Happy new year! Wishing you all good health and better birds. I started out 2020 in Jaisalmer, India - a (large) stone’s throw from the Pakistan border. January 1st was a bust (sick in bed), but the list persisted. Spent January 2nd around Jaisalmer and into the desert for a bustard safari - no luck on the Great Indian Bustard unfortunately, but plenty of others:
1. Rose-ringed Parakeet
2. House Sparrow
3. House Crow
4. Rock Pigeon
5. Common Myna
6. Black-winged Stilt
7. Eurasian Collared-Dove
8. Shikra
9. Black Drongo
10. Green Bee-eater
11. Barn Swallow
12. Egyptian Vulture
13. Common Babbler
14. Cream-coloured Courser (lifer)
15. Greater Short-toed Lark (lifer)
16. Desert Wheatear (lifer)
17. Great Grey Shrike
18. Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse (lifer)
19. Variable Wheatear
20. Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark (lifer)
21. Red-vented Bulbul
22. Tawny Eagle (lifer)
23. Eurasian Kestrel
24. Laughing Dove
25. Pallid Harrier
26. White-eared Bulbul
27. Grey Francolin
28. Steppe Eagle (lifer)
29. Indian Robin
30. White-browed Wagtail
31. White Wagtail
32. Common Sandpiper
33. Red-wattled Lapwing
Delhi airport layover:
34. Black Kite
Exploring Varanasi and the Ganga River:
35. Black-crowned Night-Heron
36. Black-headed Gull
37. Indian Pond-Heron
38. Jungle Babbler
39. Common Tailorbird
40. Bank Myna
41. Eurasian Hoopoe
42. Brown Rock Chat
43. White-throated Kingfisher
44. Little Swift
45. Pied Kingfisher
46. Little Cormorant
47. Peregrine Falcon
48. Great Cormorant
49. Lesser Whistling-Duck
50. Green-winged Teal
51. Little Egret
Back in Delhi for final leg of the trip:
52. Red-whiskered Bulbul
53. Red-naped Ibis
54. Common Moorhen
55. Brown-headed Barbet
56. Grey Wagtail
57. Common Chiffchaff
58. Green Sandpiper
59. White-breasted Waterhen
60. Indian Spot-billed Duck
61. Asian Pied Starling
62. Oriental Magpie-Robin
63. Alexandrine Parakeet
64. Cattle Egret
65. European Starling
66. Hume’s Warbler
67. Indian White-eye
68. Large-billed Crow
Return trip, layover in Shanghai:
69. Light-vented Bulbul
70. Spotted Dove
71. Azure-winged Magpie
72. Chinese Blackbird
73. Pallas’s Leaf Warbler
74. Yellow-billed Grosbeak (lifer)
75. Little Grebe
76. Pale Thrush
77. Grey-backed Thrush (lifer)
78. Dusky Thrush (lifer)
79. Daurian Redstart
80. Grey Heron
81. Oriental Turtle-Dove
82. Long-tailed Shrike
83. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
84. Red-flanked Bluetail
And after a month of traveling abroad, finally back stateside. Morning hike in my Los Angeles neighborhood to stave off jetlag:
85. American Crow
86. Common Raven
87. Red-crowned Parrot
88. Band-tailed Pigeon
89. Mourning Dove
90. Northern Mockingbird
91. White-crowned Sparrow
92. American Robin
93. Yellow-rumped Warbler
94. California Scrub-Jay
95. Wrentit
96. Acorn Woodpecker
97. Bewick’s Wren
98. California Thrasher
99. California Towhee
100. California Gull
101. Spotted Towhee
102. Allen’s Hummingbird
103. Dark-eyed Junco
104. Anna’s Hummingbird
105. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
106. Red-tailed Hawk
107. Oak Titmouse
108. Lesser Goldfinch
109. Black Phoebe
110. Bushtit
111. Turkey Vulture
Without so much as taking a breather, headed out to Palm Springs for a work function Friday night, followed by Saturday morning desert birding:
112. Great-tailed Grackle
113. House Finch
114. Western Bluebird
115. Say’s Phoebe
116. Killdeer
117. Great Egret
118. Costa’s Hummingbird
119. Cinnamon Teal
120. Snowy Egret
121. Verdin
122. Orange-crowned Warbler
123. American Wigeon
124. Mallard
125. Ruddy Duck
126. Bufflehead
127. Cedar Waxwing
128. Phainopepla
129. White-winged Dove
130. Nuttall’s Woodpecker
131. Red-shouldered Hawk
132. Northern Flicker
133. Brewer’s Blackbird
134. Cooper’s Hawk