New year’s day is the time I tally up my accumulated bird species seen in my yard on the forested slope of Massanutten Mountain. This is my sixth such annual list. Here are the previous iterations:

• 2012 (39 species)
• 2013 (51 species)
• 2014 (58 species)
• 2015 (65 species)
• 2016 (59 species)

Here we go, in chronological order of first appearance in our yard:

1. Red-tailed hawk
2. Red-bellied woodpecker
3. Mourning dove
4. Raven
5. Turkey vulture
6. American crow
7. White-breasted nuthatch
8. Tufted titmouse
9. Downy woodpecker
10. Carolina wren
11. Chickadee
12. Golden-crowned kinglet
13. Goldfinch
14. Sharp-shinned hawk
15. Purple finch
16. Barred owl
17. Brown creeper
18. Canada geese
19. Eastern phoebe
20. Eastern bluebird
21. Blue jay
22. Chipping sparrow
23. Pileated woodpecker
24. American robin
25. Hairy woodpecker
26. Pine warbler
27. Fox sparrow
28. Dark-eyed junco
29. Brown-headed cowbird
30. Whippoorwill
31. Screech owl
32. Brown thrasher
33. Eastern towhee
34. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
35. Cardinal
36. Turkey
37. Ruby-throated hummingbird
38. Yellow-throated warbler
39. Red-eyed vireo
40. Black-throated green warbler
41. Red-breasted nuthatch
42. Blue-headed vireo
43. Great blue heron
44. Broad-winged hawk
45. Yellow-billed cuckoo
46. Ovenbird
47. Hermit thrush
48. Scarlet tanager
49. Great crested flycatcher
50. Cedar waxwing
51. Eastern wood-pewee
52. Chimney swift
53. Black vulture
54. Northern (Yellow-shafted) flicker
55. Rusty blackbird
56. Yellow-bellied sapsucker

A few notes: The two in bold are “first time ever observed” here (by me) – and in both cases, that means not only my yard, but also the immediate area. I was very pleased to see the return of the red-breasted nuthatch, which has been absent for the past several years. I was bummed that no pine siskins showed up this year – they are one of the few treats of the winter birding season. One of my new year’s resolutions is to devote more time to birding, particularly in late April, when the happy combination of many migrants and relatively limited foliage makes for fruitful observing.