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January 1, 2010

Last of 2009 and First of 2010

Last night while driving to Sioux City I saw an owl fly over the road in the fading light. I watched it as it coursed over the farm fields out of sight and finally identified it as a Short-eared Owl. This bird was the last one I saw in 2009. I usually don't keep track of the last bird but I couldn't help but notice this one.

The first birds of 2010 were nowhere near as eventful as the last bird of 2009 was. The first three birds I saw were as follows-Rock Pigeon, House Sparrow, and European Starling! Talk about a bummer. Too bad a Varied Thrush wasn't around :-)

I took a short trip to the creek near my house this afternoon and saw some better birds than the ones mentioned in the paragraph above. A good number of hardy Mourning Doves were flying around a cattle farm along with the usual Eurasian-collared Doves. As I was watching the doves a Cooper's Hawk sure got things stirred up.

I am going on a Christmas Bird Count tomorrow and can't wait to see what shows up there. I am going to have to dress warmly since the low tonight is going to be -23 degrees farenheit and it is only going to "warm up" to -3 for the high!

3 comments:

Chris Petrak said...

Waiting to hear your report of CBC - and congrats on doing it - tough conditions, but that makes for champion birders!

Essa Adams said...

You have some really great shots. The jay yours too? Lovely. I did the CBC a few times and twice as a journalist, was wonderful. Next year I will volunteer to count from my window, three feeders around yard to keep me busy. Enjoyed your blog and followed. Essa

Jo-Anne said...

Hi Tucker. Happy New Year 2010!

Sorry for this long overdue posting ... I just returned from Nassau, Bahamas. Incredible birding!!!!!!! Tropical birds everywhere plus the male Bahama Woodstar hummingbirds, Bananaquit, etc. are absolutely gorgeous! Also saw butterflies, dragonflies, fish (eg. Houndfish), lizards (green and small brown), etc. Could go on and on about this vacation. :D

Coming up soon it's The Great Backyard Bird Count from Feb. 12-15. Can't wait! Check it out:

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

I will be participating all 4 days. The minimum requirement is 15 minutes out of one day - good grief, that's not even a warmup for a true birder. Ha Ha!

Take care.

:)