+1

Well we saw this bird on the same trip as the last post and I thought this bird was a Double-crested Cormorant but it was actually upon closer looking it turned out to be a Great Cormorant.

Well that makes our 2012 BIG YEAR TOTAL TO 351!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for more birding adventures!! Tomorrow we are planning on going to Salton Sea, California!

Last Trip of the Year

Brants

Hello fellow birders!! Our last Big Year Birding trip was on the 23rd of December and we did pretty good. We headed out to Assateague Island National Seashore arriving at 7am. We stopped at the visitors center and walked around there and was going to walk over the bridge but the sidewalk on the bridge was closed. Near the bridge we saw Brants! One of our target birds!

Next we saw some Buffleheads then we headed over to the Island.

Red-throated Loon

All the new birds we saw are also lifer birds for us too. Our second lifer was a bird that everyone wishes they could get a photo of and we failed to do that. But I must saw we were so close to it we were just in awe of the bird! This bird was perched on the railing of the bridge and we were driving up to it and it didn't move but once we stopped it stayed there for a second or two and it flew away. We got a good enough look at it to say it was for sure a Peregrine Falcon! What a beauty that was.

We stopped off at a pond that had some American Black Ducks, and American Wigeons. We were hoping for an Eurasian Wigeon that had been spotted in the area with other wigeons, but no luck.

Next we spotted some other common birds that we had already seen this year. Then as we were heading out of the park and driving over the bridge I spotted a Red-throated Loon!

Once we had that we headed north for Ocean City Inlet. We saw lots of Ring-billed Gulls there and I hope you don't mind if I share a photo of them as our nephew was feeding them.

After not seeing any Purple Sandpipers on the jetty and we walked all the way out to the end and my husband actually fell on the rocks :( We headed for Delaware State Park. We stopped at the marina and then headed over near the bridge and walked over to the other side and saw the rest of our lifers! Long-tailed Ducks, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter and Purple Sandpiper. Sadly we were unable to get a clear picture of the Surf Scoter but clear enough for us to tell what it is.

Purple Sandpiper

Black Scoters

Long-tailed Ducks

I hope you have all enjoyed our birding trips and we do plan on doing another big year in 2014. We want to be able to plan it out much better. So if you have any tips or suggestions feel free to leave a comment below. Also who would like keep reading about our birding adventures? I'm thinking about keeping this blog going. :)

It's finally over!!!

Hello everyone!! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I must say Christmas isn't really a joyful time of year for me; my Grandma passed away 16 years ago on Christmas. Died in her sleep I was the last one to see her alive and I try to enjoy the holidays but really I can't wait til they are over. This year we were at Simon's moms and her house was fully decorated with Christmas this and that...still couldn't get in the Christmas cheer. So I am looking forward to getting back on the road, which we just left MD, and being done with all the holiday cheer that everyone seems to have but me!! Maybe it's the fact that I don't have a tree to decorate this year or that I'm getting older. But whatever it is to me this year it's just another day.

Anyway, we did make it out birding while there and went to Assateague National Seashore Park, Ocean City, and Delaware State Park. I will be blogging about that tomorrow just wanted to get my lack of holiday cheer off my chest.....

Revised Goal!

We have revised our goal for a big year. We realize that we can NOT get to our original goal of 400. So we are now shooting for 350 species by the end of the year.

We will be going to Maryland for Christmas and while we are there we will be going over to Assateague Island National Seashore and Ocean City. We have 10 birds we want to get while there.
~Merlin
~Long-tailed Duck
~BlackScoter
~White-winged Scoter
~Peregine Falcon
~Surf Scoter
~Red-throated Loon
~Brant
~Common Eider
~Iceland Gull
~Purple Sandpiper
~Winter Wren
~Snow Bunting
~Pink-footed Goose


The Pink-footed Goose and Snow Bunting has also been spotted in Maryland and Deleware so if we can spot those that would be an added bonus!!

We will be going out to the coast a day or so after Christmas and I will be updating you on the birds we saw after that. Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!!!

Antelope Island State Park

Oh boy, it's been a while since I've posted! Well lets see we've gotten six new birds since then sorry I haven't posted. I've been busy with non bird related things and also due to the fact that we just haven't really seen much of anything these past few months.

In August, we got a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher in South Dakota. Only new bird we got that month. South Dakota really didn't help us find any new birds, except that flycatcher.

September rolled around with no birds at all, but then again we really didn't go out looking either!

October came with four new birds. Two in California and two in Arizona. In California we stopped along highway 58 by a stream and got some shots of a White-tailed Kite and Lawerence's Goldfinch. Arizona got us Jupiter Titmouse and Palm Warbler. The warbler was in fact out of range! That one was in Flagstaff, AZ behind a truck stop in some trees. The Jupiter Titmouse was out in the desert!

White-crowned Sparrow

Here are our monthly totals so far~
January- 117
February- 35
March- 53
April- 47
May- 76
June- 6
July- 3
August- 1
September- 0
October- 4
November- 1
December- .....

Well you're probably wondering what is the one bird we came across in November was. Well it was a great find. A ground bird that you can apparently always find on Antelope Island State Park. A Chukar! We spent the day there and saw nice wildlife and birds there.

