Today was the last day of the 2024 Great Backyard Bird Count. Day 4 is usually a quieter birding day for me since it’s on a Monday. I ended up going to Long Bridge Park, which is a place that I haven’t gone birding at too much. I did a trip there in December for the Christmas Bird Count and we had a pretty productive morning, but this afternoon was pretty quiet.
Long Bridge Park (10 species, 55 individuals)
5 Canada Geese
15 Mallards
1 Mourning Dove
1 Turkey Vulture
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Carolina Wrens
6 Dark-eyed Juncos
19 White-throated Sparrows
It was a really great count weekend. Overall, Team BirdNation saw 43 species. I’m looking forward to seeing the finally results from around the world!
A view of Rancocas Creek (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
Today was a chilly but lovely day, so we ended up birding at two parks for day 3. First my in-laws joined me for a hike at Boundary Creek Natural Resource Area. We saw 10 species, with highlights including Eastern Bluebirds and a pair of Northern Mockingbirds. There also was a beautiful male Northern Cardinal who posed for a picture.
A beautiful male Northern Cardinal (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
Boundary Creek Natural Resource Area (10 species, 66 individuals)
3 Canada Geese
24 Mallards
14 Ring-billed Gulls
12 Turkey Vultures
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Tufted Titmouse
2 Northern Mockingbirds
4 Eastern Bluebirds
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Northern Cardinal
After Boundary Creek I ended up going to Strawbridge Lake. There have been some Common Mergansers in the area, so I wanted to see if they were around today. I started noticing Common Mergansers at Strawbridge within in the past 5 years, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately they weren’t at the lake today but I did see some other species.
Strawbridge Lake (12 species, 38 individuals)
13 Canada Geese
4 Mallards
3 Mourning Doves
2 Ring-billed Gulls
2 Turkey Vulture
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 American Robins
4 House Sparrows
1 House Finch
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Northern Cardinal
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology released their “halftime report” today. At the time of writing this post, 7,373 species have been seen and over 191,000 checklists have been submitted from 192 countries. Last year’s species total was 7,538, so it would be amazing to see if that total could be beat this year.
Today we explored Palmyra Cove Nature Park for a little snow birding. Last night we ended up getting a few inches of snow and by mid-morning it already started melting! It seems like Palmyra got a little less snow than where I live, but it was nice to be out in the quiet of winter.
We were greeted by a number of songbirds right in the parking lot: a first-of-year Brown Creeper, White-throated Sparrows, a Northern Cardinal pair, a Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Juncos, and a Downy Woodpecker. A female Bufflehead at the beaver pond was a pleasant surprise as hundreds of gulls flew overhead. We even saw a mink! We ended our walk with 4 Cedar Waxwings near the visitor center. Overall we observed 17 species.
Palmyra Cove Nature Park (17 species, 314 individuals)
9 Canada Geese
2 Mallards
1 Bufflehead
1 Mourning Dove
60 Ring-billed Gulls
150 Herring Gulls
1 Turkey Vulture
3 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Hairy Woodpecker
5 Tufted Titmice
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Brown Creeper
3 Carolina Wrens
4 Cedar Waxwings
16 Dark-eyed Juncos
50 White-throated Sparrows
5 Northern Cardinals
Bufflehead female (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Angry Canada Geese (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
We are halfway through the count weekend and Team BirdNation has observed 36 different bird species and 2,412 individuals. Other fun finds the last two days were a mink, deer, and a backhoe. Let’s see what the second half of the weekend will bring.
Have you participated in the first two days of the bird count? Share some species you saw in the comments below.
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.
Gull Pond
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
Dunlin flock (Image by David Horowitz)Hooded Merganser male (Image by David Horowitz)
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!
A GBBC first…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.
This year, Mother’s Day and Global Big Day ended up being the same weekend. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you know that all I really want for Mother’s Day (actually most days haha) is to go birding. So yesterday we went to Pickering Ponds to look for new migrants. It was a lovely morning and we were able to observe 39 species.
