Day 50: February 19 – The Great Back-yard Bird Count

Mostly sunny skies, warm and calm

     Every year, the Ornithology Lab at Cornell University conducts the Great Back Yard Bird Count.  People from all over the country are asked to go out for any time over the course of a three day period and find, name and count all the species they can find in their own “back yard”.  Well, during this time of year, my back yard happens to be the Atlantic Ocean.

Our "Back Yard" 

         Pretty nice digs in which to conduct a birding survey, so how could I pass this up?  I decided to spend a couple of hours this morning walking around our condominium property and see what was to be found.  Sometimes, there is just so much more than you “see” on a day-to-day basis.  This morning, I was really looking and counting and the birds were very obliging. 

     I had a feeling that this would be a pretty nice count when I started by walking by the condo swimming pool and found two Palm warblers on the deck.  No swimmers had made it down yet, so the birds had the place to themselves.  I shot a couple of images off and then headed down to the beach.  

       The waterfront was alive with walkers and waders….both avian and human.  I expected to find the “usual” birds hanging out…..Sanderlings, Willets, and Turnstones.  You can always count on these guys as well as pelicans, gulls, and terns flying overhead.  Picking their way along the beach today, however, I also had Semi-palmated plovers, Black-bellied plovers, Western sandpipers, Dunlin, and Snowy egrets.  There were not as many terns as I had expected or hoped for, but one lonely Royal made and appearance to help bolster the count.   

Sanderling (foreground) with Dunlin

     
       Out on the water, a string of 43 Brown pelicans flew by as six Northern gannets plied the deeper waters further out to sea, diving like missiles from high above the surface and plunging into the water to secure their catch.  A single osprey patrolled the shallows, and I know that before long, he’ll be joined by others.

Plunging Northern gannet

   

     In front of the building along the roadway, I found two Loggerhead shrikes.  They perched on the wires and periodically would dive down onto the condo lawn to grab some poor unsuspecting bug.  Several House sparrows watched from the same overhead wire.  By the end of my walk, I had 21 species to report to Cornell and had in fact added two more birds to my year list.  Nice way to begin our Sunday.