1 January 2021
2020 Yard List(s!)
Posted by Callan Bentley
It’s my little new year’s tradition to present here my tally of bird species seen in my yard over the course of the year just concluded.
Here are the previous iterations:
- 2012 (39 species)
- 2013 (51 species)
- 2014 (58 species)
- 2015 (65 species)
- 2016 (59 species)
- 2017 (56 species)
- 2018 (60 species)
- 2019 (67 species)
Things are different this year, not because of the pandemic, but because I moved over the summer. So this year I have two lists: a final one for the Fort Valley property, and a new one for our new home, an Albemarle County property near Buck Mountain. Each represents about half a year of time. As usual, I present them in chronological order of first sighting, so there’s a rough seasonality you can tease out of them. Because there is substantial overlap, I’ve bolded the birds that are unique to each list. This perhaps allows a bit of distinction to be made between the two places in terms of the habitat available. There’s more open space and more water at the new place, for instance.
The last Fort Valley yard list:
- Raven
- American crow
- Blue jay
- Turkey vulture
- Mourning dove
- Dark-eyed junco
- Red-shouldered hawk
- Downy woodpecker
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Chickadee
(I never was able to figure out if these were Carolina or Black-capped chickadees.) - Tufted titmouse
- Brown creeper
- Golden-crowned kinglet
- American goldfinch
- Red-tailed hawk
- Yellow-bellied sapsucker
- Pileated woodpecker
- Northern flicker
- Eastern phoebe
- Wild turkey
- Screech owl
- Pine warbler
- Canada geese
- Winter wren
- Eastern bluebird
- Chipping sparrow
- Brown-headed cowbird
- American robin
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Whippoorwill
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher
- Brown thrasher
- Blue-headed vireo
- Ovenbird
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Black vulture
- Hermit thrush
- Yellow-rumped warbler
- Wood thrush
- Great crested flycatcher
- Blackburnian warbler
- Black-throated green warbler
- Red-eyed vireo
- Scarlet tanager
- Indigo bunting
- Great blue heron
- Cedar waxwings
- Eastern wood-pewee
- Osprey
- American kestrel
(This was a first for that yard; usually these are open-country birds, not forest dwellers.) - Great horned owl
- Sharp-shinned hawk
The first Buck Mountain yard list:
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Blue jay
- Yellow-billed cuckoo
- Northern cardinal
- Turkey vulture
- Raven
- American robin
- Chimney swift
- Red-tailed hawk
- Black vulture
- Chipping sparrow
- Broad-winged hawk
- Great blue heron
- Sharp-shinned hawk
- Eastern bluebird
- Mourning dove
- Carolina chickadee
(…Now that it’s for sure which one’s range I’m in!) - Green heron
- Eastern towhee
- Eastern phoebe
- Carolina wren
- Red-shouldered hawk
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Northern mockingbird
- Red-eyed vireo
- Tufted titmouse
- Brown thrasher
- Screech owl
- Downy woodpecker
- Prairie warbler
- Pine warbler
- Belted kingfisher
- Barred owl
- Canada geese
- Cedar waxwings
- (unidentified ducks flying overhead)
- Yellow-bellied sapsucker
- American goldfinch
- Dark-eyed junco
- White-throated sparrow
- American crow
- Pine siskin
- Yellow-rumped warbler
- Northern flicker
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- Brown creeper
- Song sparrow
- Hairy woodpecker
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Bald eagle
- Winter wren
Interesting that it worked out to 53 apiece. The grand total is 58. Here’s to better birding in 2021! Happy new year!