Monday, February 18, 2008

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I cheated. I counted birds in my front yard too.
I'm not the greatest at identifying look alikes, so I didn't put down the damfinos or the various ducks that scream by. As I finished this list this morning I got a huge present. More on that later.

Here you go:

Sand Hill Crane (very few this year)
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Wood duck
Turkey vulture
Black Vulture
white-breasted nuthatch
red breasted nuthatch
Red-tailed hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Broad wing Hawk
Downy woodpecker
American crow
Mourning Dove
Sap sucker
Pileated woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Cardinal
Goldfinch
American Turkey
Bald Eagle
Junco
Fly catcher

MIA's:
Purple finch
Grouse
Hairy Woodpecker
Green Heron


Ok...Well as I finished this at 8:04 am Feb, 18, several hundred Sandhill Cranes flew by. I've never seen that many in the gorge at once and stared and listened to them, almost completely forgetting to grab my camera. The noise was amazing. They came by just a bit above eye level in vees of what I thought were 20-30 birds each... I finally remembered the camera as the very last flight was in front of me, and since the one shot I took has over 50 birds in it, I had greatly underestimated the number of birds.


They were headed up the creek, which is North West. Going up to the summer home to eat fresh food and make babies.

I'll be on the river for a few days. You'll have to maintain the outrage without me, but I'll be back soon...maybe with pictures to make you jealous.

Peace,

Steve

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous8:23 PM

    Steve:

    I grew up in Nebraska (the Sandhills of Nebraska give the cranes their American name), but they fly through an area about 150 miles west of Omaha. I've never seen any, but I'm told that somewhere between a quarter and a half million of them come through there.

    democommie

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