Friday, September 26, 2008

My Mom will like this

As a kid

At 21

Same duck pond and same Willow

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Best Birding Day Ever for Me - Including a Red Phalarope

OK so its been over a month and hopefully that NEVER happens again!  But I will make it up to you by my impressive one day total (a lifetime high for me but hopefully I will out-do myself soon!).  

It was Bioblitz day at Odiorne State Park on the Seacoast of NH so I spent most of my day IDing birds with all of the birders.  I even had a few that I called first (a good feeling indeed).  

Then in the evening a few of us headed over to Exeter to check out a Red Phalarope that was reported and we sure enough saw it!  It was in the waste water treatment plant with a bunch of Green and Blue Winged Teal, Mallards, and a Ruddy Duck.

Some of the other highlights of the day including releasing a bird (A Northern Waterthrush) from a mist-net after the banders measured it (they also had a Magnolia Warbler when I was there which was very neat to examine so closely).  This was right after we called out a Virginia Rail from the marsh AND saw my first ever Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow.  

I had a great time with friends and also ID'ed plants and shared some of my botanical knowledge around.  

The Overall list for me for the day was:
  1. American Black Duck
  2. American Crow
  3. American Goldfinch
  4. American Redstart
  5. American Robin
  6. Barn Swallow
  7. Belted Kingfisher
  8. Black-and-white Warbler
  9. Black-bellied Plover
  10. Black-capped Chickadee
  11. Black-crowned Night Heron
  12. Blackpoll Warbler
  13. Blue Jay
  14. Blue-headed Vireo
  15. Blue-winged Teal
  16. Bonaparte’s Gull
  17. Canada Goose
  18. Carolina Wren
  19. Cedar Waxwing
  20. Common Eider
  21. Common Yellowthroat
  22. Double-crested Cormorant
  23. Downy Woodpecker
  24. Dunlin
  25. Eastern Bluebird
  26. Eastern Phoebe
  27. European Starling
  28. Golden-crowned Kinglet
  29. Gray Catbird
  30. Great Black-backed Gull
  31. Great Blue Heron
  32. Great Cormorant
  33. Great Egret
  34. Greater Yellowlegs
  35. Green-winged Teal
  36. Herring Gull
  37. Horned Grebe
  38. House Finch
  39. Laughing Gull
  40. Magnolia Warbler
  41. Mallard
  42. Marsh Wren
  43. Merlin
  44. Mourning Dove
  45. Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow
  46. Northern Cardinal
  47. Northern Flicker
  48. Northern Gannet
  49. Northern Mockingbird
  50. Northern Pintail
  51. Northern Waterthrush
  52. Peregrine Falcon
  53. Prairie Warbler
  54. Red Phalarope
  55. Red-eyed Vireo
  56. Red-necked Grebe
  57. Red-tailed Hawk
  58. Red-winged Blackbird
  59. Ring-billed Gull
  60. Rock Pigeon
  61. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  62. Ruddy Duck
  63. Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
  64. Sanderling
  65. Savannah Sparrow
  66. Semipalmated Plover
  67. Semipalmated Sandpiper
  68. Snowy Egret
  69. Song Sparrow
  70. Spotted Sandpiper
  71. Surf Scoter
  72. Swamp Sparrow
  73. Tree Swallow
  74. Turkey Vulture
  75. Virginia Rail
  76. Yellow Warbler
  77. Yellow-rumped Warbler
  78. Tern sp.