Trudell & York, DHP

DHP, you ask? "Designated Holiday Photo"



Matthew York, Heidi Trudell, F.P. "Pete" & Irene, Anakin (photo by Janna York)

The above photo is from two weekends ago when my folks came up from Houston to visit. They were lacking a photo to send out with their Christmas cards, so we fixed that ;-)

Last weekend, Matt and I attempted our first Christmas Bird Count as a married couple. We're still on speaking terms, no worries! Our accomplices, Jane and Gary, were great spotters and by the middle of the afternoon we were up to 67 species. Mind you, we slept in; our group met at 8 and disbanded at 4! Quite a relaxing shift from the breakneck speed and competitive spirit of the coast.

So, courtesy of ebird, here's the final list we submitted. Documentation for a few of the critters is in the works - Common Loon, Least Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Gray Catbird will require notes to be submitted because they are not commonly recorded here in the winter.

Location: McLennan County, TX, US
Observation date: 12/19/09
Notes: 58 miles (2.5 hrs) by car, 2.5 miles (5 hrs) on foot. 8:30 am until 4:10 pm.
Number of species: 67

Gadwall 14
American Wigeon 4
Mallard 6
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 4
Ring-necked Duck 2
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Neotropic Cormorant 2
Double-crested Cormorant 8
Great Blue Heron 6
Great Egret 2
Black Vulture 4
Turkey Vulture 31
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 4
American Kestrel 8
American Coot 8
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 460
Forster's Tern 1
Mourning Dove 12
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Least Flycatcher 1 silent empid, slight teardrop shape to the eye ring
Eastern Phoebe 4
Loggerhead Shrike 4
American Crow 26
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Carolina Wren 2
Bewick's Wren 5
House Wren 2
Marsh Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 11
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Eastern Bluebird 22
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 26
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 13
American Pipit 51
Cedar Waxwing 46
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 70
Spotted Towhee 2
Chipping Sparrow 15
Field Sparrow 3 1 partially leucistic (white tail and part of primaries)
Vesper Sparrow 12
Savannah Sparrow 2
Fox Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 9
Lincoln's Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 4
Harris's Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 18
Northern Cardinal 24
meadowlark sp. 62
Brown-headed Cowbird 50
House Finch 8
American Goldfinch 6

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Festive Ramahannukwanzmas to all, and to all a Fröhliche Weihnachten!