If you keep a list of the birds you see each year, yesterday gave you a First Bird of 2018.
Mine was a blue jay.
He received this honor because I decided not to count the birds I heard but did not see. This ruled out the crows flying over my house before dawn and the house sparrows cheeping in my neighbor’s evergreen. I didn’t even look for them.
Perhaps this was cheating. If I’d heard an owl I would have counted it. However, I don’t have to stretch the rules to pick a First Best Bird of 2018.
Yesterday afternoon I joined the Botanical Society of Western PA’s annual New Year’s Day Hike. Twelve of us braved the 10o F weather at Irwin Road in North Park, led by Richard Nugent. (He’s the tall man in the brown coat. I’m in the photo, too, but which one?)
We walked to the old homestead to see the Ozark witch hazel that we visit every year. At the top of the hill was a small flock of birds eating wild grapes, multiflora rose hips and oriental bittersweet. Among them was my First Best Bird of 2018 — a hermit thrush.
What was your First Bird of 2018? Do you have a Best one?
(photo credits: blue jay by Cris Hamilton, hike photo from June Bernard, hermit thrush by Chuck Tague)
Happy New Year! Oh, thank goodness for the loophole… my first bird was a house sparrow.. but the second and best was a Northern Flicker! First time visitor at my feeders – ever! As he pecked at the suet the snow that had accumulated on the top of the feeder fell – plop! – right onto his head. It was better than watching tv!
Happy New Year
First bird of year =Tufted Titmouse. Best first bird of year was =Long-tailed duck.
First bird was *my* song sparrow. She likes to sit in my little house shaped feeder out of the wind, for many minutes at a time, especially early in the morning.
A couple of dark eyed juncos hanging around poolside here in CA. Unlike me, they can’t post pics of their thermometers to relatives back East. Also heard the G H owls, but even with full moon, couldn’t spot them.
If I were in that pic, I’d be the one in purple!
First bird seen: Northern Cardinal. First bird (which was by ear): Carolina Chickadee. Best bird so far: Northern Flicker, a regular but sparse wintering species in southwestern PA.
Which hiker is you? I’m betting on the one on the left in the blue coat. That person is wearing binoculars, most of the others aren’t. I can’t imagine you going for a walk in the woods without binoculars 😀
Peggy, yes that’s me. I’m wearing the same cost in today’s blog about the falconcams.