Today is the 100th day of the year, and I’m still alive in the Bird-a-Day Challenge! My original goal was simply to beat last year’s lame total. In my previous update I figured I had a least 6 more weeks to play, which brought me up to the end of March. Now, at 100 birds, I have a new goal. I hope to make it another four weeks until I visit my family in northern Illinois next month. It’s going to be tough. First, a quick look back at birds 50-100. You can see the list (for this update, from February 19 to today) here.
I picked up two great birds over my birthday weekend, with a Green-tailed Towhee on February 26 and a Long-tailed Duck on the 27th. Neither is common in Florida. Speaking of uncommon, the rarest bird for this batch was undoubtedly the pair of Whooping Cranes Arthur and I went to see in Lake County.
On a visit to the theme parks, I picked up my first Purple Martins of the year at a colony at Epcot.
Purple Martins at Epcot | 21 March 2012
I picked up 8 birds in our yard. Burning through these is usually bad in terms of the game, though it does mean I didn’t spend any fossil fuels to find a bird that day. 24 more birds were found locally, either at Gemini Springs, the Spring-to-spring Trail, or via short non-birding errand trips outside the neighborhood.
Red-shouldered Hawk in our yard | 31 March 2012
Pine Warbler on the Rail-to-trail bike path in Deltona | 18 March 2012
I found six birds while volunteering at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. My best bird there was a House Finch at the feeders – my first House Finch in Florida! One day, I learned of a couple of rescued baby owls that were recently returned to nests in DeBary. Arthur and I went to check on a Barred Owlet placed in a nest box after its nest tree was cut down, and a baby Great Horned Owl who fell out of a flimsy nest and was returned to its parents in a brand new man-made nest platform. Technically, I counted the adult owls (perched in an adjacent tree) that day, but this image of the baby looking down at me is much cuter for sharing purposes. 🙂
Great Horned Owlet in DeBary | 22 March 2012
Today I checked off another yard bird. Arthur found our FOY Brown Thrashers in our front yard two weeks ago. That was after a long day of birding on 28 March, when I used Purple Sandpiper for my Bird-a-Day. Today the pair returned. Arthur got me out of bed to see them – I’m glad he did. 🙂 The thrashers stuck around; we saw them later in the day and I managed to take this picture through our wavy windows.
Brown Thrasher in our yard | 9 April 2012
The prognosis for my future in this game is a bit shaky. I really want to last until May 8th – 29 more days. That’s when I’ll visit my parents in northern Illinois, where adding a week’s worth of birds should be a breeze. My list of probable / “easy” local birds is down to just 20-something, with a measly five being common in our yard (when you see me use Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Northern Mockingbird or Great Crested Flycatcher, you’ll know I’m in trouble). And of course nothing is certain. I don’t want to start driving around the county to remain in the game… but if it’s May 5th and I’m outta birds — a few little road trips will certainly be very tempting! A day trip to Titusville is already scheduled for next week, and one or two long birding days aren’t out of the question. More than than, though, I can’t say. Stay tuned – I’m going to try for weekly updates from now on.
