(scene near Rock Glen a few years ago)
Today, many of us "locals" participated in the Kettle Point CBC. I arrived Friday evening at Hungry Hollow in very fine weather. In fact, it was very clear and calm. We took advantage and did some late evening owling in our area.
It was a good work-out as Eastern Screech-owls are not really plentiful there, but we came up with nine. As well, we had two Great-Horned Owls.
Ha!
Also, we tried for Northern Saw-whet and Barred Owls. A Saw-whet was across from Pete's place a couple of days ago, and the nearby Barred Owl was seen yesterday morning. No luck with those though.
Turns out there were no more owls, including today.
This morning was crisp and somewhat clear, so it was rather pleasant. Just out the door, Steve and I got the female White-winged Crossbill and a White-throated Sparrow at the feeder area. A good start.
(several of these today)
Sparrows are rather scarce this time of year in the Arkona area and it turns out the White-throat was our only one of that species. Sparrows are quite scarce in general this winter. The only other sparrow-type (besides a few American Tree Sparrows) was a Song near the Bingo gravel pit. Juncos were here and there of course, and no Oregon this year. Usually we manage to get one on this count. It seems many birds left with the big wind storm at the end of October.
Our first stop was a pond area SW of Arkona. Here we had four Common Mergs, the only duck of the day! Many Canada Geese, but no Snow Goose seen the previous day.
We also had a couple of Common Redpolls fly over, and Steve had a definite Red Crossbill. About the same time I had a finch type flyover, but could not get a handle on it.
Heading north, we caught sight of a Northern Shrike on a hydro wire--always nice to see on a count. A short while later we came across a small flock of Common Redpolls.
At Rock Glen, we had a good number of "dickie" birds including two more titmice.
A blackbird of any type on this count is a big deal. None today, but later in the afternoon I spotted a flock of European Starlings and said that there must be a Brown-headed Cowbird amongst them. Sure enough we found five cowbirds.
Weather deteriorated throughout the day, and by 3:30 it was raining.
Hawks were incredibly scarce, with only about 3 Red-tailed, and 1 Northern Harrier first spotted by Laurie Clancy who was with us today.
We ended up with 39 species in our area alone, lower than usual, but simply put, birds are scarce this year!
(No camera today as I often do not carry one on a count--probably will not tomorrow either as it will likely be raining and I have to carry a scope as well!).
(I wish!--near Pete's house a few years ago)
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