Yardbirding ~ a spring in review

Because I'm in a blogging mood, I'm going to write a quick post about my yardbirding this spring.

Also in this issue of - Chronicles of a Bruce Birder - A new look for the blog! .. I was getting tired of green.

My yard tends to get good species diversity over the spring, but not very high counts of birds in general (one of this and one of that). This spring was quite slow on the songbird front, I had a few good morning flight days.. but nothing crazy. However it was really fun birding here and it was cool to see how many species pass through my yard over the course of a spring. As I said in previous posts, normally I'm all over the county in May, so I didn't know what to expect.
It was a good spring for raptors here, with a total of 678 seen (including TVs). I put the raptors in bold on the list.

Below are the species/totals from eBird (yard lifers are highlighted in Orange). 

*quick note. According to eBird I saw 160 Ruffed Grouse, 78 Red-breasted Nuthatches and 90 American Woodcocks. I know that these counts are insanely high and a lot of them are the same birds repeated on lists day after day.. so In
did some editing to account for that. 

Canada Goose - 2268
Canada/Cackling Goose - 1
Tundra Swan - 8
Wood Duck - 68
Gadwall - 1 
American Wigeon - 4
Mallard - 622
American Black Duck - 51
Northern Pintail - 10
Green-winged Teal- 4
Ring-necked Duck - 1
Bufflehead - 5
Common Goldeneye- 3
Hooded Merganser - 15
Common Merganser - 38
Ruffed Grouse - 5 
Wild Turkey - 8
Pied-billed Grebe - 2
Mourning Dove - 17
Common Nighthawk - 8
Eastern Whip-poor-will - 7 
Chimney Swift - 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 22
Virginia Rail - 1
Sandhill Crane - 58
Killldeer - 38
American Woodcock - 11
Wilson's Snipe- 7
Greater Yellowlegs - 6
Ring-billed Gull - 970
Herring Gull- 786
Great Black-backed Gull -  2
Gull sp - 70
Caspian Tern - 1
Common Loon - 48
Double-crested Cormorant- 96
American Bittern - 3
Great Blue Heron- 27
Great Egret - 7
Turkey Vulture - 341
Osprey - 2
Nothern Harrier - 30
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 16
Northern Goshawk - 4 (I have 8 on eBird, but I think 4 were repeats of one adult)
Accipiter sp - 3
Bald Eagle - 151
Red-shouldered Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk- 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 18
Rough-legged Hawk - 11
Eastern Screech Owl - 1
Great Horned Owl - 2
Belted Kingfisher - 18
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 15
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker- 4
Hairy Woodpecker - 3
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 88
American Kestral - 13
Merlin - 14
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Olive-sided Flycatcher - 1
Eastern Wood-pewee - 7
Least Flycatcher- 13
Eastern Pheobe - 5
Great Crested Flycatcher 
Eastern Kingbird - 4
Yellow-throated Vireo - 1
Blue-headed Vireo - 4
Philadelphia Vireo - 1
Warbling Vireo - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 18
Blue Jay - 170
American Crow - 411
Common Raven - 16
Black-capped Chickadee - 18
Horned Lark - 6
Northern Rough-winged Swallow- 5
Purple Martin - 1
Tree Swallow - 68
Bank Swallow - 2
Barn Swallow - 57
Cliff Swallow - 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 51
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 76
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 4
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Brown Creeper - 17
House Wren - 6
Winter Wren - 12
European Starling - 576
Gray Catbird - 5
Brown Thrasher - 3
Eastern Bluebird - 17
Veery - 12
Hermit Thrush- 16
Wood Thrush- 6
American Robin - 759
Cedar Waxwing - 88
American Pipit - 5
Purple Finch - 28
American Goldfinch - 388
Lapland Longspur - 1
Snow Bunting - 21
Chipping Sparrow - 37
Field Sparrow - 1
American Tree Sparrow - 14
Fox Sparrow- 3
Dark-eyed Junco - 56
White-crowned Sparrow - 45
White-throated Sparrow - 239
Vesper Sparrow - 1 
Savannah Sparrow- 1
Song Sparrow - 24
Lincoln's Sparrow - 2
Eastern Towhee - 3
Bobolink - 58
Eastern Meadowlark - 3
Orchard Oriole - 1
Baltimore Oriole - 51
Red-winged Blackbird - 1235
Brown-headed Cowbird - 95
Rusty Blackbird - 67
Common Grackle - 979
Blackbird sp - 24
Ovenbird - 11
Northern Waterthush - 1
Golden/Blue-winged Warbler - 1
Black-and-white Warbler- 18
Tennessee Warbler - 2
Nashville Warbler - 52
Common Yellowthroat - 4
American Redstart - 18
Cape May Warbler - 8
Northern Parula - 4
Magnolia Warbler- 8
Bay-breasted Warbler - 1
Blackburnian Warbler- 7
Yellow Warbler - 4
Chesnut-sided Warbler - 8 
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 6
Palm Warbler - 21
Pine Warbler - 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 268 
Black-throated Green Warbler - 34
Canada Warbler - 1
Warbler sp - 40
Scarlet Tanager- 13
Northern Cardinal - 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 28
Indigo Bunting - 12   

Total number of species - 151 + 5 taxa
Total number of individuals- 12,678
Total number of eBird checklists -167
Number of yard lifers - a satisfying 10

Did I have any weird misses this spring? Yess... lots. Here's a list of some that I was hoping for/almost expecting;

Northern Shoveler 
Blue-winged Teal
Rock Pigeon (!?)
Black-billed Cuckoo
A shorebird of some kind 
Black-crowned Night-heron 
Green Heron (still need it for yard life!)
Golden Eagle (usually get one in April...)
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Yellow-bellied/Alder/Willow Flycatcher 
Grey-checked Thrush
Swainson's Thrush (😳)
Clay-coloured Sparrow 
Swamp Sparrow 
Mourning Warbler 
Blackpoll Warbler 
Orange-crowned Warbler 
Wilson's Warbler 

So yeah.. 165 could have been possible if I had a bit more luck. 

Anyway just felt like writing a quick post on numbers.. because I like that kind of thing.. 

I'll try to keep posting content this summer.. I usually forget about my blog in the warmer months.. but I'll *try* not to this year .

I'll sign off with a few of my favourite pictures from this spring.. of a nice little Vesper Sparrow that popped by the yard.


- looking pretty confused in this one

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