New Year/ New Birds, A Pelican showed up

Pine Siskins

January 1st is Christmas day to birders. When the ball drops all of the old birds are new again. Even a robin or a herring gull gets a look because we get to count them as a "yearbird" again. Since most folks have New Years Day off, I can tell you many birders are out BEFORE the crack of dawn listening for first of the year owls. I, of course, had to work.

So for me, my New Years Day was Thursday/ Friday. I did go close to home to get Common Redpolls in Lincoln on Tuesday after work and then I went to the Cumberland Monastery and got your typical feeder birds Chickadees, Titmice, White Breasted Nuthatch, etc...

However I could barely sleep Wednesday night. It was rainy Thursday morning which only turned my anticipation into agony. My son went birding with me on Thursday. On Friday he hung out with a high school friend so I went alone. Both days I hit multiple places. I decided to chase rare birds and pick up the more common species as they come. This plan will make my number a little lower, but in the end it should get me more birds.

The only problem with this plan is you can waste a lot of time waiting for a rare bird to show. This happened to me both days. Thursday, DJ and I tried for Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeaks near the Connecticut border without any luck. Between waiting and driving, that cost us five hours.

Today, I went back looking for those birds. I got the Siskins but dipped again on the Grosbeaks. At the end of my day, I looked for the Yellow Breasted Chat at Trustom, my last bird of 2018. I waited until dark, but it never came out of the brush.

Although I really wanted these two species (about 7 hours of daylight melted away while looking for these birds) I still managed to see some really good birds. Part of my plan was to look for the species that gave me trouble in 2018. If I could get them out of the way early then I wouldn't have to waste time on them next winter.

As usual, I dipped on the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. However, I got Red Breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and Hairy Woodpecker while striking out with the Evening Grosbeaks. I saw a Peregrine Falcon on the Jamestown Bridge. At Beavertail I got a Long Tailed Duck and Razorbill. All of these species gave me fits in 2018. I saw a flock of Pine Siskins at a feeder today, They were a lifer for me a month ago and the one I saw was a flyover. I was happy to study them in my binoculars to start the new year. I found the Red Crossbills at Nicholas Farm. There is no guarantee they will come back next winter.

Another bird I saw today was a raven. I got one in December but I only heard it. Today I saw one as it flew parallel to my car for a few seconds. Two other good birds were Iceland Gull and Black Headed Gull. Flying over the ocean I saw a Northern Gannet. DJ and I also saw a Bald Eagle yesterday.

All told I've saw 66 species so far. Most of those over the last two days. I would be thrilled with this but one guy already has 93 species!!! I don't know how that is even possible.

As I said, I chased rarities. I wasted a lot of time on two species I didn't get. I'm sure I could have gotten 70 (NOT 93!) if I had that time.  It was really nice to get my nemesis birds on Jan 3,4.There are still a lot of birds out there and I hope to get a bunch more next week.

The best bird of the day was a BROWN PELICAN. It was reported at the fishing docks in Galilee this morning. I didn't see the report for two hours but I was on my way to Scarborough when I saw it so I was only minutes away. Matt Schenck was walking back from it and told me right where to go. It was a few feet from fishermen unloading a boat. It was cold, but not hungry because the fishermen fed it. I took 20 pics from six feet away. I left after only a few minutes. I felt bad for the pelican. This cold climate is far from it's comfort zone. Doubtful it will survive.  More photos below

Pine Siskins and the photo below

Red Breasted Nuthatch