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Birding 24 Jan 2018

Today I got to bird the resort I used to work at when I was a Disney CM, and it was good enough for two new county birds!  (long-overdue Mallard and, surprise Herring Gull) http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42211851 (34 sp) Lake Buena Vista FL USA

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Birding 22-23 Jan 2018

Still sick. 22 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42156661 (12 sp) Austin TX USA But! Time for a change of scenery! 23 Jan 2018  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42179398 (15 sp) Lake Buena Vista FL USA

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Birding 17-21 Jan 2018

I’ve had to drastically scale back birding this week as I caught the dreaded Type A H3N2 flu that’s rocked Texas and needed to spend time to fully recover.  Still not 100% back, but tomorrow we’re headed out early to spend the rest of the week in Florida. 17 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42016760 (17 sp) Austin TX USA 18 Jan 2018 (FOY Spotted Sandpiper) http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42041975 (32 sp) Austin TX USA 19 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42076830 (15 sp) Austin TX USA 20 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42104421 (12 sp) Austin TX USA 21 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42136841 (13 sp) Austin TX USA Year totals to date (vs Lifetime) USA: 125 (779) Texas: 125 (427) TX-Travis: 102 (324) TX-Bastrop: 77 (139) TX-Kerr: 49 (49) TX-Bandera: 21 (22) TX-Burnet: 15 (115) TX-Gillespie: 12 (53) TX-Hays: 12 (113) TX-Blanco: 6 (62) TX-Williamson: 1 (218)

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Brrding 16 Jan 2018

Got down to 19 degrees, with sleet and a brief dusting of snow.  Birded anyway -- got flyover American Wigeon as a new yard bird! https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41973216 (13 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 12-15 Jan 2018

12 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41838422 (17 sp) Austin TX USA

13 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41879967 (39 sp) Austin TX USA 14 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41896681 (22 sp) Kerrville TX USA http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41910904 (21 sp) Vanderpool TX USA http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41914514 (25 sp) Kerrville TX USA 15 Jan 2018 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41944580 (23 sp) Austin TX USA

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Squee

Looks like I’ll need to bone up on my Arabic, Bengali, and Ukrainian to go with my Japanese and French!  ^_^ One happy geography nerd - birder here! がんばります!

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Birding 11 Jan 2018

Cedar fever sucks.  Most of the time. Today’s birding was just around the workplace disc golf course, and the wind was really, truly bad.  Getting around to “Sparrow Corner”, I stopped long enough to scan the scrubland, and ... well, not much.  Pishing?  Nothing doing, too windy to hear a thing. That was when the cedar caught up with me. ah-CHOO! ahhhhhh-CHOOOOOOOOOO! The previously empty bushes erupted in flight.  By the time I recovered, they’d landed, but not yet slunk back into the depths of the undergrowth.  Among the White-throated, White-crowned, and Harris’s Sparrows was one muddy looking, smaller bird with a super flat head ... hey, what’s a Grasshopper Sparrow doing here?!?  Maybe blown in from the prairie north of the golf course?  Certainly a nice pick-up for early in the year, in the form of a site first.   Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41821896 (19 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 10 Jan 2018

I had a little extra time at lunch today, so I popped over to a retention pond in the neighborhood east of my workplace.  What I hadn’t planned on was the wind picking up and basically shutting down all passerine activity.  Yay. While some extra sparrows would’ve been nice, that wasn’t the real reason I was there -- this anonymous neighborhood pond had always been reliable for a particular species that I needed for the year.  So I walked down to the cattails on the west side and queued up the requisite call on allaboutbirds. pprrrrWHEE-PEWPEWPEWpewpewpew pew pew! A moment of relative stillness ... and then one staccato whinny.  Then two!  And just like that, the first two Sora of the year were straight onto my phone, getting logged onto eBird. Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41796146 (11 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 9 Jan 2018

Anytime you see a snipe on a bird walk, that’s a good day.  No new birds on the year today, but it’s good to be back on the trail.  :3 Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41773477 (20 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 8 Jan 2018

Had to take a sick day due to sinuses and drainage, so the only birding was on the ultimately stopped drive to work.  Better to get this out of the way early. Still managed a 10 species checklist anyway. Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41741909 (10 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 7 Jan 2018

Tried again to catch up with the holdover Townsend’s Warbler from December at Peninsula Trail (apparently “Peace Point” now though no signs say so) at Lady Bird Lake (aka “Town Lake”).  No luck with the stakeout, but I managed a few more first-of-year species: Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron at a pond just south of the river, a single flyover Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, a pair of Neotropic Cormorants playing hide-and-seek in the clouds of Double-crested Cormorants, a lone Herring Gull doing the same in the middle of a wheeling flock of Ring-billed Gulls, and one Peregrine Falcon powering overhead looking for an opportunity to take down a pigeon or small duck. Year to date: World / USA / Texas: 108 sp TX-Travis: 89 Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41707771 (37 sp) Austin TX USA

