Brig 1/22--American White Pelican.

American White Pelican

Today, as the sportscasters like to say, I "flipped the script" at Brig. Usually, I get there early, walk down to the Gull Pond, then either walk back and bird the upland area or else walk on the drive up to maybe Marker 4, before I drive the loop. But instead, today I just drove 3/4 of the way around the dikes to Marker 15, got out of the car, plunked down my scope and scanned the distant phragmites. 

Stubbornness. Persistence. Stick-to-itiveness.  Just to see if I can. That's what impelled me this morning. I just wanted to get that damned American White Pelican on the list. There is a fine line between stubbornness and irrationality. I have erased that line. But, after a few minutes scanning back and forth I finally found the silly bird, half-hidden in the reeds. Hard for a big bird like that to hide, but, just for the record, on my 2nd trip around this afternoon,  I couldn't find the bird again, so I made the right choice to drive first and walk later. The pictures I took are bad, but they are indicative of the kind of looks I was getting. 

After that, I drove down to Jen's Trail, parked, and walked the last 2 miles of the drive and back, finding whatever passerines would brave the wind, mostly bluebirds and sparrows. I made a second trip around, more slowly than the first and saw impressive numbers of waterfowl, especially Snow Geese which were swirling around in huge flocks, like a murmuration of starlings. There were also a few big flocks of Dunlins. A more patient birder would have scoped every one of them, looking for a Western Sandpiper or something even more exotic like a wayward stint, but I am not that birder, especially since the wind, which was mild in the morning, started gusting to car shaking speeds. 

The one bird I was most surprised, and happy, to see, was a Great Egret around Marker 4, not rare, but my first one of the year. I would have taken a picture of it but today was the day my camera officially died, having been dropped one too many times by both Shari & me.

My list for the day is slightly smaller than it might normally be but that's the result of obsessing on one bird instead of just birding. 

They were:

47 species

Snow Goose  5000

Brant  150

Canada Goose  200

Mute Swan  3

Northern Shoveler  65

Gadwall  85

Mallard  30

American Black Duck  200

Northern Pintail  85

Green-winged Teal  220

Canvasback  33     Marker 15

Ring-necked Duck  19

Greater Scaup  200     Turtle Cove

Bufflehead  15

Hooded Merganser  10

Common Merganser  10

Mourning Dove  1

Dunlin  1150

Long-billed Dowitcher  7     Continuing at Gull Pond

Greater Yellowlegs  17     Gull pond & dogleg

Ring-billed Gull  100

Herring Gull  45

Great Black-backed Gull  1

American White Pelican  1     Continuing at marker 15

Great Blue Heron  6

Great Egret  1     Marker 4

Turkey Vulture  2

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  8

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  2

Blue Jay  10

American Crow  6

Carolina Chickadee  5     Heard

Tufted Titmouse  2

Winter Wren  1     Heard exit ponds

Carolina Wren  8

European Starling  8

Eastern Bluebird  10

American Robin  10

American Goldfinch  2

Field Sparrow  2     Upland fields near overlook

White-throated Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  5

Northern Cardinal  2     Jen's Trail 

Immature Bald Eagle