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!
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.
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!
Winter is my favorite birding season. A common misconception is that nothing is really around in winter, but that couldn’t be more wrong! You can find a large variety of species around if you know where to look. Dave and I had a great winter bird-wise.
A New Challenge
I was inspired to try the eBird 365 checklist challenge for 2019. The grand prize for three lucky eBirders is a pair of Zeiss binocular, so I figured I would go for it. Even if I don’t get the binoculars, I’m still contributing valuable data to scientists, so it’s a win-win. So far I’ve submitted 86 checklists (as of writing this there’s been 84 days in 2019), so I’m two lists ahead. Off to a good start!
Year List 2019
This is my second year keeping a year list. We recorded 81 species from January 1- March 20 2018. This year we beat that record with 85 species. We did have some interesting life list rarities this season, so I’m thinking those rarities put us ahead of last year.
Life List Additions
January 6: Razorbills! Seen at Sandy Hook, NJ.New Jersey had a large influx of Razorbills off the coast this year, with numbers in the thousands over a few weeks.
March 1: Northern Saw-whet Owl and Winter Wren at Palmyra Cove. I think the Saw-whet was my favorite 2019 life list bird so far. It was so cute!
Northern Saw-whet Owl (Image by David Horowitz)
March 13th: American Woodcockdisplays at Rancocas Nature Center.
March 17: Red-necked Grebe in a pond near the mall in Toms River.
Red-necked Grebe (Image by BirdNation)
Great Backyard Bird Count
For this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count, we counted 52 different species (over 1,500 individuals) at 6 birding locations. We beat our 2018 count by 19 species.
2019 Great American Arctic Birding Challenge
Team BirdNation is participating again in the Great American Arctic Birding Challenge run by Alaska Audubon. In 2018 our team found 62 species on the checklist between March 1- June 1. This year, the Challenge occurs between March 15-June 1. The Challenge is open to anyone, so get a team together and start birding!
Moving forward…
Spring has already been off to a good start. Spring migrants, such as Ospreys, Tree Swallows, and American Oystercatchers have returned to New Jersey. Dave and I have very exciting news coming in the next month or so. I can’t tell you yet, but you’ll know soon enough! (And no…everyone automatically assumes kids, but that’s not the case at the moment lol). In the meantime, happy spring birding!
What was your favorite winter birding moment? Tell us about it in the comments!
January 6th is a special day for me. On 1/6/17 I saw my first rare bird, the American White Pelican, with my mom and sister in Tuckerton, NJ. 1/6/18, Dave and I got married!
American White Pelican (Image by BirdNation)
wedding photo (Image by BirdNation)
January 6th continues to be as special day because in 2019, it’s the day of the Razorbills!
Dave and I decided that we wanted to spend our 1st wedding anniversary birding at a new location. Sandy Hook is an area that I’ve wanted to explore for a while, so we decided that it would be the perfect time. Sandy Hook is a barrier island peninsula and the northern tip of the New Jersey Shore. You can see the Manhattan Skyline across the ocean. Sandy Hook is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, run by the National Park Service.
I heard through my NJ birders groups that there were some Razorbill sightings, so I was hoping we would spot a few. However, whether or not we found Razorbills, Sandy Hook always has interesting sightings.
We started our adventure at Lot A and B Beaches. Black Scoters, Surf Scoters, and Long-tailed Ducks surfed the waves. A few Northern Gannets flew by. We spent about 10 minutes watching the flocks fly by when we spotted our first Razorbills. Razorbills look like little black-and-white jet planes in flight. They fly low to the water in lines and individuals usually rock side-to-side out of sync with their flockmates. The Razorbills were our first life list birds of the year.
Lot C Beach brought us some more Razorbills, Red-breasted Mergansers, Long-tailed Ducks, Black Scoters, a variety of gulls, Northern Gannets, and Common Loons (as well as a nice view of the Manhattan Skyline).
Common Loon (Image by BirdNation)
The other side of the peninsula runs along Sandy Hook Bay and Spermaceti Cove. You get a pretty view of the Atlantic Highlands as you walk across the beach. According to Sandy Hook’s website, the Highlands are the highest point on the eastern seaboard. We observed a group of adult and juvenile Mute Swans, American Black Ducks, Brant, Canada Geese, and many gulls.
Mute Swan Goslings (Image by BirdNation)
We also had the opportunity to see a colony of Atlantic Harbor Seals relaxing on a sandbar. It was fun watching them frolic in the water and spend some time sunning. (Speaking of seals, we had a cool seal experience in Cape Cod, MA last summer!)
