First bird of 2008/ Kingston CBC

My first bird of the year was a lingering Savannah Sparrow on the Kingston, Ohio CBC, seen January 1st. My friend Paul and I were responsible for the upper portion of the circle (if the circle were a clock, the portion would have been a wedge between 11 and 1 o'clock, with the southern boundary being a line drawn between 10 and 2 o'clock). This area was mostly barren farm fields and ratty-looking developments, but there was some bottomlands and CRP lands that held some birds. Not helping any was the strong gusty winds all day.

Still, we counted 33 species of birds for our portion, including both accipters common to Ohio, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels; thousands of Common Grackles and Starlings, and the rest of the common birds.

I only missed one bird that Paul saw, a red-winged blackbird.

After the count, we headed back to Columbus and saw the Black-crowned Night Herons in their winter roost at Drake Union at the OSU campus and looked for the Merlin at the OSU wetlands facility, with no luck.

Tomorrow is my first Avids trip of the year - we're headed to Lake Erie for gulls, waterfowl, and who knows what else.

Next week will be exciting for me- my first trip to the southwest (at least as a birder)! I have a conference I will be attending in Albuquerque, and I have two opportunities to bird: A tour to Chaco Culture National Park, which is cool in and of itself, but should also give me some arid-habitat birds; and a day focusing on Sandia Crest for winter montane birds. If time allows, I may head down to Bosque del Apache for the snow and Ross's geese and other birds.

Winter storm = less than ideal CBC conditions

So, I was going to do two CBCs this last weekend - the Hoover Reservoir count and the Columbus count. However, a little winter weather had other ideas.

The Hoover Reservoir count was not postponed, but the winter weather that swooped in had an effect of forcing birds into cover, so they weren't very active in the woods. Feeders were pretty good though. I worked the east side which I've done for the last three years. Not a whole lot of birds, but we did get a Barred Owl, which was exciting.

The Columbus count was postponed until the 30th, so I won't be on that one since I will be traveling back from the UP on that day.

I guess this means my Ohio year list is effectively done, which calls for another post.

Time to count some birds

It's Christmas Bird Count (CBC) time again. The last three years, I've been going on the Hoover Reservoir CBC here in Columbus, but haven't taken part in any others. This season, thanks to the good graces of my lovely and patient wife, I am taking part in three counts - the Hoover count tomorrow, the Columbus count Sunday, and the Kingston count on January 1st.

The weather is not supposed to be good - we have a winter storm warning and are supposed to get snow and icy rain tomorrow (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't get warm enough to rain). This may work to our advantage, as it should keep traffic low and bring birds into feeders for easier counting.

My greatest CBC of all time was the backwoods portion of a Houghton County, Michigan, CBC, back in the 1990s, when I had my life Great Grey Owl, Northern Goshawk, and Ruffed Grouse.

Also a past highlight was my life Northern Shrike during an in-town portion of the same CBC circle in the 80s.

Not to say the Hoover CBC has been small potatoes for me, as it gave me my life Barred Owl.

But the whole point is to participate in a ritual with other birders, that spans 108 years of birding in America. It's one of the highlights of every birder's year.