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I recently was given a digital camera. Among other things, this means I can add some illustrations to go along my blog entries of bird sightings.
Below is a horned grebe, seen on New Year's day in New Jersey.
I will probably be looking soon for an online photo-storing service. Have any readers had experience with Flickr, Picasa, or others?
Gwyn of Bird Brained Stories! has posted the fourteenth I and the Bird on her blog. This edition, the first of 2006, offers Lake Birdbegon Days, a collection of bird blogging from the Midwest.
Yesterday I returned to Washington after spending two weeks out of town. So this afternoon I took some time to start off my DC birding for the new year with trips to some local waterfowl spots.
I started at the National Zoo. The ponds near the bird house held dozens of mallards, as well as a few American black ducks and wood ducks. Nothing beats an up-close look at breeding-plumaged wood ducks! I have been assured by a zoo staffer that the birds in those ponds are currently all wild; the zoo's waterfowl have been moved to other locations for the time being due to renovations. Even so, the zoo has maintained the heated ponds, and continues to leave feed at the regular feeding stations. Wintering at the zoo has to be a pretty good deal for local ducks; it offers a steady food supply, reliably unfrozen water, and no predation or hunting.
Rock Creek below the zoo had more of the same waterfowl. There was a patch of activity near the stone bridge that leads from the zoo to the bicycle path. Most of these turned out to be tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, and white-throated sparrows. The activity went on despite the foreboding presence of a red-tailed hawk watching from a snag high above the creek.
Once I finished my walk through the zoo, I headed over to the Potomac since there was still plenty of light left. I walked the normal circuit, down the Washington Channel side and back along the river. Several large flocks of scaup were on both the channel and the river; most of these turned out to be lesser scaup. A few greater scaup were near the seawall on the far side of the channel. One American coot hugged the channel's boat docks.
When a passing helicopter flushed many birds from the trees, three merlins appeared. Eventually they settled on three snags along the road, perched about ten yards from each other. While all had the dark breast streaking characteristic of merlins, one of the three seemed to have have darker and colder brown streaking than the other two, which had a more reddish tone. I had two more merlin sightings on the walk, but I think these may have been some of the same birds.
As I walked back from the tip of the peninsula, I spotted a brown creeper clinging to the trunk of a tree.
SPECIES SEEN: 32
Canada Goose
The following are birds that I would like to add to my Washington, D.C., list within the next year. Some of these I have seen before, but not in the district. All of the following appear on the species list (pdf) for the District of Columbia.
1. Cerulean Warbler
This is the bird I would most like to see but have not seen yet. My best chance for seeing it is probably on the ridge at Rock Creek Park in May or September.
2. Cape May Warbler
As with the cerulean warbler, my best chance for seeing this bird is at Rock Creek Park. If only I had the time and energy to patrol the ridge on a daily basis!
3. American Pipit
I have seen this species once before, outside of D.C. This is reported fairly frequently though, so with more birding in the right places, the chances of a sighting ought to be good.
4. Louisiana Waterthrush
This would also not be a life bird, but my first for D.C. Waterthrushes, like other skulking little brown birds, can be hard to spot.
5. Great Horned Owl
Again, not a lifer but my first for D.C. Great horned owls have been hard to find in the district in recent years. My favorite birding spot, the National Arboretum, is probably the best place to look, but closes at 5pm so that dusk and night searches are out of the question.
6. Horned Lark
Horned larks are reported here occasionally, with about the same frequency as American pipits.
7. Pine Siskin
Pine siskins are close relatives of American goldfinches and are frequently seen with flocks of goldfinches. If siskins were to show up anywhere here, the National Arboretum seems like a good bet.
8. Eastern Meadowlark
These beautiful birds are a welcome sighting on any occasion. I wish I could see them closer to home instead of only on field trips out of the district.
9. Northern Shoveler
Shovelers are relatively common but rare in the district. These colorful birds are probably my favorite of the Anas ducks, but one of several common waterfowl species that I still have not seen in D.C. The main problem is the lack of good wintering habitat. While there is enough deep water to attract diving ducks, dabbling ducks aside from mallards find little reason to stop here.
10. Connecticut Warbler
My best chance to see this elusive warbler is probably right here in DC, on the ridge or in the woods of Rock Creek Park. Unlike the cerulean and Cape May warblers, which hide in the treetops, the Connecticut warbler scurries along in the ground in the underbrush, where its plumage blends in with the foliage.
This year, I added six species to my list for D.C., so if I find half of the above in 2006 it will count as a good year.
Related posts: Life Birds from 2005, Most Wanted Birds
I posted a list below of the life birds I have seen within the past year. Now as one year ends and the next begins, I would like to look ahead to a new year of birding and a new set of life birds. Here are the ten birds I would most like to see within the next year.
2. Horned Lark
This species competes with the cerulean warbler for the title of my "nemesis bird," the name birders give to species that they fail to see even when others see them in the same place at the same time. I have been on trips where a horned lark was seen by other birders on the same day, and I have chased down reports of larks. In no case have I seen one.
This striking species was named for one of the best birding sites on the east coast; it gained the name when the first specimen was collected there by Alexander Wilson, who did his birding with a firearm.
The Connecticut warbler seems to be a common inhabitant of birders' lists of nemesis birds. The reason is clear: like all Oporornis warblers, this species skulks in the underbrush and is difficult to see without careful looking. The mourning warbler, also missing from my life list, would also be a welcome sighting.
5. Sora
Rails as a whole form a large gap in my life list. I have now heard a king rail, but I have not so much as heard, let alone seen, any of the others. I list the sora here because it seems to be the most likely for me to see, but it stands for rail sightings in general.
6. Bobolink
Bobolinks are a grassland species, and therefore are rare in the areas where I bird most often. Still, they do appear, and one day soon I hope to see them. Their tinkling calls are quite intriguing.
In my area, rough-legged hawks are winter migrants, and appear mainly in open areas for short periods at a time.
I hope to track down a member of this species sometime this winter. They are closely related to goldfinches and siskins, but have red instead of yellow as their distinctive color.
9. Razorbill
I have few chances to bird at the shore in the winter, but when I do, I frequently hear of razorbill sightings around the same time and place. One day soon a razorbill and I will be in the same place at the same time, and I will see it.
The broad-winged hawk is the one common eastern raptor that I have yet to see. Maybe this will be the year for it.
