I was planning on updating this every few days, but the last week has been horrible for weather & I've hardly taken any photos. Things look like they will improve in the next week though, so I'm just going to write a quick post so I don't get too far behind ..
- April 14
April blizzard time! There was wet snow/strong wind all day, so birding wasn't very good. The sun came out briefly in the afternoon, so I went out for a quick skywatch.
Link to my eBird list Here
That was it for birding!
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- April 15
Even less noteworthy than the 14th. The weather was slightly better than the previous day (not hard), but it was still cold and birdless. Highlight was either a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker or a a White-throated Sparrow at the feeder.
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- April 16th
Still cold (high of 2°C) & birdless (seems to be a theme). Highlight was either hearing a Common Loon calling from the wetland down the road, or flushing an American Woodcock in my yard,
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- April 17th
Quite balmy outisde compared the previous day, it was almost t-shirt weather when the temp peaked at 6°C in the afternoon.
In the morning I biked down the road to the local wetland, where I saw 38 species including my first Blue-winged Teal and American Bittern of the year. Some other highlights were; Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Great Egret & Wilson's Snipe.
The yard was fairly quiet all afternoon, with the most notable birds being Tree Swallow and Winter Wren.
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- April 18th
Finally some South winds! I woke up early for a skywatch, which turned out to be pretty dead.. Highlights were Common Loon and Belted Kingfisher. The afternoon turned out to be decent though and I had some flyovers including;
- 9 American Black Ducks
- 1 Green-winged Teal
- 1 Killdear
- 1 Common Loon
- 1 Great Blue Heron
- 3 Bald Eagles
- 2 Red-tailed Hawks
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| - Great Blue Heron |
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| - Bald Eagle |
Yard yearlist total at April 18th - 78
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- April 19
The day started off rather cold/birdless, but things started picking up around noon when the sun came out and I turned out getting my highest species since before 14th. My best birds were;
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Tree Swallow
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Hermit Thrush
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
New additions to Yard year list : Hermit Thrush
Yard yearlist total at April 21st - 79
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- April 20
Since it was warm(ish. 4°C), I got up early again for a morning skywatch. It was fairly quiet, but I did have 2 Common Loons 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers fly over. There was a big push of northbound Canada Geese (600) just after sunrise, but unfortunately there weren't any other goose species mixed in with them. Also of note were 2 Fox Sparrows below my feeder.
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| - Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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| - Canada Geese |
I had a decent skywatch around noon, with the best bird being a Eastern Bluebird (full list here).
The best birding of the day actually was in the evening however, when I did some yard birding from 7-8pm. Some of the highlights were;
- 2 Wood Ducks
- 2 American Black Ducks
- 5 Bufflehead (BUFF is surprisingly rare for my yard, I've only had them a few times.)
- 4 Greater Yellowlegs
- 1 Common Loon
- 2 Great Egrets
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| - Bufflehead |
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| - Greater Yellowlegs |
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| - Great Egrets |
Yard yearlist total at April 21st - 81
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- April 22
Back to cold weather! The wind shifted from South to North overnight, which sadly killed the nocturnal migration. I didn't bother getting up early and basically didn't do any birding until noon, when I decided to do a quick hawkwatch when the sun came out. I was surprised to get birds with the N wind, although the movement was kind of odd (all birds west/south). My raptor tally is listed below
- 7 Turkey Vultures
- 4 Northern Harriers
- 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
- 1 Cooper's Hawk
- 3 Bald Eagles
- 1 Broad-winged Hawk (weirdly enough, I've seen my first Broad-winged Hawk of the year on April 22nd three years in a row!)
- 2 Red-tailed Hawks
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| - TV |
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| - Sharpie |
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| - Cooper's Hawk |
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| - Northern Harrier |
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| - Broad-winged Hawk |
New additions to Yard yearlist: Broad-winged Hawk
Yard yearlist total at April 22nd - 82
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- April 23
Decent birding in the morning, even though there weren't any new migrants around. Just going to link my eBird list below.
eBird list
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Anyway that's in for now, just thought I'd write a quick update. The next few days look to be ok for weathee (9-11°C), however the wind is still northeast so I'm not expecting too much in the way of migrant. Tuesday next week could be good though! If the forecast holds (lol), we might actually get some real south wind for a change.
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| (Windy.com) |
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