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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Garden (Yard) List 2012 (4 Viewers)

A tardy start for me - but the week on Tobago was nice ;).

Currently on 40 with 9 European whitefronts the undoubted highlight.

Rob
 
Only 3 sightings last year..I think?..however this morning's Kestrel was gratefully received.. No.44....C'mon Joanne!.. the ''Townie'' is currently ahead :)
 
Nice view Chowie! Lots of things possible in your garden it looks like.
You'd think so wouldn't you? It was the vegetation out the back that helped sell it for me!

I was further encouraged when there was a Superb Fruit Dove in one of the trees out back the day I moved in. Since then I've seen very little: The Black Butcherbirds, Spangled Drongos and Mynahs have been very successful at chasing away or killing virtually every small bird around. A pair of Yellow Honeyeaters tried and failed to nest only a few weeks ago. Butcherbirds destroyed the nest, as they always would. Sunbirds, Mistletoebirds and various Honeyeaters pass through but wisely never stay. For some time now I've been hoping to attract more with a nectar feeder but cannot find one that will do the job.

That's why my list to date has been so poor: you may recall my old CBD balcony. That was miles better for variety and I recorded well over 100 species just from the balcony!

I took to standing in the car park out front so that I could see the sky and try and add to my list. So far, this strategy has paid dividends with several 'firsts' even if I do attract unwanted attention. I can now hear birds in the forest just up the road and have had some really good flyovers. I'll only really be able to hear most birds from the apartment when it cools down a bit around May and I can switch off the aircon and fans which are usually too noisy to hear anything over. Also means I will be able to hear night birds from bed: likelys include Red-necked Crake, Bush Hen, Bush Stone Curlew and Papuan Frogmouth, with a chance of Rufous Owl (and maybe other Owls) and Large-tailed Nightjar.

Despite disappointing results out back, my success out front means I may have to radically revise my year estimates from 'lucky to get 50 species' to maybe double that. We'll see...
 
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Hoping that low temperatures overnight might produce something....gave me a line of Canada Geese at 8am this morning..appearing then disappearing over the tree tops..no.45!...apart from Mallard and Mandarin..the last of the hard core..everything else between now and Spring is a bonus..25 in and 20 out. :)
 
38) Silver Gull: one individual overhead yesterday evening.

39) Spectacled Monarch was added with some relief this morning; they've been tantalisingly close on and off all week; I needed a complete lack of traffic for a couple of minutes to hear them in the forest.

40) Welcome Swallow: two on the wires as I left for work.
 
I think I must be somewhere near the "bottom of the totem pole" in regard to yard birds.

I finally got a new one for this year:

10. Blue Jay
 
This morning..mirroring yesterday's 8am line of Canada Geese heading South over the tree tops..a (only my second ever!)..a White fronted Goose heading South...puts me on 46.
 
Into the fray...

Arrived back in LT, snow falling, first chance to check my feeders.

A blinding start to the year ...second ever on my land, and only my third in Lithuania, one smart male Three-toed Woodpecker!

Traversed the snowy meadow to my cabin, a bunch of Great Spotted Woodpeckers gathered round the feeders to welcome me in, the regular Black Woodpecker tapping away on an alder just beyond. Filled up the feeders, placed two brand-new ones ready for the mid-winter onslaught, then decided a little stroll would be nice. Bullfinch feeding on ash keys, a very periodic tap tap coming from alders in the wetland, or was it a crack crack? I wasn't even totally sure it was a bird to start with, a single tap, a few seconds, then a single tap again, repeated over and over again. A frozen trunk creaking in the gentle wind?

Clambered over a few fallen trunks, and there he was, one corking Three-toed Woodpecker, what a good start to the day. Rubbish light for photographs, but finally got him with another tree behind, a reasonable result.

Back at the cabin, five Great Spotted Woodpeckers on the feeders, then two Middle Spotted Woodpeckers. Usual tits and Nuthatch in and out, no sign of anything else.

A bit of a fuss in the bushes behind, I investigate to find a male Sparrowhawk in the depths of the tangles, almost totally hidden. Turned round, and there was my male White-backed Woodpecker edging down to the feeders.

Gas bottle empty, cabin cold, so decided to leave. Great Grey Shrike on a lone birch just by the car, a final very welcome addition to my day one.

Only 15 species, but I wasn't complaining, that's pretty much par for a January day on my land ...Three-toed Woodpecker isn't :-O


1. Sparrowhawk
2. Black Woodpecker
3. Great Spotted Woodpecker
4. Middle Spotted Woodpecker
5. White-backed Woodpecker
6. Three-toed Woodpecker
7. Marsh Tit
8. Blue Tit
9. Great Tit
10. Nuthatch
11. Great Grey Shrike
12. Jay
13. Magpie
14. Hooded Crow
15. Bullfinch
 

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What a fantastic haul...Well done!...can I trade you WFGoose for any of the ''peckers'' barring Grt.Spot.? :)
 
Great list Jos! Off to the usual brilliant start. :t: Is there any woodpecker you don't get?;)

40) Yellowhammer under my feeders on this frosty morning.
 
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