Sandy Hook Seals (Image by David Horowitz)
Before leaving, we spent time exploring some of the historical sites and the lighthouse. I definitely plan on birding again at Sandy Hook.
We are almost 3 days into spring and so far it seems like winter just does not want to let go. Here in New Jersey we’ve been hit with another nor’easter (or “Four-easter” as the news has been calling it). The last two days have been snow days for me, which of course I appreciate, but I really just want it to feel like spring.
Spring “Winter” Weather (Image by BirdNation)
All this winter weather has given me time to reflect on my winter birding this year. I’d have to say that this is probably my most successful birding winter to date. In January I started a “Year List”, where I write down each species I see for the first time in 2018. From January 1st to March 8th I have observed 81different species. A lot of people don’t realize that there are still a lot birds around in the winter (especially waterfowl), but even I didn’t realize how many there actually were! 5 of these 81 species were life list birds for Dave and I. Here are some of our 2018 winter birding highlights:
2 Snowies at the Brigantine Unit of Forsythe on February 25 when our camera died (so just bad cell phones pics of them).
1 this past Sunday, March 18. It’s probably one of the same Snowies from February, but this time our camera worked! Dave a got a pretty decent shot for how far out the bird was.
Snowy Owl 12/24/17 (Image by David Horowitz)
Snowy Owl 3/18/18 (Image by David Horowitz)
This year’s Snowy Mega Irruption certainly treated us well. I feel so lucky to have seen so many Snowies in one season!
In my past life (the non-birding one lol), I used to hate winter. In my new awesome birding life, winters are the best! So many cool birds to see, you just need to get on your cold weather gear and find them.
Now that spring has arrived (“supposedly” ha), I’m looking forward to seeing home many species I add to my year list.
What are some of your favorite winter birding moments of 2018? Tell me about them in the comments.
2018 is was our 4th year of participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count. What an interesting weekend it was!
Unfortunately, Day 1 (2/16) ended up being a washout. It was a miserable, dark, rainy day. Here is what we saw on Day 1 last year.
Thankfully the Sun made an appearance for a little while on Day 2 (2/17) . The temperature was around 40, so we ended up birding at two lakes. First up was Smithville Lake in Eastampton.
Every January/February we end up seeing Common Mergansers at Smithville Lake. I was hoping to see them again, but they weren’t around. It was pretty quiet, but we did see a few species. In total we saw 7 species and 22 individual birds. They were:
Our second stop was Haddon Lake Park in Mt. Ephraim. Upon arriving at the park, we were greeted by the leader of the welcoming committee:
Canada Goose (Image by BirdNation)
Clearly he wanted food, but I certainly wasn’t going to feed him (Quick PSA: don’t feed the waterfowl!). We continued on our way to find more Canada Geese, Mallards, and Ring-billed Gulls. We also spotted some of the “strange ducks”, like the hybrid below, who seems to be a mix of a Mallard and one of the white domestic ducks.
Mr. Mallard (Image by BirdNation)
Ring-billed Gull (Image by BirdNation)
Hybrid Duck (Image by BirdNation)
Haddon Lake is a GBBC tradition for us. Now that we’ve been participating for multiple years, we can compare what we’ve observed this year to the past. Two species that we saw this year for the count but not past years were the Northern Mockingbird and Double-crested Cormorant. We had the opportunity to watch the cormorant climb out of the water and dry its wings off for a few minutes. Surprisingly, for a bird who’s livelihood is diving for fish, the Double-crested Cormorant’s feathers are not waterproof. Therefore, you’ll commonly see these birds fanning out their wings to dry. I took a video the cormorant preening.
Northern Mockingbird (Image by BirdNation)
Double-crested Cormorant (Image by BirdNation)
We weren’t the only ones taking a stroll around the lake. It turns out that we were being followed around the whole lake by…
Canada Goose follower (Image by BirdNation)
The Canada Goose from the welcoming committee. It was the first time I’ve had a Canada Goose participate in my bird count walk haha! :-p
Haddon Lake Park count (8 species, 233 individuals):
130 Canada Geese
90 Mallards
1 Double-crested Cormorant
7 Ring-billed Gulls
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Northern Mockingbird
1 Song Sparrow
1 Common Grackle
Overall our total count for Day 2 was 14 different species and 255 individual birds. Check our what we saw on Day 2 last year here).
Today Dave and I took a trip to Amico Island. It was only 30 degrees, but we ended up seeing 14 species, including a new life list bird.
