Big Day photos from the north end of the day

  

Jon has a third-floor view of a yard, a canal, and migrants in the sky.  He sent me his photos.

 

I'll name all of these birds and Jon will tell me if I got any of them (or how many) wrong.  This one, Common Tern, is tricky.  Common and Forster's look a lot alike, but Forster's doesn't have black on the wingtips, so I'm calling Common.  (That's a really good bird.)

 

Tri-colored Heron.

 

Black and White Warbler.

 

Mottled Duck.

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

 

Lincoln's Sparrow.

 

Gray Catbird.

 

Slightly fuzzy Baltimore Oriole and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

 

 

An awesome Painted Bunting shot.

 

Broad-winged Hawk.

 

White-tailed Hawk.

 

I can't tell size from photos like this but the pushed-forward looking wings on this one make me guess a little Sharp-shinned Hawk.

 

Sandwich Tern.

 

And why does this Great Egret have a black tip on its beak?  Because it's a white morph of a Reddish Egret!  Cool.

 

Franklin's Gull.  Notice how the wing-edges light up from the backlighting of the sun.

 

Jon's all-day-companion Green Heron.

 

Common Yellowthroat.

 

Common Nighthawk.  If it were a Lesser Nighthawk, the white wing-bar would be farther out toward his wrists.

 

Finishing with evening light.

 

I had evening light too, but my shot came out even fuzzier!

 

Fourteen hours straight for me, and even more for Jon.  We birded together all day, even though we were 150 miles apart, with texts back and forth to keep each other apprised of how we were doing, what remained, and what to watch for.  When we realized we had a combined count of 99 distinct species, we pushed hard to make it to 100.  During the day I missed Loggerhead Shrike, Black Vulture, Black-crested Titmouse, and Lesser Goldfinch; all birds I have seen from my yard recently, but never got on the big day.  There are Inca Doves here in our park, about ten houses away, but I never see or hear them from our deck, so I didn't get to count them.  In the dusk I watched out front for a late Lesser Nighthawk.  Jon went outside in the dark and listed for a distant Barn Owl scream.  I stood out later and listened hopefully for a Great Horned Owl.  All to no avail.  We pushed as hard as we could but came up one short of a hundred (The Monk in me always wants even numbers.)

 

We'll call one more bird, a hundred birds, a milestone and motivation for next year.