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Garden / Yard List 2024 (2 Viewers)

54. Blackcap.

A male singing on the far side of the brook, invisible in newly greened-up trees and bushes. Chiffchaff in there somewhere as well, and the usual Sparrowhawk and Red Kites joining a pair of Buzzards overhead. In contrast to recent months, just one Herring Gull out of the larger gulls though still a few Black-headed Gulls transiting between local gravel pit complexes.

Also Holly Blue in the garden.

Cheers

John
 
Marsh Sandpipers were still present till early afternoon and the full suite of ducks - Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller, Mallard, Goldeneye and Goosander, but perhaps the most impressive birds today were a flyover flock of migrating Cormorants Initially thought they were incoming geese, but instead it was my largest ever number of Cormorants - 185 birds. Usually I get singletons or occasional pairs, only ever had double digit counts on five occasions before, the bests being migrating flocks of 43 birds in August 2014, 95 in December 2021, 45 in December 2022 and 29 in November 2023.
 
Apparently all it took was for me to hit 50 with Tuesday's Zone-tailed Hawk, and the floodgates opened. With 42 species yesterday, I picked up 9 year additions and one new all-time tick!

Yesterday was not outstanding for numbers (maybe 30 migrants), but the variety was so good. New year birds included

51. Black-chinned Hummingbird
52. Western Kingbird
53. Cassin's Vireo (new yard species #147!)
54. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
55. Vesper Sparrow
56. Savannah Sparrow (2nd yard record)
57. Abert's Towhee
58. Bronzed Cowbird
59. Cassin's Kingbird (3rd yard record)

Several species showed well for the camera, too, including the Cassin's Vireo, Gilded Flicker, Lesser Goldfinch, Savannah Sparrow, and Cassin's Kingbird.
 

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It was hard to top yesterday's new yard bird, but today was excellent. After heavy overnight migration, 48 species showed up. A further 8 year additions have brought the list up in a hurry. The day's total of 402 migrants included the following:

White-winged Dove - 22
hummingbird sp. - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Western Kingbird - 1
kingbird sp. - 4
Violet-green Swallow - 3
swallow sp. - 6
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Brewer's Sparrow - 1
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Western Meadowlark - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler ("Audubon's") - 2
passerine sp. - 6

The remaining cast of new arrivals, except for a singing

60. Greater Roadrunner

included the following:

61. Swainson's Hawk - 1
62. Chipping Sparrow - 1
63. Lark Sparrow - 10
64. Lark Bunting - ~340 in one flock!
65. Yellow Warbler - 1
66. Black-throated Gray Warbler - 1
67. Lazuli Bunting - 1


The flock of Lark Buntings passed in a breathtaking few seconds, with many males entering their striking black-and-white breeding plumage.


Photo of those below, plus House Finch and White-winged Dove. I got a short video clip of the delightful Black-throated Gray Warbler bouncing around the newly emerging mesquite leaves.
 

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It was hard to top yesterday's new yard bird, but today was excellent. After heavy overnight migration, 48 species showed up. A further 8 year additions have brought the list up in a hurry. The day's total of 402 migrants included the following:

White-winged Dove - 22
hummingbird sp. - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Western Kingbird - 1
kingbird sp. - 4
Violet-green Swallow - 3
swallow sp. - 6
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Brewer's Sparrow - 1
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Western Meadowlark - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler ("Audubon's") - 2
passerine sp. - 6

The remaining cast of new arrivals, except for a singing

60. Greater Roadrunner

included the following:

61. Swainson's Hawk - 1
62. Chipping Sparrow - 1
63. Lark Sparrow - 10
64. Lark Bunting - ~340 in one flock!
65. Yellow Warbler - 1
66. Black-throated Gray Warbler - 1
67. Lazuli Bunting - 1


The flock of Lark Buntings passed in a breathtaking few seconds, with many males entering their striking black-and-white breeding plumage.


Photo of those below, plus House Finch and White-winged Dove. I got a short video clip of the delightful Black-throated Gray Warbler bouncing around the newly emerging mesquite leaves.

You’ve lost your “old lag” badge now BM!
Black-throated Gray!…my favourite Western Warbler.👍
 
In between chopping up the remains of the fence panels destroyed by various storms over the winter, I spent a fair amount of today watching the sky and trees around my back garden. I got a house tick out of it as well as seeing yesterday's singing Blackcap for the first time and three House Martin lingering - hopefully the local birds settling in for another summer.

55. Goshawk (also 105 garden all-time list).

It was some way off, hassling a Red Kite: I hoped it would come closer but never work with children or animals. Decent enough view though. Goshawks are cool.

John
 
Marsh Sandpipers continuing into their third day, the bevy of ducks too, but little migration today - one new migrant arriving, the first Whinchat.

96. Whinchat
 
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After two amazing days, today cooled off in terms of year additions. As I stepped out this morning, I hoped for at least 2 new species. Sure enough, by the end of the morning 2 new species had appeared!

68. Wilson's Warbler
69. Osprey

A couple of migrating White-winged Dove photos below, plus the Osprey. I just love seeing them passing through the desert on migration.
 

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