Birds

I mentioned that we had twenty species of birds before we left the yard for the NJ Winter Bird Census. But we ended the day adding only fifteen more species, not counting the three unidentified gulls which flew over. And that early morning rooster. Thirty-three of them were in the yard (Bluejay and Northern Mockingbird were the other two).

This year for the most part we've had very few or none of northern migratory species. One Fox Sparrow. No Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, or Red-Breasted Nuthatch. We did have twenty plus White-throated Sparrows and Dark Eyed Juncos (trash birds!).

And then there were the Common Grackles, large flocks of which flew over while I was out on the deck listening to gunshots. I recorded 500 for the census. And that was probably low.

They went streaming through the yard although some did land in the trees.

You can watch them flyover by clicking here.

The picture and video don't do the phenomena justice. They were noisier than the gunshots for sure. And I was actually startled, not once but twice, when they lifted off in mass to fly off.

🦆 🦅 🦉 🐤 🦜 🦢 🐦 🦩 🕊 🐧 🦃 🐓

Right across the street from us. Literally right across the street from us is Buds Boggs. Ok, it is just a small bit of frontage, 100 feet or so, the main bogs a mile or so away. But that was where the action was. It is technically in the same zone as us, but covered by other observers. Twelve hundred Snow Geese. Two thousand Red-winged Black Birds (we had three). Forty-five hundred Brown-headed Cowbirds (nine for us). Twenty-one thousand Common Grackles (recall I recorded 500). The lead observer for that part of our shared zone, curiously also named Steve (maybe we should rename it the 'Steve Zone'; much better than 'Zone 5') had 30,133 individual birds. Thirty times more than we had (1003). And almost twice as many species, 63 vs. 35.

But I'm sure we had more gun shots.