Red Knots and Redpolls

Too bad you can't call birds over like in the Red Rover game.   Red Rover, Red Rover, Hoary Redpoll, come on over!  It doesn't really work like that.  It doesn't work like that at all.  The search for the Hoary Redpoll began and ended with my feet in the snow.  For a couple of weeks of now, a Hoary Redpoll has been visiting a local feeder.  So, i woke up and headed over.  After an hour and a half of standing in the snow, I had to call it quits.  My feet were cold, my toes were numb and my blood was probably at the early stages of icing.  So without any sign of any more than 2 Common Redpolls at a time, I called it quits and went in search of another bandit.

Beach, wind and shore birds.... lots of shore birds.  What do you do when you are face to face with a single digit wind chill and hundreds of similar looking peeps?  You call it a good day and take out your scope for a good time.  The cold melted away and the wind was stayed with a bounty of chap stick as a looked over Dunlins, Plovers and Turnstones.  The challenge was to judge the legs, beak and coloration all while trying to count the birds!  Sadly, I dipped out the red knot but that doesn't mean I am not going to go out looking for it again... Maybe I'll try the red rover thing with the red knot and redpolls...

The Hoary Redpoll (C) Juho Holmi from Finland

The Red Knot (C) DickDaniels http://carolinabirds.org/

2013 Year List:

62 (138 to go!)

Highlights:

Common Redpoll

Northern Harrier

American Robin

Hooded Merganser

Life List:

256 (44 to go!)

A Weekend of Outings...

So it was been a busy weekend. Trying to keep ahead of the Spring Migration kept me bust and vigilant. Every time I went out this weekend, I kept an eye open for wayward species and new migrants. I did manage to get a lot of birds here that I had gotten down south before. Northern Shovelers, Northern Flickers, Eastern Phoebes, and Killdeer. Great Outings even if I missed the Blue-Winged Teals, Egrets and Ibises that had returned! Nonetheless it was a great time to be about out and about. Missing those birds was a disappointment for my 2012 list and even my life list in a few cases, but I did enjoy seeing, hearing and being outside. The Flicker was hanging out with some RW Blackbirds. A great weekend of birding! The real gem of the weekend was seeing the Piping Plovers. They were displaying and even mounting and mating! Looking forward to a great and active Migration season!

Outing #22
American Oystercatcher
Black-Bellied Plover
Cedar Waxwing
Piping Plover

2012 Total: 100 (half way to goal for the year!)