New Year's New List...DU birders check-in to begin check-off

[HereSince1628]

Last night instead of watching reruns of West Wing I quite spontaneously wrote a little database to record my bird list and field notes for 2004.

So, as the darkness faded to gray and the flat black network of twigs showing against the neighbors security light gained a third dimension...I sat quietly with my Columbian coffee gazing out the window onto the landscape thoughtfully designed and handcrafted (at not insignificant expense or mean investment of time) to support my desire for bird watching. Waiting for the first bird of the new year...an omen of how this year might go. And there in the corner of the yard, beside the new black spruce...a flittering movement behind a shock of ornamental grass...and, aw crap, a house sparrow!

So, how does your list start this year?

[Esurientes]

1. 9 canada geese

There are a lot fewer birds in my neighborhood since I started counting 2 years ago. Could it be MY neighbors' security lights?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. Please. I despise security lights. Can't see the stars. Cats can't

hide. Had to put blackout shades on bedroom windows. And there has not been a burglary in this neighborhood for 10 years... all the security lights are there because we have black friends who stay the night quite often.
Or so I have heard from behind the fence.

Assholes.

[HereSince1628]

4. I don't think its the lights...

I'm in a pretty densely populated 75 year old neighborhood. Most of the houses have security lights and so far early winter has brought the same old friends as other places I've lived...in the past week I've had about 10 species around the yard which still has no snow cover. I expect things to improve here a bit as the winter gets severe and the critters come looking for food and water (heated waterer)

[RebelOne]

13. Could be your neighbor's cats.

At least that's what accounts for a scarcity of birds in my yard.

[Deb]

2. You're so good

I never think to start a list until migration starts. We have a barn owl that taunts the dogs around 4am every morning, today was no different. Hoot, bark, hoot, bark....

[HereSince1628]

5. Well, now I have barn owl envy

I've never seen a real barn owl. When I was out on the farm a Great Horned Owl would sit on the barn roof and hoot, and the little copse of wood beside the house had screech owls. No owls in the backyards visible from the comfort of this desk though.

[Deb]

6. The flat white face

isn't pretty like the Great Horned, it reminds me of the old cigar boxes. We spooked him out of the rafters one day last year, it's the only time I've ever seen one. It's curious how the screech owl and barn owl's names seem to be mixed up. I've never heard a barn owl do a real "hoot".

[amazona]

7. northern cardinal

The constant barrage of light rocketry over the neighborhood meant there would be no night birding but when I awoke this morning I heard a determined male Cardinal singing his heart out and I went out quickly (although he stayed for hours, so I needn't have hurried) to get him first on my yard list of the year.

I have a short but not bad list this New Year's morning -- the cardinal, Rufous/Allen's hummingbird, Blue Jay, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mockingbird. Haven't seen my wrens or doves yet today though.

No sparrows this winter. Last year I had overwintering White-Throated Sparrows and I'm only a little bitter that they have not visited this year.

[Bertha Venation]

8. your list is a lot like mine (except the hummer) -- where are you?

So. Maryland here.

(I'm a beginner. I don't know anything yet about what birds live where. But we have so many gorgeous birds I decided to start tracking them to see how many I could recognize... wow!)

[amazona]

11. I'm in southeast Louisiana

Definitely should be some overlap of the backyard bird species with Maryland although I'm frustrated by our low numbers of winter birds this year. I suspect they are being "short stopped" by global warming and not feeling the need to migrate so far.

We do get more west to east migrants than we used to it so that makes up for some of it. The hummingbird has migrated from somewhere in the west.

You could actually get a Rufous Hummingbird for the winter in Maryland but it's a pretty common event on the Gulf Coast whereas it would be a big deal in Maryland where you would want to file a report with your rare bird alert or state birding organization.

I always tell people keep those hummingbird feeders up. You never know.

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. Six mourning doves in my Chicago backyard.

Also assorted house sparrows.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. I have an unfair advantage

since I live on a lake that is part of a wildlife sanctuary.

So far this morning it's been just the usual for this time of year, cormorants, great blue herons, white egrets, and some seagulls. Saw three wood peckers raising a ruckus yesterday but that was last year.

[Skittles]

12. ME, ME

Blue Jays and sparrows a-plenty !!! And the ever-present turkey vultures! OK, I'm at the farm this morning. :D

[HereSince1628]

14. So, while removing the lights from the bushes...

add to my New Year's list Giant Canada goose, Junko, Black-capped Chickadee, Downy woodpecker, Rock dove, Ring-billed Gull, Common Crow, Cardinal, and Plastic Flamingo

[amazona]

17. i think it's the rock pigeon and American Crow now

They keep changing the names on us...Rock Pigeon from Rock Dove was just changed within months if not weeks.

A friend of mine is lobbying to have it changed to Feral Pigeon (the European common name for the bird) but we'll see.

[HereSince1628]

18. I'm not one to hold to the tyranny of the AOU

Americans don't even make the right vowel sounds for Latinized scientific names.

[salin]

15. And a Partridge in a Pear Tree...

sorry I couldn't resist after the lead response of 9 Canadian Geese...

[Kat45]

16. Having a lazy day indoors and haven't seen any birds yet this year

...except, of course, my sweet little parrotlet, Grace, :-)

Of course in my yard, it's usually just the "urban birds": sparrows, starlings, pigeons, crows.