With that in mind, I went out for a short walk around my local park this afternoon. Birds were pretty scarce, probably due to the extreme cold (for this area, anyway). Usually there are a lot more gulls and waterfowl, but not this afternoon. I saw a lot more Song Sparrows than usual, as well as a big flock of Dark-eyed Juncos. Common Mergansers only showed up within the last week; I think that the relatively mild weather must have kept them farther north longer than usual.
Below is the eBird output from this afternoon's walk. The one day bird missing is a House Sparrow I saw shortly before leaving the house.
| Location: | Donaldson Park | |
| Observation date: | 01/01/09 | |
| Number of species: | 24 | |
| Canada Goose | 35 | |
| American Black Duck | 1 | |
| Mallard | 1 | |
| Common Merganser | 3 | |
| Great Blue Heron | 1 | |
| Turkey Vulture | 2 | |
| Ring-billed Gull | 85 | |
| Herring Gull | 4 | |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 3 | |
| Mourning Dove | 3 | |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 2 | |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 | |
| Northern Flicker | 1 | |
| American Crow | 1 | |
| Fish Crow | 4 | |
| Tufted Titmouse | 1 | |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 1 | |
| Northern Mockingbird | 1 | |
| Song Sparrow | 14 | |
| White-throated Sparrow | 4 | |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 27 | |
| Northern Cardinal | 3 | |
| House Finch | 21 | |
| American Goldfinch | 2 |