Bird Count season
There is some unwritten rule that says the weather can't be nice two days in a row during the Christmas Bird Count season. Warm and sunny Saturday, cool and unsettled on Sunday. At least it wasn't gale force wind and steady, driving rain.
I've been doing Christmas counts for 34 or so years and I've been a compiler for about 20 years. The day after the count is the day to go looking for stuff that needs to be verified. So today I will be going out to look for Wilson's Warbler, Glaucous Gull, Caspian Tern, and Mountain Chickadee. The warbler will need photographs, if possible.
The nice lady who did a feeder watch for me says she counted 81 Chestnut-backed Chickadees and 12 Hermit Thrush. I'm interpreting this as 8 chickadee and 1 Hermit Thrush counted over and over again throughout the day, but I probably need to check. The lady with the Bullock's Oriole coming to her feeder hasn't checked in, yet. I need to call her.
The Palm Warblers we thought we had staked out went unseen. I should go see if they'll make an appearance for count week, at least. Maybe see if the American Bittern will show itself, too.
Posted by mbalame at December 20, 2004 4:13 PM