Big January has Begun!

American Kestrel, Lakeside Park, Tucson, AZ 12-21-12

I started off my Big January on January 1st by counting birds in my own back yard. My first bird of the year was an Anna’s Hummingbird. Soon after I added Mourning Dove, Lesser Goldfinch, and pigeon. As I was walking to my car to join Chris at Reid Park for more birding a Cooper’s Hawk flew out from beneath my front yard mesquite tree where it was hunting my front yard feeders!

Birds in my yard 1-1-2013

1. Cooper’s Hawk	4. Common Raven
2. Rock Pigeon	5. Yellow-rumped Warbler
3. Mourning Dove	6. House Finch
4. Anna’s Hummingbird	7. Lesser Goldfinch
	8. House Sparrow

I met Chris around 8:15 a.m at Reid Park. We spent a little over 2 hours there and counted 30 species of birds. Then Chris Rohrer went on his way to bird alone while I joined my family for breakfast and family time. After breakfast we took a leisurely ride through Saguaro National Park where I added 3 more species to my list for the day.

Birds Seen in Saguaro National Park 1-12013

1. Red-tailed Hawk	6. Verdin
2. Gila Woodpecker	7. Curve-billed Thrasher
3. Common Raven	8. Phainopepla
4. Cactus Wren	9. Black-throated Sparrow
5. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

I still have my son, Chris, here with his wife, Mellissa, so much of my life will be busy with them over the next week. However, I have strategized ways to squeeze in some birding time and this afternoon I spent about 35 minutes over at Lakeside Park. While the photo above was not taken at Lakeside this afternoon, I did see a male American Kestrel there this afternoon as well as 19 other species. This little jaunt added 6 more species to my January list for a total of 43 species so far. Tomorrow we are headed to Whitewater Draw with my kids, and then Chris Rohrer and I have big plans for Friday while my kids go off to celebrate their first anniversary!

Birds seen at Reid Park 1-1-2013

1. Mallard	16. Anna’s hummingbird
2. American widgeon	17. Gila woodpecker
3. Redhead	18. Northern Flicker
4. Canvasback	19. Vermilion Flycatcher
5. Ring-necked Duck	20. Cassin’s Kingbird
6. Common Merganser	21. Verdin
7. Pied-billed Grebe	22. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8. Great Blue heron	23. Western Kingbird
9. Great Egret	24. Curve-billed Thrasher
10. snowy Egret	25. European Starling
11. Black-crowned Night heron	26. Yellow-rumped Warbler
12. Red-tailed Hawk	27. White-crowned sparrow
13. American Coot	28. Great-tailed Grackle
14. Rock Pigeon	29. House Finch
15. Mourning Dove	30. House Sparrow

Chris and I were totally surprised when we found the Cassin’s Kingbird down by the playground and parking lot near 22nd street. We both got photos of it and watched it for several minutes. We even hear it call. What a sound! This species has usually migrated south for the winter and it is unusual to find here at this time of year.

Birds Seen at Lakeside Park

1. Mallard	11. Say’s Phoebe
2. American Widgeon	12. Vermillion Flycatcher
3. Great Egret	13. European Starling
4. Black-crowned Night heron	14. Yellow-rumped Warbler
5. Red-tailed Hawk	15. Red-winged Blackbird
6. American Coot	16. Brewer’s Blackbird
7. Mourning Dove	17. Great-tailed Grackle
8. Anna’s Hummingbird	18. Bronzed Cowbird
9. Gila Woodpecker	19. Brown-headed Cowbird
10. American Kestrel	20. House Finch

If I ever stay home long enough to do all my house work AND offload all my photos it will be a miracle! Until then, statistics and stories will have to do! Below is a list of the birds I saw at Lakeside Park this afternoon. It was a beautiful and sunny day and I did take pictures. We’ve been having fairly cold nights around here but the temperature rose to 53F today. I was very comfortable walking around in long pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt.

My son, Chris told me today that last night after we had all gone to bed he was downstairs around 1:30 a.m. and went outside on the back patio for a few minutes to look at the stars. What he saw besides stars was a pair of Great-horned Owls hooting and calling to each other from my neighbor’s rooftops! He even saw one of the large birds fly across my backyard and land on a roof. He watched the birds for 10 minutes or more and he did not wake me up! I couldn’t believe it! I could have added Great Horned Owl to my yard list and my Big January Count! Now I won’t be able to sleep at all because I will be listening for owls al night long and every time I get up to use the restroom I will have to go outside to see if I can see or hear one!

I hope to add more photos and start a master list for my Big January count soon. Until then, stay tuned for more birding adventures with Kathie’s Birds!

Big January by the Years

2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
89	107	113	55	68

 

The first three years were done here in Arizona, the last two years were counts done in Massachusetts. Now I am back in Arizona and it looks like I am on my way to beat the 2010 total of 113 species. I know that Chris Rohrer will be getting me to go more places than I ever would by myself and I will help him find and identify birds. I think that he will probably beat me and I will be so proud of him! He is becoming an excellent birder. He already was an excellent writer and photographer!

• Big January (all posts)
• Big January 2012 Massachusetts
• Big January 2011 Massachusetts
• Big January 2010 Arizona
• Big January 2009 Arizona
• Big January 2008 Arizona