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Birding 6 Jan 2018

After spending most of the day on errands and video games, I took a quick circuit around Lake Pflugerville in the late afternoon.  Nothing super rare, but a solid 45 species outing, giving me my first American Wigeon, Mallard, Eared Grebe, Greater Yellowlegs, Great Horned Owl, Marsh Wren, Swamp Sparrow, and Western Meadowlark on the year.  Most people who bird here focus specifically on the lake, but there’s really good shortgrass habitat on the dam and a decent hedgerow to the northwest -- of course, that basically demands about two to three hours of walking to bird this whole area properly, including the marshy areas on both the western and northern arms.  (Of course, I only had an hour and a half.)  Also a scope (which I don’t own).   There’s probably some mega rarity on this lake that I overlooked.  :P Also, a ridiculous number of coots, doing their coot things.  Cooting, even.  They’re very coot. In summary: a whole lot of birds, and I’m up over 100 species for the year in the shortest time yet (six days) which either means I’m up for another good year and/or I’ll be scrambling later to find anything new.  :D Also, this means Bastrop and Travis are temporarily tied at #1 on the year at 77 species.  (Inevitably, Travis is going to be on top, since I live here.) 2018 to date: World / US / Texas: 102 species TX-Travis: 77 species Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41690042 (45 sp) Pflugerville TX USA

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I might have an eBird problem.

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Birding 5 Jan 2018

Not a whole lot of time to bird today, but the workplace disc golf course did turn up a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which was new for the year, and that’s something. Also, I’ve logged a 10-species-plus eBird checklist every day since March 28, 2017 which is by far a personal best streak. 2018 to date: World / US / Texas: 94 species TX-Travis: 58 species Checklist of the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41651208 (18 sp) Austin TX USA

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Separated at birth?

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First birding blog of 2018

I’m putting my detailed birding adventures here.  Hopefully I’ll get back to Japan soon (looking like 2019!), but in the meantime, 2018′s first bird was a Northern Cardinal in the drive-through at Jack in the Box, en route to the Bastrop Christmas Bird Count. Best birds of that day’s travel (out of 77 species, a new best for New Year’s Day!) were: a very out-of-season Tree Swallow seen over Lake Bastrop from North Shore Park a momentarily un-skulky LeConte’s Sparrow perched on bluestem on private property just west of Lake Bastrop a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers in a rebuilt part of Circle D-KC Estates that had been burned over in the fires some years back New Year’s Day brought my overall Bastrop County count to 139, a healthy number for a county I’ve never lived in and I generally only seriously bird once or twice a year. I spent most of January 2 dealing with car issues (fuel purge valve), but did manage to take some of the afternoon to sneak down to Blocker Road on Elroy, where I was able to see the previously elusive Harris’s Hawk (Travis County #324) which had been first reported in December.  This was an easy bird for me in Arizona ... but a first-time find for my home county in Texas. The car issues persisted through January 3 (highlight bulbs this time though, so an easy fix!) but I managed to at least get some birding done at work, with winter favorites Harris’s Sparrow and Fox Sparrow showing well at the workplace eBird hotspot (a brushy area adjacent to a large disc golf course and floodplain drainage).  (”Harris’s Sparrow - is it the James Harden of sparrows?  Or is James Harden the Harris’s Sparrow of the NBA?) First thing on January 4 was a quick run to a local retention pond to look at the first Least Grebe of the year (which I could’ve probably picked up earlier as it’s a holdover from last year and may be resident).  This is an Austin specialty species that is typically more expected close to the Mexican border, but has been breeding locally and slowly spreading northbound in the last decade or so.  A walk over at Lady Bird Lake’s Peninsula Trail was less successful as I managed to dip on all the stakeout rarities that I’d seen the previous week -- better luck next time! That brings us to today’s adventures, which will go here when I’ve had to time to do them.  :) Year to date:  World / USA / Texas : 93 TX-Bastrop: 77  TX-Travis: 56 Daily best checklists: 1 Jan http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41503968 (31 sp) Bastrop TX USA 2 Jan http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41556910 (17 sp) Elroy TX USA 3 Jan http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41592384 (23 sp) Austin TX USA 4 Jan http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41610777 (24 sp) Austin TX USA #birding #atx #texas