First birds of ’11

I love it. It’s that time of year again when I reset my year list and every single species is just waiting to get back on. It might also be the part of birding that most confuses the non-birders around us. They say, “But you just saw a Cooper’s Hawk yesterday, why are you so excited about seeing it again?”, or “Did you seriously just cheer when you saw that House Sparrow?” Well, what can I say. You either get it or you don’t.

So I had about an hour this evening to dig up any species I could find to start up my year list. I picked up Ring-necked Duck, Redhead and Northern Shoveler at the Duck Pond and American Tree Sparrows, Northern Mockingbird and lots of robins at the PSU Retention Pond. It was a lousy start but hopefully the Northern Lycoming CBC will get me a couple more species tomorrow.

male Mallard

male Mallard

Rock Pigeons

Rock Pigeons

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Canada Geese flying past the water tower