all four letter codes should conform to the latest ABA list located here:
http://listing.aba.org/aba-checklist/
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January!
The Year List resets, everything you see is new on a macro enough level to notice.
I started this year thinking about the first time I saw many of the birds I saw last year. In 2018 I ramped up my birding activity, getting eBird lists submitted every month, closing out some gray bars on some of favorite local places. I even did a sort of Big Day on my birthday!
I've already told a little bit about my adventures on New Year's day. I did have other sightings though, including some really good birds around Lake Morton.
A nemesis bird from last year was Green-winged Teal, One had been spotted on Lake Morton late in December, and a birding buddy said he thinks it's the same female that's been there over the last three years. On New Year's eve I went and tried to find it. No Joy. I did find other birds, but the GWTE was not one of them.
That changed New Year's Day! I found her hanging out on the southwestern side of the lake, looking all tiny in a group of domesticated "muddled ducks". Further around the lake, I found a couple of Blue-winged Teal, which was nice too. Those were the highlight birds of the day, but Q1 has given me many species at Lake Morton. American White Pelicans and Double-crested cormorants abundantly filled the lake in crazy numbers throughout the winter, especially for the DCCO. Immature AWPE persists so far this year. While fewer in number (usually between 3 and 9), they are on the west/northwest side of the lake, along the wall bordering the lake. Sometimes I see them on the east edge too. Some water birds have been conspicuously absent from the lake this winter, notably Northern Shoveler, and the BWTE have been sparse. Also, no Gadwalls near me. I've made up for it in Passerines though, adding Blue-headed vireo to the Lake Morton list, as well as spotting several in other places around town. One songbird I've noticed an uptick in observances (especially on my part) has been House finch. I've noticed a flock of 6+ birds running around downtown, and it seems to have broken up into pairs. I hear males singing almost daily, and several have been hanging around females, gathering bits of spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) for what seems to me to be nesting purposes.
Another goal I've had, especially since receiving a spotting scope from my parents for my birthday, is to find something besides a Laughing or Ring-billed gull on Lake Morton. Other reported gulls include Herring and Bonaparte's. So far, no dice. I've seen HERG at Lake Hollingsworth, but I've never seen a BOGU, not even at the beach.The search continues.
Migration is heating up locally. A Summer tanager, and pair of male Indigo buntings appeared on a recent morning foray to Holloway Park. Reports from Ft De Soto are amazing too. Check out the picture of the Chestnut-sided warbler Polk county Local Roberta Blair took on 4/16: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55061821
Another one of Polk Counties finest birders (and nature photographer) Ed Rizer also had some great pictures, but you have to go to facebook and find them.
I hope to hit the local patches again this weekend, we shall see.
I leave you with the following two photographs, both are of the same nest of Brown thrashers in my yard. I feel honored that this family is being raised here. There was a bit of a scare Tuesday with a Cooper's hawk, and there's the constant threat of neighborhood cats, but I hope these birds make it! Just look at how fast they grow!
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| April 15th |
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| April 13th |
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