Winter Outdoor Hour, #7 lines up perfectly with the Great Backyard Bird Count. By now, you know we are serious about our birding.
Here is the journal for our first day. We had several great snippets of time for birding. As a good blogger, I know I should have pics, but when you are keeping up with 4 children, binoculars, 2 bird books, an Identiflier and a newbie-bird watching dad, the camera gets lost under the suburban seat!
At 7:30AM Gracie-Girl and I snuck out for a walk around our neighborhood. Here is our tally:
- 3 Crows
- 1 Mourning Dove
- 3 Cardinals
- 15 Robins
- 3 Blue jays
- 2 Eastern Bluebirds
- 3 Morning Doves
- 120 Sand Hill Cranes
- 10 Starlings
- 200 Grackles (!)
- 1 Turkey Vulture
- 6 Horned Larks (A NEW BIRD FOR OUR LIFE LIST!!!!)
- 1 Chickadee
- 2 Pine Sisken
- 1 Tufted Titmouse
- 6 Goldfinches
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| Well, here ya go, and look how cute Gracie-Girl looks in her new glasses. |
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| The fam let me open my Birthday present 2 days early so I could open my new BINOCULARS!!! They worked great at this Sandhill Crane Refuge. |
We actually saw all the same birds, but added
- Great Horned Owl
- Brown-Headed Nuthatch (new for the LIFE LIST!)
- Purple Finch (new for the LIFE LIST!)
Click here to see other OHC. Click here to learn more about Tweet and See!
Heather
Wow, what a good list! I have no pix either. I was dragging along cause I don't feel well but we still saw A LOT of birds. I think I'll go do a post like this on B4L. Check that grouping of grackles again tomorrow if you can. We have swarms of them around here, too, and there are always 100's of red-winged blackbirds and starlings mixed in with them. The first year they came through, it completely freaked me out. It was like the old Hitchcock film, The Birds!
ReplyDelete200 grackles? Who counted that? :-) We did participate in the GBBC on yesterday for the first time. I will post my list later. Things are a little busy at the moment here. So far today I have only seen one bird and will keep looking to see if any more visit us on this day.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what you would see! Great list and so many birds....congrats!
ReplyDeleteWe have just been watching out our windows since we had snow!
The most exciting thing we saw was a flock of mixed robins and cedar waxwings that came through yesterday right when we were counting! 57 cedar waxwings in our trees....what an amazing gift to see!
I will post later with our complete list.
i love all the birds you saw. we have some good binoculars. i'll have to make sure to bring them with us next time, along with our book for instant information! great birding!
ReplyDeleteYour binocs look great. Great look of surprise, too! I love how Little Man is looking at you, so sweet, and yes, Gracie Girl looks lovely in her new glasses. Have fun with those binocs!
ReplyDeleteHurray for new binoculars! My binoculars helped me identify a Blue Jay, high in a treetop, for the GBBC and our Backyard Bird Log. I never would have known which species he was without them. What kind of binoculars did your wonderful family bless you with?
ReplyDeleteI got Bushnell 8x42s, from Amazon. They are from the Nature series, and I was able to get them for around $100, which is about $75 off retail. I am really excited about the harness I got to go with them so you don't have to carry them around your neck. It actually goes on your back and around your arms. I will take a photo when I am done with the stomach virus, and on my b-day, too:(
ReplyDeleteWow! You have GREAT lists! I have to say that our lists are a bit, well, boring: Blue Jays, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, and Mourning Doves...every day, just slightly different numbers. We even bought several varieties of bird see for our feeders to hopefully attract a new species. (It'll be fun to see the spring migration and hopefully new birds.)
ReplyDeleteJessy
What a lovely, enthusiastic post. I love your list and your photos are sweet.
ReplyDelete