We spotted Golden-crowned Kinglets as soon as we got out of the car. There were at least two of them swiftly jumping from branch to branch. These cute little birds are extremely agile while gleaning the branches for food. They sport a golden yellow crest surrounded by black stripes. It’s no surprise that we found these kinglets in the freezing weather: they can survive -40 degree nights!
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Image by David Horowitz)
There weren’t only kinglets when we arrived at the park. On a nearby tree was a Brown Creeper. The tiny Brown Creeper happened to be on the largest tree in the area. Brown Creepers are very hard to spot because they blend in perfectly with the tree bark. Unlike White-breasted Nuthatches, who climb both up and down tree trunks, Brown Creepers only climb up the tree. Once it reaches the top, a creeper will fly back down to the base in order to ascend again. Brown Creepers actually hop up the tree using their curved sharp claws and tail to help keep them stable.
Brown Creeper (Image by David Horowitz)
For the first part of the hike we took the blue trail through the woods. Along the way we saw more creepers, kinglets, a Tufted Titmouse, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a Downy Woodpecker, and some Carolina Wrens. The Carolina Wren pictured below was doing an interesting little back-and-forth dance while chattering. I’m guessing it was a female since female Carolinas are the ones that chatter.
Carolina Wren (Image by BirdNation)
We spent the second part of the walk near where Rancocas Creek and the Delaware River meet. The creek was really frozen, but parts of the river were starting to melt. It was really cool hearing the sounds of the cracking and melting ice while we looked for birds. Along the way we spotted two Great Blue Herons, a Bald Eagle, tons of Ring-billed Gulls, a Bufflehead, some Canada Geese, and Common Mergansers.
Not far from the mergansers was a dark diving duck. It had a distinct white patch towards the rear of its body. Another one soon arrived, and this duck had a white patch near the bill. The heads of these ducks were more of a triangular shape, and the newly arrived bird had a large white section. We got our moment of confirmation when these ducks flew away: a bright gold eye. Our first life bird of the year were a small group of Common Goldeneyes. The picture below isn’t that great (they were really far), but it was able to help us with id.
Common Goldeneyes (Image by BirdNation)
It was cold, but at the same time refreshing to be out with the waterfowl in the crisp air. Although it was a pretty drab-looking day, we came out golden with our kinglets and goldeneyes :-).
Hello friends! We are 14 days into 2018 and it’s been pretty eventful so far…
Last year on January 6th, 2017, I saw one of my first real rare birds: an American White Pelican. Remember Mr. Pelican? It was a pretty special day.
This year, on January 6th, 2018 something else extremely special happened…
Dave and I got married!
Of course birds were part of the celebration. See the birds on my dress and the feathers in my hair? Dave’s mom was also nice enough to frame some of our best bird photographs and have them displayed throughout the reception room. I already considered Dave my lifelong birding partner, but I’m so happy it’s finally official!
Our wedding also happened to be on one of coldest day of the year/winter so far. I believe the forecast was a high of 13 with a windchill of -2. That’s the kind of weather we’ve been dealing with since the end of December here in New Jersey. So between the weather, our wedding, and generally craziness we haven’t had much opportunity to go birding.
Today, January 14, was our first birding trip of the year. We went to Forsythe NWR. It was 26 degrees, so most of the pools and parts of the ocean areas were frozen over. We only saw 11 species, but I think it’s pretty cool to see what the refuge looks like when its that cold. Species observed were: American Black Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, Herring Gulls, an American Crow, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Mallards, Canada Geese, a Northern Harrier, Mute Swans, and Tundra Swans.
American Black Duck (Image by David Horowitz)
Bufflehead (Image by David Horowitz)
Hooded Merganser (Image by David Horowitz)
Although we only saw 11 species on today’s trip, I’ve seen 31 species so far this year. This is the first year that I decided to keep a Year List. To be honest, I’m kind of bad at keeping lists, so we’ll see how I do. I wanted to try it though. Some days I get too busy with the really mundane things in life (like work lol), so I thought a Year List might help me stay connected with birds when I’m not able to spend time in the field. My first bird of 2018 was the Mourning Dove, which I feel is a nice start.
Question: if I did a feature at the end of each month about some of the new birds I added to my Year List that month, would that be interesting to read? Let me know in the comments. I’d like your opinion!
That’s where we are at so far. Waterfowl Wednesday will return next week (it’s been a bit of a crazy week!). Hope your year started off well. More to come very soon!
BirdNation 