Pickering Ponds Highlights
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks: We saw 5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak males singing. Males arrive at their breeding grounds before the females to establish their territories. I’ve only ever seen a single pair at a time, so it was fun to see so many males singing in one spot. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are considered socially monogamous and will stay together for the breeding season. Males will approach females while singing and may throw back their heads and spread their wings/tail. However, once a female decides on a mate the male usually rejects her for a day or two before accepting.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak male (Image by David Horowitz)
Broad-winged Hawk being mobbed by Red-winged Blackbirds
Lots of mating pairs:Baltimore Orioles, Fish Crows on a nest, Eastern Kingbirds, Eastern Bluebirds , Mourning Doves
A female Bufflehead: There weren’t many birds out on the ponds themselves, but a lone female Bufflehead was found swimming among some female Common Mergansers. It’s late in the season for Bufflehead to still be around, so she has been listed on the NH Rare Bird list.
Neotropical Migrants: Killdeer, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Eastern Phoebe, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Tree Swallow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, House Wren, Gray Catbird, American Robin, American Goldfinch
Other species: Hairy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal
Eastern Kingbird (Image by David Horowitz)
Did you get to go birding on May Global Big Day? What bird species did you see? Tell me about it in the comments!
Hi friends! The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is this weekend!
The 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count will take place from Thursday, February 17 to Monday, February 20. It’s so fun and easy to participate. Here’s how:
Go birding any time and as often as you want during the four day event. Go alone or bring family/friends! You can count from any location.
Try watching for at least 10 minutes and take note of everything you see and hear that you can identify.
Put your sightings on eBird. If you don’t have an eBird account it only takes a minute to set up. You can log all your past and future bird sightings when the count is over.
Enjoy!
This is a worldwide event, so there will be a lot of amazing bird sightings. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology will be updating the results of the count throughout the weekend on birdcount.org.
If you want to learn more about the GBBC and how to participate, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website here. Happy birding!
Happy World Migratory Bird Day! I hope you are able to get out and enjoy watching the birds today. The 2022 theme for World Migratory Bird Day is light pollution.
Many bird species migrate at night, so light pollution from populated areas disorients their navigation, disturbs their internal clocks, and cause numerous collisions every year. In the United States alone, 100 millions birds die annually from collisions with buildings. Building collisions can happen during the day too, but the lights at night add an extra threat by attracting birds to the area, in the same way that your porch light attracts moths.
A study published in the journal Nature in 2020 found that light pollution is starting to impact breeding habits of some birds species as well. The researchers analyzed how noise and light pollution impacted breeding success of 58,506 nests from 142 North American species. They found that light pollution leads species of open habitats such as grasslands to breed up to a month earlier and 18 days earlier in forested environments. In forested habitats noise pollution was more disruptive than for open habitat birds, causing some species to delay breeding. These changes in breeding habits can cause temporal mismatch which could lead to higher mortality rates due to weather events and difficulties finding food sources.
Bird Mortality from Collisions (Bishop, 2018)
According to the World Migratory Bird Day website, artificial light is increasing by 2% each year globally. While that may not seem that much, this increase is having adverse effects not only on birds, but other species including humans. There are 4 components to light pollution: glare (excessive uncomfortable brightness), clutter (bright confusing groupings), skyglow (brightening of the night sky in inhabited areas), and light trespassing (light in unwanted or not intended areas). According to the International Dark-Sky Association, 80% of the global population lives under skyglow and up to 99% of the public in Europe and the United States can’t experience natural night! Industrial civilization is the root cause of light pollution. Light pollution also affects melatonin production, discombobulates circadian rhythms, disrupts ecosystems, and increases energy consumption.
Lights Outs is a program created by the National Audubon Society to combat light pollution. The program encourages building managers and owners to turn off excess lighting during migration season to make it easier for birds to travel. Lights Out has found success in many cities throughout the United States and is becoming more popular over time. Individuals can participate in Lights Out events too.
So what can be done to help birds and reduce light pollution? Here are some simple steps you can take:
Turn off unnecessary lights. Only use lighting if needed.
Set lights on a timer or motion detector
Keep blinds closed to keep light inside.
