Saturday, February 18, 2012

GBBC Around Town

1. COHA in yard-kab Cooper’s Hawk in yard 2-17-12

I counted birds all over Andover yesterday, including my yard, the bog, and the Post Office!

2. Post office-kab 

The Shawsheen River flows right by the post office.

3. geese in cove-kab Canada Geese and Mallards in the Shawsheen River 1-17-12

I often find geese and ducks in this little cove along with sparrows and cardinals along the banks. In the summer I can see swallows, blackbirds and phoebes. Crows, robins, gulls and hawks are also seen at this location, but today I simply saw geese, a few mallards, a song sparrow, a cardinal, and lots of house sparrows.

4. Steven's Pond-kab In the evening we drove by Steven’s Pond in North Andover where I found some Mute Swans along with some geese and mallards again.

5. gulls-kab Sea gulls on an ice shelf in Lake Cochichewick 2-17-12

From there Gus drove me around Lake Cochichewick. The south end was all frozen over, so we did not stop, but the north end near the dam had some open water where I found 10 Hooded Mergansers, 2 common Mergansers and 2 coots! Out over the water sea gulls swooped and soared. some were landing in the water and some on the ice as the sun was sinking beyond the horizon.

6. coot-kab American Coot floating in the glinting light of the setting sun 2-17-12

Yes, I am out counting birds again today for the

Great Backyard Bird Count!

Day 2 New Bird species seen so far today:

  1. White-throated Sparrow in my backyard
  2. Blue Jay in my backyard
  3. Belted Kingfisher at the Stirling Street Bog
  4. Northern Flicker at Sacred Heart Park

So far I have counted 26 species in Andover and 8 species in North Andover!

9 comments:

  1. I saw a Cooper's Hawk in my yard last week.

    Keep counting. I entered yesterday's data.

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  2. It's a beautiful bird I don't have over here Kathie so many thanks for sharing yours.
    XX

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  3. Hi Katie...I wanted to get some counting in too,but so far this weekend it hasn't worked out, but there is still two days so....
    I know you will have a good count!!
    Love the first one of the Cooper!!
    Grace

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  4. i LOVE the cooper hawk!!
    looks & sounds like the 17th was a pretty good day for counting!

    the swan picture is very nice too...with the colorful water reflections!

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  5. I love the first photo, what a great capture.

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  6. Hi Kathie

    I loved the shot of the Coopers Hawk.

    Happy counting.

    Guy

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  7. My count was fairly minimal but then have a large GSD wandering abut doesn't help either. :)

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  8. Coopers Hawk and all the others quite nearby what a great time for spotting birds. Love the photos.

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  9. Gaelyn, great!

    Andrew, no Cooper's there? Mine has been hanging around for 3 days now! But when it is here, the other birds vacate the premises!

    Grace, even one count on one day will help. I have been impressed with how many people have counted in Maine so far this year. Presque Isle is sure making a showing!

    Laura, thank you!

    LindyLouMac, thanks!

    Guy, thanks!

    Troutbirder, I had one count where I entered zero because I saw no birds. It's all about distribution, not large number or wide variety. Good job trying to count!

    Cubey Poet, it sure was fun but I wore myself out!

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Welcome to my nest! I hope you will enjoy spending time here with me and the birds. Thank you for your comments. I will try to get back to you as soon as I get back from counting more birds.