Big Year/Local Big Day

So my Big Year ended with 350 birds! I had a great time finding these birds at various states and locations nationwide.
Soon I will write a nice overview of the year.
To end 2012, Angelo and I did a local Big Day – to see how many birds we could come up with within 5 miles of our house.
We came up with 42 species, not a bad way to end the year.

350!

A trip to look at some power lines east of Bakersfield produced bird #350 for the year – Lawrences Goldfinch. A beautiful bird for sure. This bird was mixed in with a flock of sparrows and juncoes, glad I got at least one more in before 2013.

10 Days and counting….

2012 is drawing to a close as is my Big Year! While 400 was a longshot, getting 350 or above will be quite the feat considering this Big Year was done without any traveling outside of weekend family trips and after work hours. Still a couple I can find locally, gotta get out for the fianl push.

Couple new birds!

I was able to find a couple new birds this weekend, one on my own and one with the Christmas count crew. Amongst a large flock of blackbirds, I found a female Yellow-Headed Blackbird. While not as striking as her male conterpart, she was still a beautiful bird. She will go down as #348.
#349, a Eurasian Wigeon, was found amongst a group of other ducks while scoping out a large flooded field with the local CBC crew.
One to go for #350!

Christmas Count

Looking forward to participating in the local Audubon Christmas count this weekend.
Will probably not add any new birds, but the Christmas count is always a fun way to wrap up a birding year.

Coast Range

Spent a couple hours Saturday birding in a couple canyons of the California Coast range. New birds for the year included:
#345 – California Thrasher
#346 – Wrentit
#347 – Canyon Wren
350+ seems like a nice # for the year, a trip to SF next weekend should get me there.

Varied Thrush

Last evening I took a brief walk in the nature area @ Lodi Lake and heard a Varied Thrush. Was very much hoping to see this beautiful bird, but he waas deep in some brush and it was twilight. Still a great find for #344.