We’ve had a lot of wonderful avian visitors to our yard this spring. Dave set up a new feeding station since we suspect that our old one was knocked down by a bear and it’s been quite a hit. There are also now two bluebird boxes in the field so this year we have an Eastern Bluebird pair! Many of our yearly visitors have returned, including the Chipping Sparrows, Gray Catbird pair, American Robin pair, Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Broad-winged Hawk, and the Red-eyed Vireo. Our Northern Cardinal and Pileated Woodpecker pairs have also been making frequent appearances.
Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Yellow-bellied Sapsucker breeding male (Image by David Horowitz)Chipping Sparrow (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
What kind of birds have been visiting your yard/area this spring? Let me know in the comments!
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!
Hello friends! I’m here writing you at 8:50 pm on 12/31/19, the end of the year and the decade. I can’t believe 2020 is already upon us. 2019 was a very exciting birding year for us and 2020 is going to be just as, if not more, amazing! My New Year’s Resolution is to get back to blogging frequently again because to be honest, 2019 was a little rough to stay on task. At the end of June Dave and I moved from New Jersey to New Hampshire and its been quite an adventure. Here are BirdNation’s 2019 highlights.
Life List Birds (19 for me, 17 for Dave)
Razorbill: 1/6 at Sandy Hook Beach, NJ (on our 1st wedding anniversary)
Scarlet Tanager: 5/8 at Maria B. Greenwald Park, Cherry Hill, NJ
Eastern Meadowlark: 6/19 at Chincoteague NWR, VA
Eastern Meadowlark (Image by David Horowitz)
Bobolink: 7/28 at Parker River NWR, Newbury, MA
Common Nighthawk: 8/30 at Moores Crossing Railroad Bridge, Manchester, NH
Nashville Warbler: 9/1 at Miller SP-Pack Monadnock, Peterborough, NH
Black Guillemot: 11/10 at Odiorne SP, Rye, NH
American Tree Sparrow: 12/15 at Concord, NH (Dave wasn’t there for this one either, I saw this in the Concord Christmas Bird Count)
Virginia Rail: 12/26 at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR
My current life list total is 227.
Year List 2019
This is the 2nd year I kept a Year List. 2019’s total was 189, 14 more birds than 2018 (175). The Year List will continue into 2020.
Bird Counts
We participated in many bird counts this year:
Great Backyard Bird Count: We counted at Amico Island , Haddon Lake Park, Palmyra Cove, Barnegat Lighthouse SP, Cloverdale Farm, and then Haddon Lake again (lol) to find 52 different species and over 1,500 individual birds
Global Big Day (May 4): 55 species (11 of them warblers) between Rancocas Nature Center and Palmyra Cove
2019 Great American Arctic Birding Challenge (March 15-June 1): It was Team BirdNation’s 2nd year participating and we saw 56 species
October Big Day (October 19): 20 species in Cape Cod, MA
Concord Christmas Bird Count (December 15): I participated in the Concord CBC. Last year I did the Moorestown, NJ count with my friends from Rancocas, but I wanted to start getting involved in the New Hampshire birding community. I had a blast being on the team and we totaled 51 species at the time (not including a count we were waiting on from 1 person and count week birds).
Birding States
We went birding in 2 new states in 2019: New Hampshire (where we moved to) and Maine, bringing our total to 11 birding states. Other states we visited this year were Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Onward to 2020…
I’m so excited to start our birding adventures in 2020! There are some pretty cool opportunities coming up, so I will keep you posted on all our new expeditions (and I will catch you up on some of the events of the past few months.) Happy New Year! See you in 2020!
At the beginning of April, Dave and I traveled to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. We are moving to New Hampshire in June due to Dave’s new job, so our primary purpose of the trip was to find an apartment. But you know us! Can’t travel anywhere without birding :-).
Mine Falls Park, Nashua, NH
Mine Falls Park is a 325-acre urban park located along the Nashua River. Mine Falls Park offers over 9 miles of trails and is part of the New Hampshire Heritage Trail System. Habitats include forest, fields, and wetlands. We explored the only side of the park by walking down the Nashua Power Canal towards Oxbow Lake. We observed 24 birds species and a muskrat. I definitely plan on making Mine Falls Park one of my regular birding spots once we move.
Highlights:
Pileated Woopeckers: We observed 2 Pileated Woodpeckers within the first 10 minutes of being in New Hampshire. (Pileateds are one of my favorite birds, so I knew 2 right away were a good sign lol)
Other woodpeckers: Hairy, Downy, Red-bellied
Large flock of Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds
Pileated Woodpecker female (Image by BirdNation)
Hairy Woodpecker (Image by BirdNation)
Greeley Park, Nashua, NH
Greeley Park is more of a recreational park than it is a birding park. There are trails as well as large stands of pine trees. We observed 11 species during our walk.
Highlights
Quiet! It’s not often I stand in a park that’s next to a neighborhood in the middle of a city and hear…silence. Come to think of it, I don’t think I can go anywhere in New Jersey and just hear silence (as in just nature sounds without man-made ones). NH is definitely not NJ. I can get used to less noise!
White-breasted Nuthatches and Black-capped Chickadees
Hampton Beach State Park, Hampton, NH
Hampton Beach SP is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Hampton Harbor Inlet. We spent some time sea watching by the inlet.
Highlights:
Horned Larks. There was a flock of about 10. We’ve only seen one Horned Lark so far; a juvenile at Laurel Run Park in Delran, NJ. It was a great surprise to see adults.
Common Loons and Common Eiders
Eastern Mud Snails
Red Wing Farm Reservation, Chelmsford, MA
Red Wing Farm is a small park comprised of meadow and forest habitat. This park connects with the 25-mile Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.
Highlights:
Bald Eagle and Red-tailed Hawk
Spring Peepers along the rail trail
Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury Unit and Concord Unit, MA
Great Meadows is 3,800 acres and runs along the Concord and Sudbury Rivers. We briefly visited both the Sudbury and Concord units and observed a variety of spring migrants.
Highlights
Lots of spring sounds: Spring Peepers and other frogs, Eastern Phoebes, Red-winged Blackbirds, Black-capped Chickadees, and others
A muskrat and turtles
Painted Turtle (Image by BirdNation)
Singing Red-winged Blackbird male (Image by BirdNation)
BirdNation 