Today is Daylight savings, We gained an extra hour. I decided to take my Petey up to Turtle Point Road for a leisurely walk around our property. No crazy puppy to bother us. For once,thankfully I remembered my good binoculars. This is the very first time that I really took in the lay of the land and took my time exploring the edge of the river and listening to hear what birds were around. There were lots of birds to see. Cedar Waxwing, Eastern Bluebirds and Robins were very busy gorging on the Winterberry berries. At one point a small flock of Cedar Waxwings were very close to me, the best looks I've ever had on that beautiful bird. There are at least two pairs of Bluebirds, and seeing them reminded me that we need to move the Bluebird houses to the other side of the river. I'm pretty sure if we do, we will have successful nestings next year. I also saw Hairy woodpecker, Juncos, Titmouse, WT Sparrows, a lone Song Sparrow singing his little heart out, Sharpshinned Hawk,Blue Jays, Crows, heard Pilated Woodpecker.
I have only one more shift at the Hawk Watch. I can't believe how the months have flown by. I will miss it. I will also miss the people who come up and help with the counts. They make it so much fun. We are having an amazing year. Today we may have broken 12,000 birds, that will make 2010 one of our top years of the last 50! I had a Golden Eagle on Friday, and we are now almost 2x the record of Bald Eagles, which is 45, today we are up to 86. What a great group of volunteers we have.
Backyard birds have been excellent. I purchased two new thistle feeders and haven't been disappointed for even a day. First I got in dozens of Gold Finch, next came Purple Finches and the last few days Pine Siskins. Most of them are all gone already, a few lingering. I also have a Red Breasted Nuthatch hanging around. I'm hopeful that we get the promised Irruptive year with lots of Redpoles.
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