this weekend, after two weeks of being stuck in a computer lab, i was able to get out to borrego springs to help with their annual christmas bird count. even though the count took place on sunday, i spent the whole weekend out there birding and scouting.
on friday i only birded at my campsite, and the borrego roadrunner club (a golf course community). the rest of my time was spent setting up camp and scouting the area for future birding trips. these are the new birds i came up with on my first day.
roadrunner club: YELLOW SHAFTED FLICKER
campsite: CACTUS WREN (my pic, sorry about the quality)
campsite: LADDER BACKED WOODPECKER
on saturday morning we scouted our section of borrego to locate our target birds (LE CONTE'S THRASHER and CRISSAL THRASHER) so that they would be more easily found the next day. we struck out on LE CONTE'S THRASHER, but had other good birds. including...
area 8: SAGE SPARROW
area 8: BLACK TAILED GNAT CATCHER
area 8: CRISSAL THRASHER (unfortuately, only a fleeting glance)
area 8: LONG-EARED OWL
sunday, official count day, we struck out on both thrashers. i was, however, able to get a few new birds for myself...
area 8: VESPER SPARROW
area 8: GRAY FLYCATCHER (this photo was taken by one of our group, and is the actual individual we saw)
all in all, it was a stellar trip. the scenery and the wether were beautiful, and the birding and the company were great. i picked up a total of 8 new birds for the year, bringing my total to 241. not too shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment