With today’s entry of Tree Swallow in the Bird-a-Day Challenge, I’m up to 49 birds for 2012. Of the 14 birds added since my last update, five were yard birds. One of them was a doozy, though.
| 18-FEB-12 | Tree Swallow | Gemini Springs |
| 17-FEB-12 | Loggerhead Shrike | OCCC |
| 16-FEB-12 | Black Skimmer | Merritt Island NWR |
| 15-FEB-12 | Western Tanager | yard |
| 14-FEB-12 | Mallard | Epcot |
| 13-FEB-12 | American Goldfinch | yard |
| 12-FEB-12 | Wild Turkey | Lake Winona Road |
| 11-FEB-12 | Chipping Sparrow | yard |
| 10-FEB-12 | Yellow-rumped Warbler | yard |
| 09-FEB-12 | Wood Duck | Audubon Center for BOP |
| 08-FEB-12 | Eurasian Collared-Dove | Disney’s Animal Kingdom |
| 07-FEB-12 | Green-winged Teal | Gemini Springs |
| 06-FEB-12 | Red-winged Blackbird | yard |
| 05-FEB-12 | Red Phalarope | Mayport pelagic |
Yard Birds
Red-winged Blackbirds are present here in central Florida all year, but we’ve only seen them in our yard since last month. I suspect when they start breeding activities we won’t see them in the neighborhood too much. Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, and American Goldfinches are winter visitors here, and will all be gone by May or June, returning again in September or October. Goldfinches are pretty rare in our yard so I was happy to see one having a drink in our bird bath last Monday. But it was the Western Tanager that visited our yard for a brief moment last Wednesday that was a real shocker. We spotted a Western Tanager in our yard last October. Could this be the same bird?
Further Afield
Several visits outside of the usual haunts over the last weeks provided some great birds. It was hard to pick the bird of the day after the Mayport pelagic trip on the 5th – I’m as likely to see a Manx Shearwater in the coming months as a Red Phalarope, I think. The Wood Ducks I saw while volunteering at the ACBOP on the 9th were my first for Florida, believe it or not. A last-minute trip to Merritt Island to see an Atlas 5 launch (which ended up scrubbed) plus two days at Disney yielded birds I don’t expect to see at home or at my local patch. A Loggerhead Shrike working the parking lot at the Orange County Convention Center was a nice surprise yesterday.
Local Finds
On the 12th I drove to a dairy farm near DeLeon Springs to look for some reported Brewer’s Blackbirds. I struck out on the blackbirds but was pleased to find a nice group of Wild Turkeys, my first for Volusia for 2012. Another first for Volusia and a new BIGBY species was Green-winged Teal, a flock of which Arthur found during a morning walk at Gemini Springs on the 7th.
Looking Ahead
Now for a little prognostication. Between our yard and Gemini Springs, as of today there are about 40 species not already used in the game that I am 95% sure to see on any given day. Most of these are year-round residents, but some will start to leave around the end of March. Meanwhile a few new birds should start to show up, like Great Crested Flycatchers and Swallow-tailed Kites, both of which might arrive as early as late February. I hope I’m not jinxing myself in forecasting at least another six weeks of play in this game. And hopefully for the next update I can round up a photo or two. 🙂
