Usually I go out New Year's morning to a wetland and start my year bird list out right, but this year, between work and getting back to running, it'll be a slower start. My #birdsof2023 list starts with a quick park walk this morning:
Short walk this morning, but two more for the sloooowly starting year list. Weird that either crows or robins or both will land outside of the first ten. They're everywhere, just not when I'm looking.
Another neighborhood walk, and this time I picked up three rare and elusive Northwest species. And me without my camera! Seriously though, all birds are good. Even starlings. Maybe especially starlings. I'll fight you over starlings.
Two short walks at two very different locations added a few species to this year's list. The highlight was seeing Song and Fox Sparrows nearly side by side - a rare opportunity and so helpful for similar species.
I had a chance this week to revisit one of my old haunts from before my last move: Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. What a place for geese, ducks, and songbirds, and very helpful for the year list.
Between farm upkeep and (a little) running, I've been putting a lot less of my outside time into birding this year than usual, but I have managed to slowly grow this year's list, mostly by accident. Sometime in the next few weeks I'll make an effort to get out with the binocs more intentionally. In every possible way today, go birds.
My first #GreatBackyardBirdCount of the weekend wasn't wildly diverse - 11 pretty expected species - but it all counts. One of the really useful functions of GBBC is seeing population trends in the most common birds. And I did get one new one for the year list that had somehow hidden from me until now.
The #GreatBackyardBirdCount continues. This morning, I spent an hour at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, picking up a decent list of birds, including 5 new for me for the year (Officially anyway. I'd seen kestrels before but not counted them in a list):
Probably my last birding of this year's #GreatBackyardBirdCount, a quick wetlands walk that produced four new species for the year for me. The highlight was a pair of Canvasbacks, which I generally only see a few times a year at most. And finally some butterbutts. Where have you been hiding?
Got out into the winter mix today, not far but enough to see a few birds. I was rewarded for my wet cold walk with a pair of new year birds, one I didn't expect to see or at least to identify in these conditions. I don't think of looking for swallows in snow here, but they do overlap.
I wasn't looking for birds today, but that's not how any of this works. Right down the street, clear as day and posing to be counted, my first sapsucker of the year. Hi, bird. As you were.
In addition to the plum flowers and tiny spood, today was a most auspicious bird day: my first vultures of 2023. No offense to the kinglet or the magnificent wood duck - all birds are good birds - but I'm a vulture fanboy. Vultures are the best.
Finally. So the odd thing about my year bird list is that there are some birds I see several times before they make it to a list, because I see them primarily from the road while driving. That is the case this year with the baldies. I saw probably ten over the winter, but didn't pull over to list them. Now they are officially on the year list, which is actually a huge relief. It was getting weird.
Speaking of turkeys, I realized I hadn't updated my year bird list in a while here. The first four of these are from clamming in Washington, the next two from sitting on my new back porch. Caspian tern is always a special one to see for the first time in a year, since I spent a good chunk of my twenties chasing them around the Northwest as my job. Glorious birds.
Moving is never fun, but the new place is just night and day better in a lot of ways, certainly including the birding. The first few days here have let me fill in a few I was missing from the winter and early spring.
Guess who (who-who who) was in my yard calling last night? Beautiful, powerful, fascinating birds. I'm always hesitant to positively ID owls, because I don't know many calls and rarely see them, but no question on this one.
Spring is definitely here in terms of birds. The adorblers are arriving, along with other early migrants. The bonanza will be in May, but it's starting for sure.
Warbler season is officially here. Had OC's and Wilson's (let's call them black-capped, #BirdNamesForBirds) in the yard this morning, chasing bugs around the flowering trees.
Spring birds keep arriving. Osprey have been here for a while, and I've spotted them while driving, but not where I could stop and list them. It was downright hot here yesterday, which I can't complain about too much after the wet, cool April we've had, but the sudden change was not welcome.
I've spent a fair amount of time on the coast this spring, but almost none of it birding. Mostly work, farm upkeep and this weekend, hiding from the heat. In addition to these four, I think I saw my first Pileated Woodpecker of the year, but I'm not sure enough to add it to the list.
Two new additions from the coast range today, including one I assumed I had already listed. Side note prompted by goldfinches: I hate bird common names with "lesser" almost as much as "least". Back in my biologist days I used to work with so-called Least Auklets, which aren't the least anything. They're the best. Not as important as changing the ones named after colonist dudes, but still.
I should know by now, that whenever I'm on the fence about fitting a walk into my day, I should always take the walk. I was feeling lazy and almost skipped this one, which would have been a shame. Three of my favorite migrant songbirds that I hadn't seen yet this spring, including one, the evening grosbeak, that I'll never take for granted, given how they've declined over the past ten years.
In terms of color, western tanagers are the closest thing we have in Oregon to a parrot. Just startlingly pretty. They're fairly common summer birds, but I'm still always stopped in my tracks when I see one for the first time each year. The thrush, which deserves a better name, was a nice treat too.