Starting The Year With A Big January Bird Count

I got out to do my first birding of 2014 this weekend. I got off to a slow start on Saturday. We had wicked cold temperatures the previous two days that froze all the area ponds and the woods that I checked seemed fairly quiet.

I tallied up a few of the easiest species such as Canada Goose but didn't come across anything out of the ordinary.

I participated in one of the bird counts on Saturday and out territory happened to be Hammonasset. I was with a small group and we only covered a small portion of the park. We had a cold, drizzling rain that was freezing on contact and making conditions slippery. It also made viewing difficult because our binocular lenses kept getting wet.

 Finding a Pine Warbler this time of the year was one of the big highlights of the day. We also had Clay-colored Sparrow, Horned Grebes, Snow Buntings and a Peregrine Falcon. I think we tallied about 48 species in our little section. 

On the way home I came across some ducks in the Brownstone Quarry. At the time I only noticed Hooded Mergansers and Mallards but snapped a quick photo. When I came home I noticed that I had missed seeing the Ring-necked Ducks that had been mixed in with the others.

If there wasn't a bird count to go to I might have just stayed home and watched football on Sunday. It turned out to be worth while despite the somewhat dismal weather.