Participate in citizen science projects to measure light pollution such as Globe at Night , Cities at Night, or track on your smartphone using apps such as The Dark Sky Meter app. Check out the “Measuring Light Pollution” page at The Dark-Sky Association website for more information to get involved.
Tomorrow, 5/14/2022 is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) and Global Big Day (GBD). The purpose of World Migratory Bird Day is to raise awareness about the ecological role migratory birds play, the threats they face, and the importance of conserving birds and their habitats. International cooperation in conserving habitats birds depend on is another goal of WMBD. This year’s WMBD is light pollution. Check out the World Migratory Bird Day website for more info.
May 14 is also Global Big Day. Created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Global Big Day is an event that encourages everyone to go out and count birds. The goal is to count as many birds as possible in one day. Participating is easy! Count as many birds as you can for as long as you want from anywhere and add your observations on eBird. Scientists use the data you submit to track where birds are during their spring migration. You can learn more information at the eBird website.
Last year, 4 new birding records were set on Global Big Day:
Most birders participating in one day (51, 816 people)
Most countries participating in one day (192 countries)
highest number of species and eBird checklists in a single day (7,234 species and 133,887 checklists submitted)
1 billion bird observations reported on eBird
I can’t wait to see what 2022 brings! We will be doing some birding in the morning, so I will let you know how it goes. If you are on social media make sure to use the hashtags #GlobalBigDay, #WMBD2022, and #WorldMigratoryBirdDay to check out updates around the world in real time. Happy birding!
Are you participating in GBD/WMBD tomorrow? Tell me about your experience in the comments!
Day 3 is complete. I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing for day 3 initially, but we did get a little birding in today. We were our running errands and had lunch at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford. There’s a parking lot that faces the Souhegan River so we observed from the car since the highs for today were only in the 20s. Despite it being sunny and seemingly nicer weather than days 1 and 2, it was pretty quiet.
Keyes Memorial Park, Milford
2 Blue Jays
1 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Rock Pigeons
Site Total: 3 species, 5 individuals
We did see a few other species in different locations:
2 Red-tailed Hawks
6 American Crows
1 Common Raven
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Northern Mockingbird
So overall we saw 8 species today. It was probably one of the least active Great Backyard Bird Count days for us but that’s ok. I feel like today demonstrated one of the main purposes of the count: to know which birds are around and which birds aren’t.
Yesterday when it started snowing during our walk around Mine Falls my husband said, “Why do they even do this count in February? It’s such a bad time to do it and it’s too cold.” February seems like a strange time, but there’s a purpose for this particular time of year. Scientists want to know where the birds are (and aren’t) before spring migration begins in early March. And it’s just as important to know what birds you’re not seeing in an area. So having days where we don’t see much (or any birds at all!) can be a good thing and still helpful to science. Over time we can see if there’s consistently few birds in a specific area or if it changes from year to year. I’m just glad to have gone birding at all to be honest 😁.
Tomorrow is the last day of the 2022 GBBC! There’s still time to get some more counts in or start if you haven’t had time to count yet. I’ll keep you updated on what tomorrow brings. Happy birding!
Today turned out a little differently than I expected, but we were still able to take a walk at Mine Falls Park. It was in the mid-30s and cloudy. Shortly after the start of our walk it started to lightly snow. Not too many species out today, but we saw a few. Later in the day we ended up having some intense snow squalls, so I’m glad the snow was light while birding.
Mine Falls Park, Nashua
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Blue Jay
1 Common Merganser
30 European Starlings
26 Rock Pigeons
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
Site Total: 6 species, 60 individuals
Other species we saw today while out and about included Mallards, a Mourning Dove, and a Black-capped Chickadee, bring our total species count of the day to 9.
I’m not sure what the rest of our weekend will bring, but it might be some backyard birding for me. I just checked the eBird website and worldwide 6,016 species have been reported so far. That’s over half of the world’s bird species in 2 days! I wonder how many we’ll reach through Monday.
How is everyone’s bird count going so far? Did you see anything interesting? Tell me about it in the comments!
BirdNation 