Bird Nerds

Yes.  You read the title right.  We are bird nerds.  We go out to a lot of different places, especially in spring time during migration, to find new birds that we've never seen before.  We have a bird book.  We highlight in it and write the dates that we've seen different birds.  We're not really that hardcore about it though, we use the equipment that we've got and mostly stay in our area of the state.  Still, we're pretty nerdy when we find another species that we haven't seen before.  For instance, today (I'm writing this on Friday, April 13th 2018) we saw 6 different birds that we've never before seen.

Here's a few of the smaller birds that we saw.  These are the smaller variety (under 7"):

This is a White Breasted Nuthatch, one that we have seen before, but hadn't had photographed yet.

This is a Female Yellow Rumped Warbler (New)

Male Yellow Rumped Warbler (New)

Male Yellow Rumped Warbler in Flight (New)

This is a Ruby Crowned Kinglet (New)

 Male Golden Crowned Kinglet (New)

Eastern Pheobe (New)

It's fun to scout out the smaller birds.  They seem to want you to take their picture.  They're less elusive.  They're chock full of character and sing beautiful songs that call to you.  But what is birdwatching without some of the larger ones?   These few are between 9" and 16".

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker (seen before, but not photographed)

Lesser Yellowlegs, about 10" (New)

Greater Yellowlegs, about 14" (New)

Male Ring Necked Duck, about 16" (New)

These are just a few of the birds that we've seen this season.  We're always excited to see this time of year birds like Goldeneye Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, Scaups, Shovelers and Teals.  Some of these are migratory birds, some stay in this area throughout the summer.