Adventures in Birding

#37-40, Epic birding day!

poisonivy and I had an epic birding day today! She started off by hearing a Great-Horned Owl while walking her dog early this morning and then while I was at a dentist visit, she watched a known Eastern Screech Owl sunning itself in a hollowed out tree. We thought we'd go for a streak of owls so that she could have three in one day, so we headed out to see the Snowy Owl.

We totally lucked out and spotted it right away right next to the road! I got this amazing photo  ! I think that could be one of my best ever bird photos! I'm still in shock over it!

After that, we drove to a nearby road where there were sightings of a Red-headed Woodpecker from early in January. We didn't expect to see it since there weren't any sightings since, but we figured we'd check since we were in the area. It's also one of our "dream" lifers. We drove to an area that's known to have them last year, but we didn't see one. Today, we saw two people standing on the side of the road looking at some trees with binoculars, and guess what they were looking at?! #37, Red-headed Woodpecker! Woot!

In the area, we also saw four Red-tail Hawks! It's a lot of farm land so I guess it attracts a lot of mice, rats, etc., and the birds come to feast! It was such an awesome birding day!

(Also, I apparently forgot three species from recent trips! My numbers weren't matching up and I realized I forgot two: #38, Red-bellied Woodpecker and #39, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and #40, American Goldfinch), so I'm at 40 now!

When I set a "lifer" goal of five birds for this year, I thought I was being unrealistic. It's only two weeks into the new year, and I have two lifers already!