Team Nebraska watching the Rose Bowl.
But, our day wasn't completely birdless. Mike saw a Blue Jay on a birding walk this morning, I saw a female Cardinal at the bird feeder and Ty saw a House Sparrow, both from the warmth of our kitchen.
Ty scoping out the backyard on Dec 31st.
Fortunately, other members of the family were on the ball. Mom made the first sighting of the Family Big Year. A Junco at the feeder on their patio. In addition to a different Junco, Nancy saw a Not Turkey, a.k.a. Crow!
Mom's morning bird buddy.
Is that your lucky birding shirt?
Nancy submitted this next sighting, which prompts me to remind everyone of the rules. All sighting reports are welcome (the more details the better), but only real bird species will be tallied.
Here's an "old bird" eating birdseed (Dad's words).
But, hey, way to go, Team Peltier! I can't improve on Michael's email so am pasting from it here (parental warning for language).
Greetings to all and a Happy New Year to each. The start the big year has
begun and the Rappana/Peltier contingent took full advantage of our milder
climet.
I’m not sure if this is an omen for things to come. If so, I can only extend my condolences to the rest of you. The second bird on our 2014 list is an American Bald Eagle. No sh$%^&t. That was the second bird we saw as we began our Big Year at Lafayette Heritage Park about three miles from our cat infested house ( known henceforth for birding purposes as "The Killing Fields.")
Mary Jo runs there a lot and it is also the site of her weekend walks with a handful of her girl friends who make the trek to check in with each other and solve the world’s problems. Men are not allowed.
We enlisted -or more accurately conscripted – Ky to come along with us, pulling him away from Netflix. Sam got out of the outing by going to soccer practice. Ky was not so lucky.
We call Ky our “urban birder.” We’re sending along a photo to give you an idea why. I think the ear buds give him away, but we had to throw stuff at him today to make him stop walking since he could not hear us with so much music in his ears.
Along with the eagle, we saw a bunch of other species. MJ had a chance to catch a great blue heron in flight after stealthily walking up within 20 feet of it. We expect that you northern birders will make up for the winter calm when spring and summer hit. When it gets really hot down here, the smarter animals go north. Anyway, here is what we saw today.
I’m not sure if this is an omen for things to come. If so, I can only extend my condolences to the rest of you. The second bird on our 2014 list is an American Bald Eagle. No sh$%^&t. That was the second bird we saw as we began our Big Year at Lafayette Heritage Park about three miles from our cat infested house ( known henceforth for birding purposes as "The Killing Fields.")
Mary Jo runs there a lot and it is also the site of her weekend walks with a handful of her girl friends who make the trek to check in with each other and solve the world’s problems. Men are not allowed.
We enlisted -or more accurately conscripted – Ky to come along with us, pulling him away from Netflix. Sam got out of the outing by going to soccer practice. Ky was not so lucky.
We call Ky our “urban birder.” We’re sending along a photo to give you an idea why. I think the ear buds give him away, but we had to throw stuff at him today to make him stop walking since he could not hear us with so much music in his ears.
Along with the eagle, we saw a bunch of other species. MJ had a chance to catch a great blue heron in flight after stealthily walking up within 20 feet of it. We expect that you northern birders will make up for the winter calm when spring and summer hit. When it gets really hot down here, the smarter animals go north. Anyway, here is what we saw today.
1 - Great
(White) Egret
2 - American
Bald Eagle
3 - Anhinga (red
headed)
4 - Great Blue
Heron (IPhone foto)
5 - Cardinal
(both male and female)
6 - Pileated
Woodpecker
7 - Winter
Wren
.JPG)
.JPG)
Count:
Day 1 - 11 species
