Great Backyard Bird Count: Day 3 #GBBC

Yesterday I walked through my local patch again to look for new birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. I did find one that was new for my GBBC lists this year: Carolina Wren. Other than that, I found mostly the same birds as I did on Friday. It is clear that migrating Canada Geese, Mallards, and Ring-billed Gulls are all staging in the area right now. All three continue to appear in higher numbers than they did for the previous few weeks. The goose with a collar on its neck appears to have moved on, since I did not spot it among the 400 geese in the park today. One treat was a close look at some American Robins running and searching for worms in the wet grass. One is pictured above; I have a few more photos at the bottom of this post.

In the evening I took a walk around the neighborhood to see if I could hear any owls. Previously I have heard Great Horned Owls calling a few blocks away, and I am pretty sure that some live in the area even though I have not heard them here for a few years. I had walked a few walks when I was stopped short by the sound of an Eastern Screech Owl calling. I listened and heard it give its tremolo call several more times over the course of a few minutes. After listening long enough to be sure I was hearing an owl rather than some other sound, I kept going in the hopes of find the larger owl species, but I came up empty-handed. Eastern Screech Owl was a new bird for me in New Jersey; I had previously seen them in DC and heard them in Massachusetts.