January 1st, the beginning

In a lot of ways a big year is a numbers game, so you would think that the goal would be to see all the likely species as soon as possible. Some people may do this, starting with a few big days and trying to be #1 on the eBird top 100, but my approach will be a bit different. I don't want to go crazy in the first week few and burn myself out, so I'm approaching this like a marathon rather than a sprint. There will be plenty of time in the year to get things like Glaucous Gulls and Northern Shrikes.

Anyway for my first day I decided to stay around Paris and see what birds I could find locally. Sure there are a few rarities around that I need to chase, but none of them are overly urgent and I wanted to spend my first day birding, not driving. 

I was hoping to get a nice first species... and would have been happy with a Downy or Red-bellied Woodpecker, anything besides a House Sparrow or European Starling.. but it wasn't meant to be. As soon as I stepped outside I was greeted by the shrill call of a House Sparrow.. Drat!

To start my year, I took my dog on a walk to what used to be my favourite spot in around here in the winter, the Paris Golf Course. I said used to, as it was sold to developers last year and is now being torn apart to create a new subdivision. There is still a nice, albeit small patch of forest edge habitat left there though, so I decided to give it a try. 

The fun thing about birding on the new year's day is, well, everything is new! American Crows and Dark-eyed Juncos are suddenly excting again. Don't get me wrong, I always enjoy seeing common species, but there's something thrilling about seeing first of year (FOY) birds.

The walk turned out to be ok, with Cooper's Hawk, and a flock of Common Redpolls being highlights. When I returned home I was up to 18 species, not crazy, but a start.

I then spent the rest of the morning driving around the countryside with my dad, adding some species to my list including Trumpeter Swan and Northern Flicker. I stopped briefly at a feeder by Glen Moris where Evening Grosbeaks had been reported, since I needed it for Brant County and it's always an awesome bird to see. As soon as pulled up to the house and opened my window I heard the loud, piercing call of an Evening Grosbeak.. tick✔. At least 20 birds were swarming around a feeder, acting in their normal rambunctious way.

Evening Grosbeaks

This was actually my only photo of the day, as the weather wasn't very photography friendly.. future posts will definitely have more photos!

The rest of the morning/early I spent hiking along the Nith River at one of my favourite trails. It was fairly quiet, but there were a few birds around including Eastern Bluebird, Belted Kingfisher and Song Sparrow. 

So not the most exciting day (no rare birds I mean), but it was fun.  I ended up with 40 species for day 1. 

Off for the night now..