Toad in the Hole

January 02, 2007

Signs & Portents, or Something

First bird of the year: scrub jay.
Second bird of the year: crow.
Third bird of the year: Anna's hummingbird.

All three first by ear, then seen, from the back door.

Joe slept in another hour or so; his first bird was Bewick's wren, singing somewhere out back.

Comments

I think mine was a white-crowned sparrow by ear, pre-dawn.

But I wasn't paying close attention, it's true.

I lost chasing cred by not getting to the landfill at 7:30 am for the Kumlien's gull...

Posted by: Pica at January 2, 2007 03:24 PM

go ahead and brag -- you can identify them by song, and my speed is: "wow, look at that little brown bird hopping around the yard!"

Posted by: kathy a at January 3, 2007 03:34 AM

Heh -- all you need to do is get obsessive and listen a lot. And/or -- speaking of obssessive -- carry a set of birdsong CDs for the CD player in the car.

Kumlien's gull, huh. I dunno. I still don't believe in Thayer's gull, and I'm (or I used to be) pretty good at picking them out of the mob. What with hybrids and distribution and all, I know people who maintain that there's only one species of gull in the world. Well, maybe two, but they're not field separable.

If I ever learn to sort gulls by ear, then I'll be braggin.

Posted by: Ron at January 4, 2007 01:03 AM

I've never seen two of yours!

Our first birds were a flock of Canada Geese flying over, before we'd gotten our of bed in the morning.

I definitely vote for one species of gull. :)

Posted by: Rurality at January 4, 2007 03:21 AM

Is this where I say, "Honk if you love geeses!"?

Posted by: Ron at January 5, 2007 01:31 AM