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!
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!
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!
I hope everyone had a great first day of the 2022 Great Backyard Bird Count!
We are off to a good start this weekend with our trip to Rye. The original plan was to just go to Odiorne Point State Park, but we actually went to 4 different locations. The main reason for the change in plans was the wind. It was relatively warm today (about 45 degrees…that’s pretty warm for us right now haha!) but the winds were at least 25+ miles per hour. 2022 is our son’s (“Baby Birder”) first GBBC, but we didn’t want him out in the wind too long, so we did multiple locations with shorter watching times. Besides it being his first count, we had another interesting first, plus it was a 3 merganser day.
Odiorne Point State Park
Of course gulls and sea ducks don’t care about the wind, so we spotted a few species. Surprisingly, we didn’t see any Common Eiders today. Since moving to New England we constantly see them, so it was kind of refreshing to see other ducks instead (nothing again CEs, but they were more of a novelty in NJ…).
10 Canada Geese
2 Common Goldeneye
8 Red-breasted Merganser
4 Ring-billed Gull
1 Common Loon
1 Blue Jay
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Northern Mockingbird
3 Eastern Bluebirds
Site Total: 9 species, 32 individuals
Northern Mockingbird trying to avoid the wind (Photo by BirdNation)
We had an interesting GBBC “first” today…a dead bird on the beach. It looks like an alcid. Our guess is that it’s a nonbreeding Common Murre, but it’s a little difficult to tell. Anyone have any guesses? (Let me know what you think in the comments). It obviously doesn’t count on our life list since it’s dead, but if it is a Murre at least we got a good look at it for when we see a live one. RIP little guy.
Mystery Alcid? (Photos by David Horowitz)
Coves south of Odiorne and Parsons Creek Saltmarsh
Since the winds were harsh and unforgiving it made sense that many birds were further inland. We spotted some birds in the coves south of Odiorne Point SP and at Parsons Creek Saltmarsh across from Wallis Sands Beach.
35 Canada Geese
36 Mallards
4 Hooded Mergansers
6 Ring-billed Gulls
1 American Crow
5 American Black Ducks
Site Total: 6 species, 87 individuals
Rye Harbor State Park
25 Surf Scoters
1 Long-tailed Duck
6 Ring-billed Gulls
10 Herring Gulls
Site Total: 4 species, 48 Individuals
Other Highlights
On our way to and from Rye we observed a few incidental species. We saw multiple Red-tailed Hawks, many groups of Rock Pigeons, and Common Mergansers. Therefore we saw all 3 North American merganser species today (Common, Red-breasted, and Hooded). This count was also special for me because like I mentioned earlier, it’s Baby Birder’s first bird count. He doesn’t notice most of the bird yet since he’s so little but I’m glad that he can join us. He loves going on adventures and especially loves sitting in his backpack carrier. It was windy, but he still had a smile on his face :-).
So between our incidental sightings and the 4 Rye locations, we saw a total of 18species. I’m looking forward to the next few days of the count.
Did you go birding on day 1 of the Great Backyard Bird Count? Tell me what yousaw in the comments!
Hi everyone! This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count!
It’s really fun and easy to participate. Go birding in any location for at least 15 minutes any time between Friday February 18th and Monday February 21. Count the birds you can identify and submit your results on eBird. The best part is you can go birding as much as you want!
I hope you can participate! I’m super excited about this year’s count because it’s Baby Birder’s first GBBC 😁. We’ll let you know what we find on our bird adventures! Happy birding!
BirdNation 