2015 Year List

I have only seen a wood duck at a 'zoo'. You are very lucky.

81. Blue-winged Teal, 11 April
82. Double-crested Cormorant
83. Lesser Yellowlegs
84. Pectoral Sandpiper
85. Red-breasted Merganser
86. Field Sparrow

Forgot a couple:

87. Northern Pintail
88. Pied-billed Grebe

My 114th was Barn Swallow

89. Brown Thrasher

31 barred owl (call)
32 Blue Jay

90. Osprey

Last year they began a nest on a crane that was in use during construction. Working with the DNR, they built an osprey tower and put the nest there. The osprey returned last week and are adding to it. We spotted one of the pair yesterday while in town. I hope they do well.

Here's an earlier story about this.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/west-des-moines/2015/02/05/wells-fargo-osprey-nest/22935341/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

lovely & wonderful for the newly built nesting spot.

35 White-Throated Sparrow
36 House Wren
37 Chipping Sparrow

This message was edited Apr 20, 2015 7:19 AM

Normally when we travel to visit friends, birding takes a back seat. But this time on our way to these friends, we learned we would be within a handful of miles to a grassland preserve. Our friends have a vastly different habitat from us, so we got to hear and see birds we do not have at home. A Northern Mockingbird at a feeder? Who would have thought?

91. Upland Sandpiper
92. Greater Prairie-chicken YAY!! We saw the males blow up their "yellow balloons" but didn't hear any of the BOOMs.
93. Purple Martin
94. Barn Swallow
95. Northern Mockingbird
96. Northern Bobwhite
97. Whip-poor-will

When I was in college (at the the U. of WI), I had a change to see the prairie chickens at their study area. Had to get up early in the morning, but it was a great sight. this was in the late 1950s.

Some people go to great lengths to see prairie chickens dance, but I got to see them by accident. We had a family reunion trip to Yellowstone. On the way back we stopped at Little Big Horn. It was cold drizzly weather and most folks opted to stay in the visitors center, but one car-full opted to drive around and look at the interpretive signs. They were dancing right beside the road, near a sign we stopped at! It was a bizarre and memorable sight. But the same dreary weather that tricked them into dancing apparently kept any photos from turning out. A car full of cameras, and not one photo.

Good stuff! There's an Audubon trip in Illinois to see the prairie chickens. I intend to go some day.

38 Swamp Sparrow (I think). I'll edit later if I discover it is something else.

98. Great Egret
99. American Pipit (Life bird)

115 House Martin
116 Common Whitethroat
117 Little Ringed Plover
118 Sedge Warbler
119 Spoonbill

39 - American White Pelican
40 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

33 White throated sparrow
34 startling (s) plural

I was hoping for something a little more exciting for number 100...

White-throated Sparrow

I think that they are exciting. ☺ After all I am only up to 34.

41- Cowbird

I have not seen our cowbirds as yet, thank heaven. the cardinals are very active.

Ugh... We have too many Cowbirds, which we are trying to scare off.

Hi to you all! I am from the Netherlands and here's my year list. It already is quite a long list but at the end of the year it will approximately contain around 220 species. I've also included non-native species that do have a (large) breeding population in the Netherlands.

