Yard birding - Oct 16 - 27th

- Oct 16

A rather pleasant morning weather wise, sunny with a warm breeze from the southwest. The birding wasn't that great though - 32 species during my morning watch. Morning flight was OK numbers wise, no big highlights but it was still fun birding. totals listed below;

- 2 Eastern Bluebirds

- 70 American Robins

- 20 American Pipits

- 13 Purple Finches

- 45 Pine Siskins

- 2 Lapland Longspurs

- 2 Chipping Sparrows

- 1 Eastern Meadowlarks

- 600 Red-winged Blackbirds

- 55 Rusty Blackbirds

- 300 Common Grackles

- 70 Yellow-rumped Warblers

There was also a Fox Sparrow singing.. kinda cool.

- Yellow-rumped Warblers

- Eastern Meadowlark

- Oct 17/18

writeoff.. out of yard both days

- Oct 19

Pretty similar to the 16th in terms of species diversity (as I got 32 species again), but the overall numbers were a lot lower. The birding felt pretty slow, but still a decent morning flight for late October. Totals listed bellooowwww........

- 3 Horned Larks

- 17 Eastern Bluebirds

- 8 American Robins

- 5 American Pipits

- 3 Purple Finches

- 35 Pine Siskins

- 2 Lapland Longspurs

- 1 Fox Sparrow (a rather uncommon morning flight bird)

- 4 Eastern Meadowlarks

- 150 Red-winged Blackbirds

- 26 Rusty Blackbirds

- 300 Common Grackles

- 16 Yellow-rumped Warblers

- Pine Siskin

- Rusty Blackbirds

- Rusties

- Fox Sparrow

A lingering Black-throated Green Warbler was the highlight of the morning.

Black-throated Green Warbler

- Oct 20

The day started off with a singing Fox Sparrow, so I took that as a good sign for my morning. The wind had shifted overnight and was predicted to be coming from north all day, so I had high hopes for some migration action. One of my first morning flight birds was a Common Redpoll, which was new for the yard yearlist. Another half hour of blackbirds and pipits passed before my next highlight... which came in the form of a lone Evening Grosbeak heading south. Shortly after that I had 5 more, then another 2 later in the morning, the finches are moving! The biggest surprise of the day didn't come until later though, when I looked up to see a Northern Shrike fairly high up bombing south! I've never seen this species actively migrating before, so I was quite excited. I whipped my camera up and rattled a few shots off before it disappeared over the treeline. I started getting a few migrating raptors around 10am, so I decided to stay out until noon to see if a flight got going. It kind of fizzled out around 11am, but I saw 25 raptors so I was happy enough. Totals from the morning flight listed below;

- 6 Mallards

- 1 Northern Pintail

- 8 Sandhill Cranes

- 2 Common Loons

- 2 Northern Harriers

- 7 Bald Eagles

- 9 Red-tailed Hawks

- 7 Rough-legged Hawks

- 2 American Kestrals

- 1 Northern Shrike

- 350 American Crows

- 15 European Starlings

- 40 American Robins

- 25 American Pipits

-8 Evening Grosbeaks

- 1 Purple Finch

- 2 Common Redpolls

- 150 Pine Siskins

- 18 American Goldfinches

- 600 Red-winged Blackbirds

- 15 Rusty Blackbirds

- 900 Common Grackles

- 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers

One of the best mornings I've had this month for sure!

- Northern Shrike

In the evening I was outside and heard the distinctive tooting of a Northern Saw-whet Owl, not a bad way to end a great day! Oddly enough, I had a NSWO on October 20th last year too..

Owl recording here

Owl call

- Oct 21

Rainy/no birding to speak of.

- Oct 22

Some Fox Sparrows, a Winter Wren and a Northern Harrier were the only birds of note.

- Oct 23

A rather crazy weather day for late October... 20° C!! The wind was very strong out of the south, so ear birding was pretty challenging. I only tallied 19 species during my morning watch, with the only highlight being large American Pipit numbers (270).

- American Pipit

- Oct 24

I woke up to what I'd call ideal weather for fall birding here.. sunny and light north wind. The first bird of the day was a drumming Ruffed Grouse, which was a nice start. I then spotted a late Nashville Warbler in a tree beside my house, so that was cool. There was a crazy number of Fox Sparrows hopping around in leaves in my front yard, I ended up with a conservative count of 21!

Morning flight took a bit to get going and was dominated by blackbirds and Pine Siskins. American Crows were pushing south all morning, and I ended up recording close to 1000 by the end of the day. Redpolls were also moving through, although still in quite small nunbers (groups of 2-4). Raptors started moving around 10am, but then a few bands of light rain came through and shut down the flight. Luckily the sun came back out by 11am and the raptors started up again. The numbers weren't great.. but the diversity was nice so I'm not complaining. My biggest highlight of the day came around 9am though, when a flock of Canada Geese went over with 4 white geese mixed in with them. 2 were Ross's Geese (yard lifer!) and the other 2 were either Ross's or SnowxRoss's hybrids, I just didn't see them well enough to be sure. I ended up recording 52 species, one of my best late October days by far.

Morning flight/hawkwatch totals below.

- 2 Ross's Geese

- 2 white goose sp

- 360 Canada Geese

- 25 Mallards

- 3 American Black Ducks

- 11 Sandhill Cranes

- 3 Greater Yellowlegs

- 1 Common Loon

- 4 Turkey Vultures

- 6 Northern Harriers

- 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks

- 8 Bald Eagles

- 1 Red-shouldered Hawk

- 15 Red-tailed Hawks

- 4 Rough-legged Hawks

- 1 Merlin

- 800 American Crows

- 5 Horned Larks

- 30 American Robins

- 15 American Pipits

- 1 Evening Grosbeak

- 14 Purple Finches

- 14 Common Redpolls

- 270 Pine Siskins

- 1 Snow Bunting

- 400 Red-winged Blackbirds

- 35 Rusty Blackbirds

- 800 Common Grackles

- 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers

- 3,495 individual birds

Not a bad morning!

Ross's and Canada Geese

- Rough-legged Hawk

- Nashville Warbler

- Red-tailed Hawk

- Northern Harrier

- Red-shouldered Hawk

- Common Redpoll

- Rough-legged Hawk

- Canada Goose pretending it's a Sandhill Crane

This "abieticola" Red-tailed Hawk was a nice treat too.

- abieticola Red-tailed Hawk

- Oct 25

Out of the yard all morning..nothing to noteeeee.

- Oct 26

A damp, rainy morning.. only highlight was 65 Evening Grosbeaks at my feeder. Later in the day I had a Pine Grosbeaks down the road from my place... so close, yet so far.

- Evening Grosbeak

- Oct 27

Another rainy morning. Only noteworthy birds were; Evening Grosbeak, Common Redpoll, Fox Sparrow and Northern Cardinal (4 cardinals!! Highcount for my yard..).

Later in the afternoon I was outside doing chores when I heard Bohemian Waxwings calling above me! I whirled around to see a flock of 21 waxwings circle a few times, then land beside a stand of junipers. I ran inside and grabbed my camera, and luckily the birds were still there when I came back. They didn't seem to mind my presence at all, I was able to approach fairly close for photos. Then, as quickly as they appeared, they took off and headed north. I've only had BOWAs once before here, so I was pretty stoked to see these birds.