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A Pond Trail Big Year?

A House Finch
House Finch

I spend a lot of time birding the trail that runs parallel to our street down to the pond. I usually stop at the pond (the trail goes on and connects to an extensive network of trails) and on school days, I typically turn around and head home. It’s a short (maybe half-mile) walk from the door to the pond and back. I typically see a good variety of birds but never counted the species.

This year, starting with curiosity about what kinds of overwintering ducks are on the pond, I began listing the birds I saw and entering my counts into ebird. If I do this for an entire year, I should have a good sense of what birds pass through here and at what times of the year. I’m also curious as to how many species I can find within this short range from my house.

Call it my pond trail big year. Or maybe, it’ll be a small or medium year. I don’t know what to expect, but that’s part of the fun.

I’m not shooting for any specific number since I have no idea what all species are around here. I just want to see how many I see. I’ve already ID’d some life birds on the trail and hopefully a few more will pop up over the next 11 months so there’s that to look forward to also.

Most important, is the excuse to get outside, enjoy nature and watch the world do its thing. Not that I need an excuse for that.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

  1. Gadwall
  2. American Wigeon
  3. Northern Shoveler
  4. Northern Pintail
  5. Ring-necked Duck
  6. Blue-winged Teal
  7. Least Grebe Pied-billed Grebe
  8. Great Blue Heron
  9. Great Egret
  10. Black Vulture
  11. Turkey Vulture
  12. White-winged Dove
  13. Mourning Dove
  14. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  15. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
  16. Eastern Phoebe
  17. Blue Jay
  18. American Crow
  19. Carolina Chickadee
  20. Black-crested Titmouse
  21. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  22. Northern Mockingbird
  23. Orange-crowned Warbler
  24. Yellow-rumped Warbler
  25. Northern Cardinal
  26. House Finch
  27. American Goldfinch
Published inBirds

4 Comments

  1. Sounds like a fun project! Many birders keep yard lists, but adding your trail and pond will make things much more interesting. And Least Grebe is a great find for a neighborhood bird list.

  2. […] it a cool day. Still, I figured I’d see what birds were out, do my weekly count for my Pond Trail Big Year and have a look at what the hailstorm did last week. I forgot to charge my camera battery, so no […]

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