We saw lots of gulls, ring-billed and California Gulls, and some Northern Shovelers along the 7 mile causeway to get to the island. Once we made it to the island we spotted a Bison! The bison are the most populated animal on the island. There are also Mule Deer, Coyotes, Bighorn Sheep, Porcupine, and plenty of birds.

Chukar

Our first stop was the visitor center where the bird feeders are. There was actually no feed in the feeder so the only birds around was White-crowned Sparrows. On our way to the ranch we spotted a Prairie Falcon flying by. So we made our way down to the Garr Ranch in search of a Barn Owl...no luck, but did see American Robin, Song Sparrow, and about 8-10 Northern Flickers.  After taking some photography shots for my Facebook

Prairie Falcon

page we then headed back to the visitor center stopping often to take photos of deer, bison, coyote, and a rare shot of a porcupine.

When we returned there was feed in the feeder and an assortment of birds at the feeder ~ Red-winged Blackbirds, Black-billed Magpies, California Quail, Chukar and White-crowned Sparrows. With a new lifer and a new year bird our trip was turning out great! Will have to try and get back there in the spring.

Wish us luck in finding more birds to finish our big year!

Sweetwater Wetlands

Molting Mourning Dove.
Very beautiful shot.

Song Sparrow

Hello everyone! It's been a few days since out last birding adventure! We went to Sweetwater Wetlands, where there was reports of a Peregrine Falcon. That would be a nice addition, but we did not see that falcon.

We did see a lot of dragonflies and other birds we already have on our list. I have some pictures of the things we saw there~

Arizona Cotton Rat

Pied-billed Greb

There was many interesting species there including a Pied-billed Grebe with two young chicks. They were so cute! We spent a good amount of time there taking pictures and enjoying watching them swim around.

After we left the Grebes we came across some Neotropic Cormorants and an American Coot sitting on her nest! Wish we could have gotten to see the babies but they hadn't hatched yet.

Neotropic Cormorant

Eastern Amberwing

Bullfrog

Coot on her nest

We saw three different Arizona Cotton Rats on our way out. We have never seen them before. We also saw some different species of frog; not been able to identify it yet. Nice variety of nature was out and about in Sweetwater that morning, but by 8:30am we were sweating and it was time to get on the road.

Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona

Three More and A Non-ABA

Mallard Chicks

Well, we were at Whittier Narrows Recreation Park, El Monte, CA, yesterday and picked up three new birds! We haven't been out too much lately; I believe the last time was up in Montana over a week ago. It sure was nice to get out and bird again!

Caspian Tern

Before we arrived there, we did an eBird.com search for any new sightings and their was three birds that we did not have yet. Those birds were Caspian Tern, Hooded Oriole, and the other a non-ABA Yellow-chevron Parakeet. Every time we go out birding anywhere we always check out the reports on eBird. It gives us a much better idea of what may be there and what to keep an eye out for.

Gosling

House Finch Yellow Variety

Once we arrived at Whittier Narrows we saw all the domestic geese and then we spotted some bird flying over the water, could it really be the Caspian Tern already. It was indeed the Caspian Tern and then it did a dive bomb into the water. What a amazing thing to watch and they dive into the water and then a second later they pop out and fly away. After we watched the tern for a little bit we made our way around the lake and spotted some Canada Geese. There was about eight geese floating in the lake some of them walked up on the shore there was one who had it's neck extender, I thought that to be the mamma. She was in alert mode; I was using a tree for cover and I decided to come out in the open and squat down. That was when they all started coming out of the water and began eating grass. I got a few nice shots of them close up.

Domestic Goose Napping

Hooded Oriole

After taking a bunch of pics of the geese and so me Mallards, we walked a little further I heard some chirping that was not a familiar to me. I pointed this out and Simon was still searching for the bird when I came back from the bathroom. We finally found the bird that was making all the noise and it was actually a Hooded Oriole standing on top of her nest tending to her chicks! We took some shots and tried to get a little closer, but that was too close for her; she flew away. Well took a few pictures of the nest, backed away and waited for her return. Her chicks were starting to call out for her again and within a few minutes she came back. Click, click on the camera and we got her! We left her alone so she could feed her chicks in peace!

American Coot with chicks

Next, we came to a flock of Domestic Geese, Domestic Mallards and a pair of American Coots with their two young chicks. Then a Caspian Tern flew over head again! The terns gave us plenty of chances to get a good picture of it!

Pied-billed Grebe

Simon was successful in getting a great picture of a Pied-billed Grebe! These little grebes are so little, only twelve inches long; head to tail! Such a cute little bird!

Next we saw more Caspian Terns, Forester Tern, Rock Pigeons, Downy Woodpecker and Black Phoebe. Along the back side of the lake we saw some Tri-colored Blackbirds! Wow! Every time we drive through California we look for that bird and we finally found it!

Yellow-chevron Parakeet

Tri-colored Blackbird

Great Blue Heron

Come check out my Facebook page for my photography! We are now up to 335 and as always Happy Birding!!!!