1. Grey Partridge
2. Common Pheasant
3. Greylag Goose
4. Tundra Bean Goose
5. Greater White-fronted Goose
6. Bar-headed Goose
7. Canada Goose
8. Cackling Goose
9. Brant Goose
10. Barnacle Goose
11. Red-breasted Goose
12. Mute Swan
13. Whooper Swan
14. Bewick's Swan
15. Egyptian Goose
16. Common Shellduck
17. Muscovy Duck
18. Mandarin Duck
19. Mallard
20. Gadwall
21. Eurasian Widgeon
22. Northern Shoveler
23. Garganey
24. Eurasian Teal
25. Common Pochard
26. Tufted Duck
27. Common Eider
28. Common Scoter
29. Long-tailed Duck
30. Common Goldeneye
31. Smew
32. Goosander
33. Red-breasted Merganser
34. Red-throated Loon
35. Black-throated Loon
36. Little Grebe
37. Red-necked Grebe
38. Great Crested Grebe
39. Black-necked Grebe
40. White Stork
41. Eurasian Spoonbill
42. Eurasian Bittern
43. Grey Heron
44. Great Egret
45. Little Egret
46. Great Cormorant
47. Western Marsh Harrier
48. Eurasian Sparrowhawk
49. Northern Goshawk
50. Common Buzzard
51. Common Kestrel
52. Peregrine Falcon
53. Water Rail
54. Common Moorhen
55. Eurasian Coot
56. Eurasian Oystercatcher
57. Pied Avocet
58. Northern Lapwing
59. Grey Plover
60. Little Ringed Plover
61. Eurasian Woodcock
62. Common Snipe
63. Black-tailed Godwit
64. Bar-tailed Godwit
65. Eurasian Curlew
66. Spotted Redshank
67. Common Redshank
68. Common Greenshank
69. Green Sandpiper
70. Common Sandpiper
71. Ruddy Turnstone
72. Sanderling
73. Little Stint
74. Purple Sandpiper
75. Dunlin
76. Ruff
77. Black-headed Gull
78. Mediterranean Gull
79. Mew Gull
80. Great Black-backed Gull
81. European Herring Gull
82. Caspian Gull
83. Yellow-legged Gull
84. Lesser Black-backed Gull
85. Common Tern
86. Sandwich Tern
87. Stock Dove
88. Common Wood Pigeon
89. Eurasian Collared Dove
90. Rock Dove / Feral Pidgeon
91. Rose-ringed Parakeet
92. Common Cuckoo
93. Tawny Owl
94. Long-eared Owl
95. Common Swift
96. Common Kingfisher
97. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
98. Great Spotted Woodpecker
99. Black Woodpecker
100. European Green Woodpecker
101. Eurasian Jay
102. Eurasian Magpie
103. House Crow
104. Rook
105. Carrion Crow
106. Western Jackdaw
107. Marsh Tit
108. Willow Tit
109. Coal Tit
110. Crested Tit
111. Great Tit
112. Eurasian Blue Tit
113. Bearded Reedling
114. Wood Lark
115. Eurasian Skylark
116. Barn Swallow
117. Long-tailed Tit
118. Common Chiffchaff
119. Willow Warbler
120. Common Grasshopper Warbler
121. Blackcap
122. Lesser Whitethroat
123. Common Whitethroat
124. Common Firecrest
125. Goldcrest
126. Eurasian Wren
127. Eurasian Nuthatch
128. Short-toed Treecreeper
129. Common Starling
130. Rosy Starling
131. Common Blackbird
132. Fieldfare
133. Redwing
134. Song Thrush
135. Mistle Thrush
136. European Robin
137. White-spotted Bluethroat
138. Common Nightingal
139. Black Redstart
140. European Stonechat
141. House Sparrow
142. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
143. Dunnock
144. Grey Wagtail
145. White Wagtail
146. Meadow Pipit
147. Rock Pipit
148. Common Chaffinck
149. Brambling
150. European Greenfinch
151. Eurasian Siskin
152. European Goldfinch
153. Common Linnet
154. Eurasian Bullfinch
155. Hawfinch
156. Yellowhammer
157. Common Reed Bunting

that is a lot of geese. We have problems with the Canadian geese which will have a population which no longer migrates so messing up parks & golf courses.

Welcome Stefan.

Okay I know it's not a bird, but was excited to see my first of year bat tonight. Love watching them devour the bugs in my yard. Since I live in town, no swallows or martins to do that.

you are lucky you have a bat. ours have disappeared because of disease & we have plenty of mosquitos.

I guess when I am in town, I am amazed at the geese's ability to thrive when so many birds cannot cope with our doings. The parks and golf courses are about the only suitable habitat for some birds and this likely isn't going to change the way things are going.

I was pretty excited when I saw my first bat earlier this spring, but it was away from home. We have a bat house up, but to see if there's been any activity, I'd have to brave the Tick Zone to get there. I like our prairie-to-be, but not those critters. We had an opossum, but sadly it was made into vulture food, now we are short a tick eater. :(

That is too bad Mrs. Ed. In the larger small town near us, there was a residence with an occupied Martin house. The must some how deter the HOSP and Starlings as none were around. Do you think you could try putting up a box and maybe some Tree Swallows would stay?

Oh, almost forgot why I stopped here...

101. White-crowned Sparrow
102. House Wren Not too excited about having this fellow, but still a year bird.

yes, wrens are noisy aren't they.

It's the House Wren males' bad bird habits I do not really appreciate. They are native to the area, so we cannot deter them too much. I do remove any of the male's dummy nests I find. Last year, they resorted to a brush pile out back. The male was busy when our box nesters were about finished, so he didn't harm any of them or eggs, but we didn't want to encourage him in any way, or the following years could be worse.

I am not worried about the natives & while Canadian geese are native, they should migrate. However the ones hatched here won't do so.

The native turkeys can be annoying--they like to take their dust baths in the garden & plants are torn out of the ground when they do so.

42 Turkey vulture
43 Great Blue heron

103. Spotted Sandpiper, 1 May
104. Clay-colored Sparrow, 2 May
105. Harris's Sparrow, 2 May
106. Yellow-rumped Warbler, 2 May

44- rose breasted grosbeak

107. Baltimore Oriole, 3 May
108. Bobolink
109. Cliff Swallow

after counting the owl because we heard it, DH finally saw it this morning. I wonder if it will be nesting in the area.

45- White-Crowned Sparrow

110. Yellow Warbler, 5 May
111. Palm Warbler
112. Lincoln's Sparrow

46 - Gray Catbird
47 - Common Yellowthroat
48 - Pine Siskin. Unfortunately a very sick one :(

This message was edited May 6, 2015 7:51 AM

113. Great-tailed Grackle, 5 May
114. Common Yellowthroat
115. Dickcissel
116. Yellow-headed Blackbird