New Year Birding

I started off the New Year taking part in the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count.  The last few years I have only done the wildlife area itself.  There is not as much area available as there used to be, so I am just happy spending the morning there.

I arrived at sunrise and looked around on my own until Pete Read and Don Pye arrived.  I find it quite active first thing as ducks come in.  Unfortunately, there was not much variety!

I did pick out a few Northern Shovelers and a single male Northern Pintail. among the masses of Mallards and Black Ducks.
Lots of Tundra Swans present.

Unfortunately, it was still a bit too windy to hear anything like a Marsh Wren or Common Yellowthroat in the marsh.

Beavers are here too like every place else nowadays!

After Pete and Don arrived, we walked the diagonal dike to Balmoral Line.  At the end, I did spot a single Snow Goose among a large number of Canada Geese.

I walked back Balmoral Line and to the parking lot.  It was nice out of the wind, but there were few birds to be found.  A single Winter Wren was the highlight.

Sounds like there was a good variety of birds found on the count and the place to be was Bradley.  Some good birds and thousands of ducks were seen there!
I used to help out in Bradley in the 'old' days and it was always interesting.  The first time I participated in this count was January 1, 1990 when Steve and I walked around the Bradley area.  I recall we saw a Yellow-headed Blackbird and the count's first Tufted Titmouse!

In other notes, gulls are still congregating at Corunna.  Things are always changing.  I left work a bit early today and went up for a brief visit.

Although a dull day, viewing was good as there was virtually no wind.  In a half hour I picked out four Glaucous Gulls and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull.  No Iceland today!  I find the Iceland Gull highly variable and it drives me crazy sometimes.  Around here, there is the Kumlien's type as well as the less-common Thayer's type.  Apparently several young Thayer's are being reported, but I find those very difficult to be sure.  Even the literature says it is difficult to assign young birds to subspecies (unless one gets excellent looks at the wingtips).
Thayer's used to be a separate species, but I always did consider it a variation on the Iceland (Kumlien's) Gull. 
They are all Iceland Gulls....lol.