snow birds & tecolote project #1

yesterday (1/26), while spending the day with my girlfriend in the cuyamacas, enjoying a little san diego snow, i was able to pick up 10 new birds for my year list. they were: STELLAR'S JAY, WILD TURKEY, DARK-EYED JUNCO (including my first of the "pink sided" race), MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE, OAK TITMOUSE, BROWN CREEPER, PYGMY NUTHATCH, CALIFORNIA QUAIL, and BAND-TAILED PIGEON. the snow was deeper and softer than i expected it to be (considering we are in san diego), and the sixth-grade campers were out in force with their sleds and snow gear. luckily for me, the birds seemed not to notice.

BROWN CREEPER:
today (1/27), i started the '2010 tecolote project' by completing my first bird count in the park. because it was later in the morning than i typically like to bird, i only hiked in about one mile. here are the 24 species i saw/heard in order of appearance:

3 WRENTIT
9 SCRUB JAY
2 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS
10 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS
50 BUSHTIT
2 NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD
13 ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD
24 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW
9 CALIFORNIA TOWHEE
5 CALIFORNIA THRASHER
1 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET
4 SONG SPARROW
32 HOUSE FINCH
3 SPOTTED TOWHEE
2 BLACK PHEOBE
2 NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER
3 BEWICK'S WREN
3 CASSIN'S KINGBIRD
4 MOURNING DOVE
2 RED-TAILED HAWK
1 HUTTON'S VIREO
CALIFORNIA GNAT-CATHCER (heard only)
1 SAY'S PHEOBE
3 RAVEN

CALIFORNIA GNAT-CATCHER, HUTTON'S VIREO, and SPOTTED TOWHEE are also year birds for me, bringing my total to 131 birds.