated Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Carolina Wren, and the lovely Red-shouldered Hawk. I admit I did fall when the Kingfisher rattled past, but thats ok, I still got up and had a good look as he perched by the stream. Here is a fall re-enactment. Actually, I was attempting to rush into place for the self timer to go off, but kind of missed my mark. Kind of funny the camera caught my slippage.

eBird sidenote

OK, this one is off topic, but you guys have to see this. Last night I spent countless hours transferring my AviSys bird records (22,500+) over to eBird, MANUALLY. Not a fun procedure, but the result is ass-kicking: all of my county, state, country, and relevant ABA/NA lists are fully up to date and shared with the entire birding community. I believe I submitted over 2,500 individual checklists to eBird at once.

Now to the point: Michigan is usually about 15th in "Most Checklists Submitted for Current Month" (visible on the right side of the eBird.org homepage). Since my upload, take a look at what place the good ole Wolverine state is in now. Watch out Texas!

Oh yeah...

As Ben, I am in desperate need of some new birds as we enter the final doldrums of winter. Amazingly, as I stepped outside just now to look up into the snow storm I had an adult Herring Gull fly over. This species becomes difficult once April arrives and Ring-billed dominates our area.

It was also a notable sighting in that I currently do not have binoculars! I bought a pair of 10X42 ELs on eBay, which arrived slightly out of alignment. They are being fixed, and I sold my Leicas (to pay for the ELs), so as it stands I am trying to ID stuff by eye or using the $25 Kmart specials which have been sitting in our attic now for many years.

A vacation from the yard.

Hey guys, just thought you all would like to know what real birding is like. I went up to the legendary Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandotte county Ohio today to spend valentines with those feathered friends I love the most. I also met up with my buddys from Ohio Wes. University and their fearless leader Dr. Jed Burtt, President of AOU. I helped get his students on many of the good birds such as the awesome looks at owls we all enjoyed. Highlights were multiple Long-eared Owls, Short-eared Owls (in broad daylight!), Rough-legged Hawks (5), Red-tailed Hawk (6), Northern Harrier (5), Bald Eagle (6), American Kestrel (6), Cooper's Hawk, Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs, Eastern Towhee, Red-headed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker (8), E. Meadowlarks (4!), Tundra Swans, N. Pintail, etc. A great day and despite forgetting some of my digiscoping gear I handheld some decent shots through the ol' HD. Here's a fun one. And if you want to see some other shots, I put them in previously used Facebook album, click the last pages of it to find todays shots of LEOWs et.al. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019596&id=164901416&l=95d9fa44cc

I'm looking forward to finding some good yard birds tomorrow now I've refilled the drained feeders around the house tonight. Cheers.

So close, yet so far........

damn.

missed my yard by a 1/2 a mile

maybe I'll get a waddle-by

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=7800+State+Route+656,+Sunbury,+OH+43074&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.273371,80.068359&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=7800+State+Route+656,+Sunbury,+Delaware,+Ohio+43074&ll=40.329722,-82.807742&spn=0.004384,0.009774&t=h&z=17

Here is an areal photo link to my land. Basically,

centered in the view (around the red "tack" google

marker) is the property, surronding

the creek on either side and south of the diagonal

road (rt. 656), its basically a

rectangular plot you can see by the tree lines, our

land goes behind the neighbor's house, and my

house is on the right/north east.

The fields just to the east of my house are also

part of the property. Also included in this post are

my front (w/ heated birdbath) and back feeder views,

then some views of the land. Its been pretty awesome

lately with so much snow. On the property I maintain

8 Bluebird Swallow boxes, and a kestrel box on the barn.

Other Nesters are Wild Turkey, Am. Woodcock,

Yellow-breasted Chat,Yellow-throated Warbler,

Yellow-throated Vireo, Warbling Vireo,

Ring-necked Pheasant, Screech Owl,

E. Kingbird, E. Phoebe, E. Meadowlark, Wood Duck and

some of the more common stuff.

Seasonal/vagrant rarities comp.

As much as I'd like to throw you guys a bone, Fox Sparrow is not as rare as RBGR or SAVS. If you view the regional bar graphs for each respective species in both MI and in OH you'll see this is true. What you do, for those not in the know, is you sign into eBird and then click the explore data tab, second on the list is "Bar Charts" and then you can select the state or region you would like a list of bar charts for. Next scroll down until you find the species you want to look up. Its a pretty nifty feature. If you want to say "well, for YOUR yard Ben, those species aren't so rare" that argument doesn't really hold up either since I've had several Fox Sparrows this time of year, but never RBGR or SAVS before, and this data is supported by the bar graphs/charts. Good Birding! Later today I hope to post the habitat pics of the yard. First some feeder watching and then some Skiing, then its time to go to work, working nights is better for yard-birding I've decided.

Big Sit

Report writing all day so I decided turn it into a BIG SIT... just about everything made a show today and the tally sits 17.5 species. The half bird came in the form of a fairly beefy Accipiter pumping over and away in the Portage Marsh. I suspect is a female Sharpie rather than a Cooper's but unlike some people here I don't need to put a name on everything - right Caleb?

In addition to the Warbler Wardown how about other margin filling games such as the most-vagrant-like-yard bird per season? Simple rules -- the bird that has the most important context for your particular region - per season - takes the gold. I also think Big Day totals by month might be nice too. Anything that give that extra incentive to stay at home. Game?

FOSP-1 WBNU-1 AMCR-2

AMGO-15 RBNU-1 PISI-10

HOFI-10 NOCA-2 Accipiter sp. -1

MODO-50 HEGU-1 EUST- 15

ATSP-15 RNPH-1 DOWO-2

DEJU-1 RBWO-1 BCCH-2

Northern Flicker

OK, since you guys appear unable to solve my word puzzles, I laid this one out bare. Just had a nice male at the suet, but he flew before I could get the photo. Hello second place!

The Brown Creeper is now daily in the yard, as are at least 2 Horned Larks calling from high overhead during much of the day. And hey- Hussey, Dorkstra, Booner, Swamp Kat and Fitz- where are your new yearbirds lately? GET OUTSIDE!

Savage Yardbirding

Looked out the bedroom window this morning with my 5x pocket scope and in amongst the Song and American Tree Sparrows was a bird who stood out as being shorter tailed and more contrastingly marked on the face, but in a flash it was gone when a SOSP attacked! Luck was with me though and I was able to confirm with the Big Bins (I like to call them Knockers) that it was a Savannah (savage) Sparrow and a new yard lifer! I also nabbed this digiscope and some digi-noc'd shots for everyone. Really a pretty good bird in the winter around here and not a nester here. If you look at Sibley's Range maps (not known for being all that accurate, but still) you'll see it shouldn't be here. But, there are usually a few around in the winter here in Ohio, the Slagermeister and I had a bunch down in southern OH a week ago. I went for a xC ski trip today and it was beautiful. In the next post I will post pics from the yard for you Ca-put, so you can read it and weep. Other highlights today were a flock of Gulls flying over with an obvious HEGU (No. 43) with the Ringers, Yellow-rumped Warbler(!), Carolina Wren, White-throated Sparrow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, and Eastern Bluebirds down by the creek. I was getting bummed too since I thought I'd never get a new yard bird, then bam, there it is, my shiny new "yard lifer". Good stuff with due warning. Good luck guys.

Prometheus thaddeus

24 and counting. Watch out Warndog... Thought I heard CEDW (25) but am not sure enough to count it. Literally all the resident species in the neighborhood are in full song despite the 14 degree temp.

new yard bird (not just year!)

So Mallards are a daily flyover at my place, there is a sewer pond behind the high school near my house that stays open in the winter. Well today a flock of Mallards went by and trailing them was a female Bufflehead! New one for my all time yard list- very exciting! So this is what happens when you don't hit the field on a Saturday and just stare out your window for hours on end.

My weasel has taken up residence under my recycling bin- too sweet!

I am rocking and rolling now

#23 flew over the house just now (3 individuals in fact). Anybody guess which species?

Slightly off-topic, but awesome

Perhaps the only president capable of holding his own on this blog, as he'd be ahead of some of us! (forwarding from NJ listserv):
Subject: T. Roosevelt's List of birds (White House Grounds)
From: Robert DeCandido PhD
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 08:28:45 -0500

