31 December 2015

2015 Yard List

Posted by Callan Bentley

pufi

It’s that time of the year – a time to state my “yard list” tally for the previous year.

I have been posting this list every year since I moved to the Fort Valley:

In 2015, we had 65 species of birds spotted and definitively identified in our yard. In order of first appearance, they were:

  1. Carolina wren
  2. Dark-eyed junco
  3. American goldfinch
  4. White-breasted nuthatch
  5. Downy woodpecker
  6. Tufted titmouse
  7. Chickadee
  8. Mourning dove
  9. Red-bellied woodpecker
  10. Pileated woodpecker
  11. Cardinal
  12. Hairy woodpecker
  13. Red-shouldered hawk
  14. Brown creeper
  15. Eastern bluebird
  16. Sharp-shinned hawk
  17. Turkey vulture
  18. Purple finch
  19. Red-tailed hawk
  20. Blue jay
  21. Turkey
  22. Raven
  23. Canada goose
  24. Crow
  25. Pine siskin
  26. Hermit thrush
  27. Brown-headed cowbird
  28. Eastern phoebe
  29. Barred owl
  30. Pine warbler
  31. American robin
  32. Whippoorwill
  33. Chipping sparrow
  34. Black vulture
  35. Double-crested cormorant
  36. Broad-winged hawk
  37. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
  38. Ruby-crowned kinglet
  39. Northern flicker
  40. Yellow-rumped warbler
  41. Ruby-throated hummingbird
  42. Ovenbird
  43. Red-eyed vireo
  44. Common nighthawk
  45. White-throated sparrow
  46. Common grackle
  47. Chimney swift
  48. Eastern wood-peewee
  49. Great crested flycatcher
  50. Worm-eating warbler
  51. Brown thrasher
  52. Cedar waxwing
  53. Yellow-billed cuckoo
  54. Great blue heron
  55. Scarlet tanager
  56. Screech owl
  57. Black and white warbler
  58. Bald eagle
  59. Osprey
  60. Winter wren
  61. Black-throated green warbler
  62. European starling
  63. Kestrel
  64. Yellow-bellied sapsucker
  65. Golden-crowned kinglet

I’m pleased each year to have exceeded the previous year’s count. I think it’s an indication of some combination of awareness/ familiarity and simple “time spent outside looking at birds,” both of which are good things. This was an especially good year for raptors, and I think I’m getting better at identifying migrating passerines.

Here are a few more photos:

bcr

deju

modo

rbwp

Here’s hoping 2016 is even more birdy than 2015 was!

Happy new year.