May 4th, 2015

Fellow Outdoor Ed. Guy, Al Woodhouse and myself, have an annual competition to see who can see more species of birds at his respective outdoor centre each year.  My yearly totals for the past 3 years have been 103, 96 and 89. Al generally beats me by 15 or so. This year I have re-doubled my efforts.

So far I have, in order:

White-breasted Nuthatch

Blue Jay

Tree Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

American Crow

Red-tailed Hawk

American Goldfinch

House Finch

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Red-breasted Nuthatch

American Robin

Cedar Waxwing

Ring-billed Gull

Canada Goose

Mallard

Common Redpoll

Pileated Woodpecker

Herring Gull

Kildeer

Red-winged Blackbird

Starling

Cowbird

Turkey Vulture

House Sparrow

Coopers Hawk

Song Sparrow

Grackle

Northern Flicker

Swamp Sparrow

Common Merganser

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Phoebe

Osprey

Pied-billed Grebe

Bufflehead

Double-crested Cormorant

Chipping Sparrow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Field Sparrow

Great Blue Heron

Ring-necked Duck

Common Goldeneye

Barn Swallow

Horned Grebe

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Wild Turkey

Belted Kingfisher

Hermit Thrush

White-throated Sparrow

Wood Duck

Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher

Green Heron

Brown Thrasher

Common Loon

American Woodcock

White-crowned Sparrow

House Wren

Yellow Warbler

Grey catbird

That’s 64 by my count… Al knows his warblers better than I do, so I need to get as many as I can, and I need to get more ducks and shorebirds, because Al has a much smaller wetland at Camp Heidelberg than I do at Laurel Creek. Come on Passenger Pigeon!