Yesterday I met up with Jane at 4:30 a.m. and we headed to LaPlace for Audubon's 109th Christmas Bird Count for the Reserve-Bonnet Carre Spillway territory. It was 10 hours of counting birds and we were fortunate in that it only sprinkled and the heavy rains didn't hit till we were on our way back to Baton Rouge.
Birds Overhead 12.28.08
View Larger HERE
We counted 65 species of birds and thousands of individuals of those species total. I saw a lot that I have never seen before, which was great. My highlights of the day were a handful of Eastern Bluebirds off of River Road in an old Pecan Orchard with a dilapidated barn and field of cows in the distance, Red-shouldered Hawks, and the male Common Yellowthroat Warbler who we found in between the Mississippi and the levee in the brush of the batture.
Mississippi River Batture 12.28.08
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I am so thankful that Jane let me tag along for this, it was a great first CBC experience.
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Last week..
I found two types of Narcissus tazetta in two separate locations (one an old home site), both of which were hiding and were probably planted between the 1920s and the 1940s. I love coming across old southern heirloom bulbs like this, especially when they are in unexpected locations.
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The wintering Goldfinches are finally visiting the thistle feeders in decent numbers.
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My first backyard Camellia bloomed.
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More Downy Woodpeckers have been showing up in the yard.
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And there are two to three new Night Herons visiting the lake in the evenings (and a Tri-Colored Heron too).
View Larger HERE
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Oh, and a great new find that I highly recommend for anyone who drinks coffee:
I just got my first bag of the Boreal Blend coffee last week. Not only does Charley Harper's artwork grace the front of all the Coffee for the Birds blends, it is actually a very tasty shade-grown coffee (and part of the proceeds go towards "raising awareness of the connection between coffee and migratory bird populations and supporting educational and non-profit organizations dedicated to bird conservation").
Read more about and order Coffee for the Birds HERE
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And...now comes the time to rush rush rush to get the end of the year X, Y, and Z for day-lab done and A, B, and C for the new year for day-lab started, which will keep me more than busy until January 5th. :)
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1 comment:
Oh how neat about the Christmas Bird Count. I tagged along for the count here in Fairbanks, AK but we're a low-diverse spot so we didn't see anything exotic like you did. We mainly had black-capped chickadees and redpolls.
We only had like four hours of sunlight and it was -20 out but it was so nice to take a walk and see all of the birds.
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