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:
- Carolina wren
- Dark-eyed junco
- American goldfinch
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Downy woodpecker
- Tufted titmouse
- Chickadee
- Mourning dove
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- Pileated woodpecker
- Cardinal
- Hairy woodpecker
- Red-shouldered hawk
- Brown creeper
- Eastern bluebird
- Sharp-shinned hawk
- Turkey vulture
- Purple finch
- Red-tailed hawk
- Blue jay
- Turkey
- Raven
- Canada goose
- Crow
- Pine siskin
- Hermit thrush
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Eastern phoebe
- Barred owl
- Pine warbler
- American robin
- Whippoorwill
- Chipping sparrow
- Black vulture
- Double-crested cormorant
- Broad-winged hawk
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Northern flicker
- Yellow-rumped warbler
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Ovenbird
- Red-eyed vireo
- Common nighthawk
- White-throated sparrow
- Common grackle
- Chimney swift
- Eastern wood-peewee
- Great crested flycatcher
- Worm-eating warbler
- Brown thrasher
- Cedar waxwing
- Yellow-billed cuckoo
- Great blue heron
- Scarlet tanager
- Screech owl
- Black and white warbler
- Bald eagle
- Osprey
- Winter wren
- Black-throated green warbler
- European starling
- Kestrel
- Yellow-bellied sapsucker
- 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:
Here’s hoping 2016 is even more birdy than 2015 was!
Happy new year.