From the White House Grounds (52 acres and 93 species) - birds seen 1901 to 1908. There were a couple of posts on this several months ago with the publication of a book about TR...found this in the interim. As an aside, there is an "official" White House pamphlet published in about 1908 on the birds seen by Pres. TR - I think that one has a few more species...but this article may have been the genesis of the idea. President Roosevelt's List of Birds Seen in the White House Grounds and About Washington During His Administration (1901-1908) WHEN Mr. Richard Kearton, the English ornithologist and author, brought his wonderful motion pictures of bird-life to this country, he came directly to Washington, and gave his first exhibition at the White House to a small company of invited guests. President Roosevelt seemed to enjoy the entertainment immensely, and when it was over he congratulated Mr. Kearton warmly. Then the two became the center of a distinguished group of outdoor men, including Ambassador Bryce, and they talked for an hour on a variety of subjects,�beginning with snakes and ending with nature-faking. It was when the party was breaking up that I had an opportunity to speak with the President, and I asked him if I might make, from a magazine article of his, a list of the birds he mentioned having seen about the White House. I explained that I wanted it for a new edition of the local bird book, 'Birds of Washington and Vicinity. "Why yes," he answered cordially. "But I'll do better for you than that. I'll make you a list of all the birds I can remember having seen since I have been here." Then he said I had better remind him, as he might forget it, and he told me how to address a note so that it would come directly to him, without risk of falling into a secretary's waste-basket. I wrote the reminder, and it shows the President's characteristic promptness that within twenty-four hours after mailing it I received this list of ninety-three birds in his own handwriting. Where an unusual name is given, I have added another in brackets. What a Bush Sparrow was I did not know and could not find out, so I wrote Mr. Roosevelt again, but not until after he had left Washington and was at Oyster Bay engrossed with preparations for his African trip. I hardly expected a reply, but some weeks later received a note from the Outlook office saying the writer had been instructed by Mr. Roosevelt, before his departure, to say that a Bush Sparrow is a Field Sparrow. � Lucy W. Maynard, Washington, D. C. * (Denotes a species seen on White House grounds) 1. Night Heron. Five spent winter of 1907 in swampy country about one-half mile west of Washington Monument. 2. Mourning Dove. 3. Quail. [Bobwhite] 4. Ruffed Grouse. One seen on Rock Creek. 5. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 6. Red-shouldered Hawk. 7.*Sparrow Hawk [American Kestrel]. A pair spent the last two winters on and around the White House grounds, feeding on the Sparrows�largely, thank Heaven, on the English Sparrows. 8.*Screech Owl. Steady resident on White House grounds. 9.*Saw-whet Owl. A pair spent several weeks by the south portico of the White House, 1905. 10. Kingfisher. 11.*Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 12. Hairy Woodpecker. 13.*Downy Woodpecker. 14.*Sapsucker [Yellow-bellied]. 15.*Red-headed Woodpecker. Nests (one pair) on White House grounds. 16.*Flicker. Nests (several pairs) on White House grounds. 17. Whip-poor-will. 18. Nighthawk. 19.*Chimney Swift. 20.*Hummingbird. 21. Kingbird. 22. Great Crested Flycatcher. 23. Phoebe. 24. Wood Pewee. 25. Horned Lark. 26.*Crow. 27.*Fish Crow. 28.*Orchard Oriole. One pair nested in White House grounds. 29. Bobolink. 30. Red-winged Blackbird. 31.*Baltimore Oriole. 32. Meadowlark. 33.*Purple Grackle. Nests on White House grounds. Very abundant in early spring. 34.*Purple Finch. 35.*Thistle Bird (Goldfinch). 36. Vesper Sparrow. 37.*White-throated Sparrow. Sings; this year sang now and then all through the winter. 38.*Tree Sparrow. 39.*Chippie (Chipping Sparrow). Nests. 40. Bush Sparrow (Field Sparrow). 41.*Snow Bird (Junco). 42.*Song Sparrow. Nests. 43.*Fox Sparrow. 44.*Cardinal. 45. Towhee. 46.*Indigo-bird. Nests. 47. Tanager. 48. Purple Martin. 49.*Barn Swallow. 50. Tree Swallow. 51. Bank Swallow. 52.*Cedar Bird. 53. Logger-head Shrike. 54.*Red-eyed Vireo. Nests. 55.*Warbling Vireo. Nests. 56.*Black and White Warbler. Nests. 57.*Blue Yellow-backed Warbler (Parula Warbler). 58.*Cape May Warbler. 59.*Summer Yellowbird (Yellow Warbler). Nests. 60.*Black-throated Blue Warbler. 61.*Black-throated Green Warbler. 62.*Myrtle Warbler. 63.*Magnolia Warbler. 64.*Chestnut-sided Warbler. 65.*Bay-breasted Warbler. 66.*Blackpoll Warbler. 67.*Blackburnian Warbler. 68. Prairie Warbler. 69. Oven-bird. 70. Water Thrush. 71. Kentucky Warbler. 72.*Yellowthroat. 73. Chat. 74.*Blue-winged Warbler. 75.*Canadian Warbler. 76.*Redstart. Nests on White House Grounds. 77. Pipit. 78. Mockingbird. 79.*Catbird. Nests on White House grounds. 80. Thrasher. 81. House Wren. 82.*Carolina Wren. 83. Marsh Wren. 84.*Brown Creeper. 85.*White-breasted Nuthatch. 86.*Tufted Tit. Nests on White House grounds. 87.*Chickadee. 88.*Golden-crowned Kinglet. 89.*Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 90. Gnatcatcher. 91.*Wood Thrush. Nests on White House grounds. 92.*Bluebird. 93.*Robin. Nests on White House grounds. (Doubtless this list is incomplete; I have seen others that I have forgotten.) Theodore Roosevelt. March 27, 1908. From: Bird Lore 12 (2) March-April, 1910: pages 53-55.

New Yard Specy (#34) & '10's sixth

Heading out the driveway this morning I had two DEJUs busting across the road and actually landing in one of those ornamental pines. Wow!

When I got to the office, had a new 'office bird'...an adult female SSHA affording superb looks. Don't worry chumps...I didn't add that to my yard list....geeze....

hola, amigos

#22 just now, while talking to Haastage and shoveling the driveway simultaneously- had it as a flyby over the house. See if any of you are sophisticated enough to pick up what species it was...

Yard Lifer! & a quiz bird

Wowey!

I just got myself a yard lifer- a puckish little Ermine just came bounding through the yard. This is actually the third species of mustelid I've had here at the Owl Ranch; the expected Striped Skunk is a regular, and a few years ago I had a Pine Martin pass through. Too cool!

Enjoy the yard corvid (you do know what that is right Boone?)