Hi everyone! It’s time for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)! This annual event takes place this weekend from February 16-19. It’s easy to participate, so check out https://www.birdcount.org/ to join the fun!
Today Dave, Baby Birder, and I made our way out to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for the first day of the count. It was a fairly chilly and windy morning. As expected there was waterfowl galore and lots of gulls. We observed 27 species. Highlights included a Northern Harrier, two Bald Eagles, and a large amount of Gadwalls.
Edwin B. Forsythe NWR (27 species, 2098 individuals)
- 450 Snow Geese
- 70 Brant
- 255 Canada Geese
- 9 Tundra Swans
- 200 Northern Shovelers
- 160 Gadwall
- 24 Mallards
- 150 American Black Ducks
- 60 Northern Pintails
- 7 Green-winged Teals
- 35 Bufflehead
- 14 Hooded Mergansers
- 55 Ruddy Duck
- 470 Dunlin
- 8 Ring-billed Gulls
- 87 Herring Gulls
- 2 Double-crested Cormorants
- 2 Great Egrets
- 7 Great Blue Herons
- 9 Turkey Vultures
- 1 Northern Harrier
- 2 Bald Eagles
- 11 American Crows
- 1 Carolina Wren
- 3 Dark-eyed Juncos
- 1 Common Grackle
- 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers
We had an unexpected surprise on the wildlife drive today. Baby Birder, being well into toddlerhood now, isn’t super into birding. He likes birds just fine and is fairly familiar with ducks, geese, and eagles (my favorite was when he saw a Wild Turkey and called it a “duck-eagle” 😂). However, his true passion (obsession lol) is vehicles, so while he likes to see the birds his favorite part of visiting Forsythe is the other vehicles on the wildlife drive. And special for bird count weekend we had…a backhoe!
He was quite thrilled to see a backhoe laying gravel out on the road today, so we all had a lovely morning for GBBC Day 1. It’s supposed to snow 2-5 inches tonight into tomorrow so we’ll see what happens for Day 2.
BirdNation 
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