Saturday, January 26, 2008

Bird Crazy

I'm getting a little bit excited about the fact that I'm heading to Mexico in about 10 days to go birdwatching with my bird crazy oldest brother and friends. Flying to Tucson and then driving south through Sonora to Hermosillo and on to the Sea of Cortez and then up into the Sierra Madres to the town of Alamos. I'll be sure to post after I get back and I know that I am going to see amazing birds I would never see north o' the border.

In preparation I've been updating my life list into a groovy little book I bought specifically for tracking birdwatching forays and its got the life list in the back. I got to thinking about all the birds that I've seen right in my own backyard and decided to share those with my readers so you'll now see a series of lists on the right of my blog page. The first two lists; birds that are here all the time and those that nest in summer, actually all nest in summer, but some are here in winter too. Then there are some that only come in winter and others that only pass through in spring and fall during the migration period.

So all you birdwatchers out there can be jealous of just how birdy my backyard actually is. I count 95 birds seen right here on the property. My life list isn't super long for those who are serious birders out there, I'm up to 330, nothing compared to the bro who is around 650 I think, but he really works at it and if it wasn't for him taking me to far out birding hotspots, my list wouldn't be half as long as it is now. Thanks Bro.

The craziest thing I've ever seen here was a juvenile white ibis that roosted in our yard one night last summer, we were amazed and took a photo of it for proof.

This winter has been different with Pine Siskins more frequent and Red-breasted Nuthatches which we haven't had before but they have apparently irrupted down from the north and are being seen in many parts of the south.

Whats normally here that I am not seeing are Chipping Sparrows and Pine Warblers. If you are a bird watcher in NC, are you seeing those two birds in your birdwatching adventures? Let me know.

1 comment:

Stew said...

I saw a bunch of chippies in Georgia last weekend, but haven't seen any around here recently. Of course, I've not been out much, either.

I'm extremely envious of your trip!!