Birdathon

For several years running, the education staff at Jamestown Audubon, along with some stalwart and dedicated friends, has gone out birding for bucks. Early in April, we begin begging friends, acquaintances, and strangers for pledges. They can give a set amount, or they can be brave and pledge per species.

We pick a day early in May, late enough to include warbler migration, but early enough that the trees aren’t too thick with leaves, and we go out birding, checking off each species we see. We pride ourselves in seeing over 60 species every year while doing very little driving. This year, as in most years, we birded at the Audubon Sanctuary, Akeley Swamp, Chautauqua Lake Outlet, and the roads in between.

Our team, which varies slightly from year to year, consisted of Sarah Hatfield, Jeff Tome, Dave and Anita Cooney, Ann Beebe, and yours truly. We worked to raise money for a scholarship for one of our college-bound volunteers, Tricia Bergstue.

I’m not much of a birder, as you may have gathered from previous posts. So I always learn a great deal when I go out on these walks. This year, I added a lifer! (I don’t actually keep a life list, mind you. But I never saw this bird before, I know that! In fact, many of the birds on the list below were lifers from past birdathons…)

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. I had to borrow this picture from the AMAZING photostream of the INCREDIBLE Jim Gilbert. Please click on the photo to go look at his FANTASTIC photos.

Here is a list of the birds we saw (or in some cases only heard) on Saturday, May 3, 2008, a warm but rainy day:

Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-shouldered Hawk
American Kestrel
Wild Turkey
Sora
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
House Wren
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

It was a warm, but rainy day. We have seen more birds in other years… But we were pretty pleased with this list, given the weather conditions!

Many thanks to all who pledged. Your dollars are going to a good cause!

11 thoughts on “Birdathon”

What a beautiful bird that is! I was thinking today that I wish I had a good birder to hike with sometimes. I heard two birds that had incredibly beautiful songs that I couldn’t recognize (I had never heard them before) and for the life of me I couldn’t even spot the birds!

I think that’s an impressive list — I was out this weekend and I saw lots of birds, although I couldn’t identify that many — but I also saw lots of muskrats!

You had “good” day!
We’ve recently had blue-gray gnatcatchers here, too–flitting around in the locust just off the porch. I’m glad to see they’re so BLUE.
I didn’t notice them as much so here–ours look like mini mockingbirds.

I like your new “blogs I read” page! 🙂
Thanks for all the kind words.

Team T-bird have been talking about when we plan on doing our big day! Great list but will work hard to break last years numbers!

Believe me… If I went by myself there is no way I would get this many birds. When you go with Real Birders, though, they point stuff out and then I can say, “Oh yeah… You’re right.” Ha ha! At least I can say that for some of the birds. Others, I just have to trust them!

Last year was a gorgeous day and we got 83 species.

Good luck when you go out, Tom! If wouldn’t mind a tag-along, let me know when you’re going. I could learn a lot from you (if I can even go that day…)

PS… Hope I didn’t mislead you… that picture wasn’t taken on our Birdathon… but way over in NJ by the incredible Jim Gilbert. I looked for one on Monarch’s Flickr site, but he doesn’t have a picture of one… yet…

I am always amazed when I get a chance to out birding with real birders. My husband and I got a chance to go with Tom (mon@rch) and we were blown away with what he pointed out.
Beautiful photo and that is quite a list.

Marvelous list. Around these parts,eastern NY, the House Finch is a common bird that sings its head off most of the time — but I note that it is missing from your list. Is it that rare ?? or does it prefer living in the suburbs ??

That is quite an impressibe list. Especially for someone who is “not much of a birder”

cestoady – we were amazed at several birds we didn’t get: house finch, downy woodpecker, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture… guess none of them wanted to brave the weather.

scienceguy – i may not be much of a birder, but thankfully, the rest of the people on my team are!