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Borrego Springs, CA

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Bird Count 2010

While some dyed in the wool birders were on the refuge searching for owls at four in the morning, I languished in bed until six.  :)  I’m all for the birds, but I’ve just reached that stage in my life where tromping through the marsh at that time in the morning just doesn’t thrill me any longer.

I met up with the group at the VIS a little later, and was assigned three other people to take along with me.  One woman even brought her poodle with her.  What’s up with that?  I like dogs, but this wasn’t the time or place to have a canine companion along in my opinion.  The pooch was pretty well behaved, and only barked when we left it in the car to do some of our counting.  Luckily, the birds were far enough away that the barking didn’t effect them.  The reason the owner put him in the Suburban is that he was walking in the cow pies.  I haven’t checked the back seat to see if I’ll be cleaning off cow pie paw prints tomorrow.  :(
_MG_7785 _MG_7786
Since I was the leader of our small group, today was not a day for taking pictures.  Two out of the three were pretty much beginning birders.  That’s not a bad thing.  They were able to point out some birds to me, they just didn’t know what they were.  However, I just couldn’t pass up a chance to try to get a shot of a bald eagle.  These were the only two shots I took all day.  This guy didn’t stay around to pose!  I could tell by the white head and tail that this was not one of the three eagles I saw last week.  So, there have been at least 4 bald eagles on the refuge in the past week.  That’s not very common.

With the areas I was assigned to count, we tallied over 12,000 snow geese, our most abundant bird for the count.  It was a pretty good birding day overall.  It remained overcast all day with surprisingly calm winds and temps in the 70’s and high humidity.  Of course, calm winds meant that there were probably more mosquitoes in the car than there were geese on the refuge!  :)  I didn’t have much skin showing, but the little buggers found every square inch that was available.  Can you say itchy and lumpy?  I guess I’ll just suffer in the name of science.  :)

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy

12 comments:

  1. hehe...gotta love those mosquitoes!

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  2. I'm with you - can't understand why someone would bring a dog along on an event like bird counting.

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  3. Say, do you ever see any of of those Gilly-ga-loo birds out there??

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  4. You'd think you would become immune after awhile.

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  5. I guess counting mosquitoes would be really impossible! I still don't know how you can count birds - that would drive me nuts!

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  6. I keep looking at your heading picture trying to count the birds and even with them frozen in place I still can't count them. And those mosquitoes - no way. But I sure do like your pictures.

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  7. My bird boy was out today too! Numbers were down for them from last year is all I have to report ~ other than their red tailed hawk count was said to possibly be some sort of record... I couldn't give the report my full attention; babies were more interesting!

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  8. Instead of counting mosquitos, you could just count your bites...might turn out pretty close, eh?? I am reminded to bring my Deet if we ever come that way!!! I've also heard that Bailey's and coffee keeps them away...just sayin'...

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  9. I go along with you, no place for a dog. How do you count those birds? Inquiring minds want to know...

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  10. I want to know how you came up with the bird count number too, mind-boggling! Love your blog, especially telling us what bird you are showing us. Great pictures, love the eagles. Jan

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  11. You're all for the birds? I just know there's a quip in there somewhere! :) Bird count = leave pooch at home. Terrific photos, as usual.

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  12. I can only say that you are dedicated and in this case that is for the birds!

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