It hasn’t been a good year for much, but I did get a lot of birding in. Traditionally, on new year’s day, I post my “yard list” from the previous year: a list of all the bird species I’ve personally observed from my yard.

At my new house, I now have a full calendar year of observations. You’ll recall I moved to Albemarle from Shenandoah halfway through the previous year, meaning I only had a half-year’s worth of Albemarle observations to report. Notably absent was the species that passed through during spring migration. Here, that issue is rectified, and I am pleased to present a bumper crop and a new “personal best” number.

In chronological order of species’ first appearance, this year I saw:

1. Blue jay
2. American crow
3. Pileated woodpecker
4. Northern mockingbird
5. White-throated sparrow
6. Carolina wren
7. Mourning dove
8. Golden-crowned kinglet
9. Dark-eyed junco
10. Carolina chickadee
11. Pine siskin
12. Northern cardinal
13. Yellow-bellied sapsucker
14. Eastern bluebird
15. Northern flicker
16. White-breasted nuthatch
17. Turkey vulture
18. Belted kingfisher
19. Raven
20. Canada geese
21. Tufted titmouse
22. American goldfinch
23. Red-shouldered hawk
24. Great blue heron
25. American robin
26. Black vulture
27. Downy woodpecker
28. Song sparrow
29. Eastern phoebe
30. Cedar waxwing
31. Hermit thrush
32. Common grackle
33. Eastern screech owl
34. Red-tailed hawk
35. Barred owl
36. Pine warbler
37. Fish crow
38. Red-winged blackbird
39. Yellow-rumped warbler
40. Wood duck
41. Brown thrasher
42. Brown-headed cowbird
43. Chipping sparrow
44. Eastern towhee
45. Red-breasted nuthatch
46. Green heron
47. Field sparrow
48. Northern harrier
49. Tree swallow
50. Ruby-crowned kinglet
51. Purple finch
52. Ruby-throated hummingbird
53. Merlin
54. Osprey
55. European starling
56. Wild turkey
57. Broad-winged hawk
58. Barn swallow
59. Gray catbird
60. Great crested flycatcher
61. Blue-headed vireo
62. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
63. Worm-eating warbler
64. Baltimore oriole
65. Chimney swift
66. Scarlet tanager
67. Chestnut-sided warbler
68. Blackpoll warbler
69. Louisiana waterthrush
70. Orchard oriole
71. Red-eyed vireo
72. Northern parula
73. Indigo bunting
74. Black-throated green warbler
75. Bald eagle
76. Eastern wood-pewee
77. Spotted sandpiper
78. Common yellowthroat
79. American redstart
80. Rose-breasted grosbeak
81. Blue grosbeak
82. Wood thrush
83. Yellow-billed cuckoo
84. Eastern kingbird
85. Black-billed cuckoo
86. Common nighthawk
87. Golden eagle

A few thoughts about this list:

1. It’s larger by ~20 species than even my best year at the Fort Valley house.
2. I benefit here with more diverse habitat: more open country for grassland-preferring species (though I’m shocked I didn’t get a meadowlark or a kestrel) and a lake that draws in some waterfowl like the sandpiper, ducks, and herons. I’m also at lower elevation and on the seaward side of the Blue Ridge, which both facilitate a milder climate.
3. Hummingbirds are NUTS here; it’s so delightful to watch their sipping and sparring each evening in the summer.
4. I would not have thought I would ever see a golden eagle here, but I got clued in by watching the daily reports of the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch during fall migration, where they document a healthy number of them. I only had one, and it flew over for only about 20 seconds, but I had my binoculars and got a solid look at it.
5. The black-billed cuckoo (my first) was, sadly, a window-kill. This surprised me – we don’t get window-smacking birds nearly as much here as we did with the big plate glass windows at our Fort Valley house.
6. I’ve been using the eBird app on my phone to keep regular lists; I find it motivates me to take walks: I’m not only getting exercise, I’m also birding and documenting what I see.
7. I still have so much to learn about birding, and just took the step of joining a local birding club for the first time. Hopefully the skills I learn there will help me identify more species this coming year.