New Year's Day

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The day started well with 13 species in our front yard.

Dee and I had a very pleasant 90-minute drive around Attwater PR National Wildlife Refuge on what turned out to be a clear but windy morning. Perhaps because of the wind, we saw only 21 species, including only two types of sparrow (Savannah and Lincoln's). However, one of the few patches of water on the refuge was busy with several Killdeer, Wilson's Snipes and American Pipits, plus a Sprague's Pipit.

 Killdeer

 Wilson's Snipe

Eastern Meadowlarks were everywhere.

There were plenty of Northern Harriers and Loggerhead Shrikes.

We thought we had missed out on Crested Caracaras but then one appeared just as we were leaving.

We next headed over to Eagle Lake, an area we've visited only once before. Unfortunately, as happened on our previous visit, we couldn't actually find the lake! (Next time, I'll print off a detailed map from the Internet.) However, while exploring the area, we saw several birds, including lots of Red-tailed Hawks, Crested Caracaras and Northern Harriers.


This first day of 2011 produced a list of 42 species.
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