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Keeping A List...

The best bird I ever saw was a snowy owl. It was sitting on the K-Mart roof in Arlington. Some guy let me look through his telescope at it. Absolutly beautiful. I've kept a list of birds seen either in my yard, in the surrounding woods, or flying over my yard. I started on June 19, 2000. To this list, I've added some birds that I know I've seen here in the past, such as the Ruffed Grouse, Baltimore Oriole, and Cedar Waxwing. The total is up to 54 as of March 6, 2009. I have positively identified another 38 birds in other U.S. locations. According to "the State of the Birds" Web site, there are 800 brid species in the United States. I'll be happy when I reach 100.

Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Mallard (Duck) Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Ring-necked Pheasant Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey American Woodcock Herring Gull Rock Dove (Pigeon) Mourning Dove Eastern Screech-Owl Barred Owl Ruby-throated Hummingbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Phoebe Blue Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Wren Eastern Bluebird Veery Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird European Starling

Cedar Waxwing American Redstart Common Yellowthroat Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch Evening Grosbeak House Sparrow

 

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In February of 2009, we visited J.P. and Anne in the Dominican Republic. I saw a few new birds indiginous to the DR, I would have done better, but, a) I didn't have binoculars and b) I didn't do any specific bird-watching activities, just tried to identify the birds in front of my face. The Palm Chat is the National Bird of the Dominican Republic.

Palm Chat Antillean Palm Swift Yellow-billed Cuckoo Greater Antillean Grackle Cattle Egret Common Ground Dove Hispaniolan Woodpecker Black-crowned Palm Tanager