Bird Watching: 2012 Yearlists page 2, 1 by P_Edens

P_Edens wrote:
Thanks Elphaba. Glad you got that Alder Flycatcher!

Mrs. Ed, Hope you can see that owl. Last year I saw one right near my pond in the late evening. I was just sitting quietly in a chair by the pond hoping to catch sight of the beavers that are decimating my trees. I heard the owl behind me, turned slowly and there it was - about 15 feet away. So cool to see. Of course, it saw (or heard) me move and skeedaddled.

A few to add to my list ...

158 - Forster's Tern (pending ID - I might have to scratch this one.)
159 - Broad-winged Hawk
160 - Cooper's Hawk
161 - Sharp-shinned Hawk
162 - Cattle Egret (I should have already had this one and the next one - They are all over the place around here. I just forgot to count them.)
163 - Blue Jay
164 - Sandwich Tern
165 - Black Tern (also pending ID - It might not be countable.)

I saw most of these at the Smith Point hawk watch tower. There was an expert birder, Tony Leukering, at the tower counting birds and he was kind enough to point out birds for me and tell me the identifying characteristics. I learned a lot. There were some that Tony pointed out that I just couldn't get on quickly enough to see and count. Many of the ones we saw were already on my list. In spite of the storms rolling through, it was a good day.