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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Good day of birding

Today was the third day of the Backyard Bird Count and the weather co-operated somewhat.  Didn’t spend a whole lot of time at home although Ernie walked over to the park in the morning while I spent time closer to home….

Pine Sisken

There were hundreds of Pine Siskens in the area today.  I have never seen so many Pine Siskens at one time….large flocks would fly down and land and the ground would be moving with them…

Redpoll and sisken

but most exciting was the fact that there were Common Redpolls mixed in with them (the guy with the red cap on it’s head)

Redpoll and sisken

here is a closer look at one of the males – so seeing these on a count day was a real bonus!

It must be spring!

This Robin says that spring is on it’s way!

We actually saw a total of 25 species today including 8 species not seen the last two days so besides the ‘not so common’ Redpolls, we added a Varied Thrush, a couple of Trumpeter Swans, a Kingfisher, a couple of Red-tail Hawk, Ernie saw 3 Killdeer at the log bay and there were a number of Northern Pintail in a field by Kilby which is all part of the same area.

After that we headed to Nicomen  where we tallied 35 species…

Male Ring-neck Ducks

including a total of 46 Ring-neck Duck – a species we don’t see here which is actually strange because they like quiet secluded areas.

Trumpeter Swans on Nicomen

Trumpeter Swans numbered close to 300

Closer

and Great Blue Heron totaled 42….most concentrated in either this area…

Heron on the shore

or this one…

Female Belted Kingfisher

the high light of the day had to be this female Belted Kingfisher who sat and posed nicely for pictures.

Wing stretched

I have been trying to get good pictures of a kingfisher for years!

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