This little bit of cold is giving me flash backs to the spring count…. Thankfully the next week or so should be warmer. Thanks to Phil Odum for once again joining me for a nice day of birds. Visibility was a impacted by heat shimmer until the last couple hours of the count, but at least the wind wasn’t too fierce. We didn’t have all that many waterbirds, but did have a good variety. Raptor-wise, we had very nice numbers of Turkey Vulture and Sharp-shinned Hawks. We also had some pretty nice movements of American Crows and Sandhill Cranes.
Canada Goose – 12
Mute Swan – 2
Gadwall – 2
Mallard – 2
dabbling duck sp. – 7
Redhead – 35
Greater Scaup – 7
Aythya sp. – 13
Surf Scoter – 5
White-winged Scoter – 79
Surf/Black Scoter – 12
scoter sp. – 1
Long-tailed Duck – 5
Common Merganser – 9
Common/Red-breasted Merganser – 10
duck sp. – 181
Red-throated Loon – 1
Common Loon – 16
Horned Grebe – 2
Red-necked Grebe – 8
Double-crested Cormorant – 35
Turkey Vulture – 288
Northern Harrier – 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 47
Sharp-shinned/Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Bald Eagle – 8
Red-tailed Hawk – 4
American Kestrel – 4
falcon sp. – 1
Sandhill Crane – 98
American Crow – 113
