Bird-A-Day Challenge, Week 11: Stop, Look, and Listen
03/16/2012
Double-crested Cormorant. Credit: Hans Stieglitz/CC BY-SA 3.0
Another week has passed and there are still a few common birds left to count before I hit my goal of lasting 80 days in this year’s Bird-A-Day Challenge. Once again this game has offered a chance to do a few things that some of us seldom take the time to do. Stop, look, and listen. It’s that simple. Taking a spare moment from our busy lives to scan the landscape and listen to the subtle sounds all around. How many of us remember to do that daily? I know I don’t.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit it’s been several years since I went outside at dusk to listen for the peent of an American woodcock or the trill of a killdeer. “Too busy.” Spend a few hours hiking? “Maybe tomorrow.” Pay attention to what’s streaming by outside the window while in transit? “Darn, I was too distracted.” Listen to what’s singing in the trees? “I didn’t hear it—we were talking.”
This week I slowed down and noticed several birds I most certainly wouldn’t have seen or heard otherwise (see the updated Bird-A-Day list below). Next week I’m going to try to do the same. Maybe some of you already make this a top priority. How do you stay on track? And how long have you been a birdwatcher?
BIRD-A-DAY
LIST
January 2012
New Year’s Day: Red-Throated Loon
2nd: Greater Scaup
3rd:Common Merganser
4th: Black Duck
5th: Red-shouldered Hawk
6th: Canvasback
7th: Northern Gannet
8th:Lesser Scaup
9th: Red-bellied Woodpecker
10th: Brant
11th: Fish Crow
12th: Hooded Merganser
13th: Northern Harrier
14th: Pied-billed Grebe
15th: Bonaparte’s Gull
16th: Horned Grebe
17th: Common Goldeneye
18th: Dark-eyed Junco
19th: Common Raven
20th: Hairy Woodpecker
21st: Horned Lark
22nd: Snow Goose
23rd: Northern Mockingbird
24th: Black Vulture
25th: Great Cormorant
26th: House Finch
27th: White-Breasted Nuthatch
28th: Northern Shrike
29th: White-winged Scoter
30th: Turkey
31st: Bald Eagle
February
1st, Day 32: Golden-crowned Kinglet
2nd, Day 33: Northern Pintail
3rd, Day 34: White-throated Sparrow
4th, Day 35: Carolina Chickadee
5th, Day 36: Magnificent Frigatebird
6th, Day 37: Short-tailed Hawk
7th, Day 38: Reddish Egret
8th, Day 39: Roseate Spoonbill
9th, Day 40: White Pelican
10th, Day 41: White-winged Dove
11th, Day 42: Anhinga
12th, Day 43: Tundra Swan
13th, Day 44: Brown Creeper
14th, Day 45: Sharp-shinned Hawk
15th, Day 46: Gadwall
16th, Day 47: Bufflehead
17th, Day 48: Cardinal
18th, Day 49: Black Scoter
19th, Day 50: Fox Sparrow
20th, Day 51: Long-tailed Duck
21st, Day 52: Herring Gull
22nd, Day 53: Pileated Woodpecker
23rd, Day 54: Rufous Hummingbird
24th, Day 55: Blue Jay
25th, Day 56: Snowy Owl
26th, Day 57: American Tree Sparrow
27th, Day 58: Great Blue Heron
28th, Day 59: Common Grackle
29th, Day 60: Great Black-backed Gull
March
1st, Day 61: Ring-billed Gull
2nd, Day 62: Tufted Titmouse
3rd, Day 63: Common Loon
4th, Day 64: Mute Swan
5th, Day 65: Song Sparrow
6th, Day 66: Cooper’s Hawk
7th, Day 67: American Robin
8th, Day 68: Northern Flicker
9th, Day 69: American Woodcock
10th, Day 70: Killdeer
11th, Day 71: American Goldfinch
12th, Day 72: Red-winged Blackbird
13th, Day 73: Double-crested Cormorant
14th, Day 74: Downy Woodpecker
15th, Day 75: Red-Tailed Hawk
16th, Day 76:
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I have been addicted since I
I have been addicted since I got my new Sony Sure-shot camera. I go birding usually every weekend. I love the Skagit area in NW Washington, the birds change with the seasons. The snow geese and swans in the fall through early spring,and the beautiful raptors in January through March. Then the waterfowl come back. It is a treat. I love watching western grebes but don't see them very often.
I have been watching birds
I have been watching birds since I was a child. My mom had a field guide and I got used to looking up birds that would come to the feeder. I loved the bluebirds that didn't eat from the feeder but played in the bird bath. As an adult I have many more field guides, the photographs in one of my Stokes guides is my favorite. I live in Central Florida and consider myself lucky to see so many birds on a daily basis. Just in my subdivision we have some swampy retention areas that attract white ibis, glossy ibis, black bellied whistling ducks, night herons, egrets, blue herons, coots, gallinules..and a few otters, some turtles and a gator or two. The Black Bellied Whistling Ducks have a soft, pretty call that is instantly recognizable when I am in the house - they even come to my backyard bird feeder in a group of about 10+ to eat off the ground - I can not however get any songbirds to come to this feeder, except red winged blackbirds.
I kayak all over the state and get to see glimpses of shy ducks swimming around (if I am quiet enough). Seeing a Northern Shoveler at St Marks was a highlight..swimming around with them was a Green Winged Teal. My city parks have many species of ducks during migratory season, Redheads, Buffleheads, Ruddy ducks, wood ducks and Ring Necked ducks to name a few. A 30 minute walk around the lake and you can see all of these species plus white swans, mallards, black swans (I think the city brought them here), wood storks, ibis galore, white pelicans sometimes, limpkins and so many more I am probably forgetting. I take pictures of them and write in a journal sometimes but not always. Bird that is still on my list that I have not seen: Cedar Waxwing. I found a small, dead one in downtown Jacksonville on the lawn of a 14 story glass building, but I have never seen one alive in its habitat.
I've heard that in breeding
I've heard that in breeding season, cormorants gather in colonies and build nests out of sticks, twigs, feathers, grass, bark, and trash. They have been known to also include pebbles and parts of dead birds. Creepy ...