The Christmas Bird Count is still to come, but I don’t
expect to see any more life birds. And although I didn’t reach two hundred life
birds it has been a spectacular year for birding. I got to see my first Snowy
Owl. I also saw my first Eastern Meadowlark and Horned Lark that I have been
searching for, for a couple years now. Interesting enough I first correctly
identified the Horned Lark in early November in a farm field by its call. A
month later I got to see my first
Horned Lark in a different location.
The biggest thing I learned this year was understanding the
size of birds better. As I began getting interested in birding and for anyone that
does, one of the first things you learn quickly is to generalize the size of a
bird. For example, “that bird is the size of a sparrow or that bird is the size
of a robin”. They are quick general identifiers to quickly understand what kind
of bird you are looking at. This year I have been able to understand that
concept and use it more thoroughly. For example the Black-capped Chickadee,
White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse frequent together in winter. They
are all a sparrow-sized bird. But when you get down to it, the chickadee is a
much smaller bird and the titmouse can some times look huge next to the
chickadee.
Subsequently, where can I improve? I can improve in finding
the unseen bird. As a birder this is pretty common. Birds are often found high
in trees or blending in with rocks, grass or trees and often can be heard but
not seen. Many people not searching for birds will never see many birds that
are right in front of them. For me it will be learning more about finding birds
that I know could be somewhere and finding them. This year on one of our annual
trips to Cuttyhunk, a small island off of Cape Cod, we did not find any warblers.
And although most of the migration had moved through already the likelihood
that there was at least one warbler there was good and yet we did not see one. For
me it will be learning more about bird behavior and techniques to find these
often quiet and overlooked birds.
In my next blog I hope to share what birds
I would like to see in 2013 and a recap of the Christmas Bird Count.