Christmas Bird Count

Just before leaving for a holiday break, I was able to get out on a Christmas Bird Count, or CBC, with Mark and Allison in Jackson County Mississippi.  Our portion of the survey had us out on a boat with Mark as our captain through the marshes.  The day started out at dawn and before long we were lucky enough to come across a Merlin sitting in a tree near the Louisiana border.  We had some trouble scrounging up some winter warblers and other song  They are quite amazing little falcons, and this individual lets us sneak up fairly close for some decent photo opportunities.

Merlin

For our portion of the count we were particularly on the lookout for ducks and marsh birds that others on land may not be able to find.  We managed to scrounge up some Black Scoters fairly early in the day, which was a great surprise as they are fairly uncommon and sparsely distributed in the area.  We were all a little confused at first since they seemed so dark and flew pretty strangely compared to everything else we were expecting in the waterfowl category.  Mark spotted a Common Goldeneye as well, which was a nice find!  We continued through the marsh with stops to look for Seaside Sparrows and LeConte's Sparrows, as well as shorebirds on mudflats, and songbirds in patches of Live Oaks.  Along the bay side of the marsh we also spotted some River Otters, which was a new sighting for me on the Gulf.  The ragged Seaside Sparrow below wasn't shy about foraging for insects on the shell piles right in front of us!  Usually these birds are a bit more secretive, and stick to the grasses and shadows, but this bird even snatched insects up from right in front of our feet and wouldn't stay still for a second.

River Otters in the salt marsh

Seaside Sparrow in pretty ragged condition

Wilson's Snipe skulking at the water's edge

Peregrine Falcon flying away

Dunlin pair

The highlights of the trip were a Long-tailed Duck and a Western Kingbird.  The Long-tailed Duck was a lucky spot as we were rushing back to try to pick up a duck decoy we found in the marsh, but forgot to clear out.  We had some pretty amazing close up views of a duck that I have never seen closer than 50 yards. Perhaps one of the best quotes of the day was said by Mark just after viewing the Long-tailed Duck, "There's nothing better than TatoNuts and Long-tailed Ducks!" For those who have never experiences TatoNuts, they are a doughnut maker in southern Mississippi that uses potato flour in the making of their doughnuts.  Mark is always kind enough to bring some along for the big days of birding!  This bird appears to be an adult female in winter plumage.  As we raced the sunset back to the boat ramp and to find a few more species for the day, Allison spotted a bird perched conspicuously at the top of a tree.  At first she thought it was an Eastern Phoebe, but the breast was very yellow and the bird looked a bit too big.  After some serious looks and guesses, it was clear that is was a kingbird native to the western US, but it took us some scoping, pictures, and consulting of our field guides to be sure that we had seen a Western Kingbird.  We spent most of the rest of daylight checking this bird out, which was a lifer for me.

Long-tailed Duck

Western Kingbird (we think!)