Author: Steve

 I put bird sightings into ebird.  It keeps track of what we’ve seen.  Life list, year list, state list, county lists.  I can check our status any time.  Ebird has a new feature this year.  It will send a “Needs List” email each day telling me what birds have been seen in our county of interest, that we haven’t seen yet. In the fall, it was a simple list.  One bird, sometimes two or three in the county that we hadn’t seen yet in 2011.  Now that our year lists have all started over, the daily list of birds we haven’t seen yet looks more like this: – American Wigeon (1 report)- Canvasback (6 reports)- Hooded Merganser (1 report)- Cattle Egret (2 reports)- Green Heron (1 report)- Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (3 reports)- White Ibis (3 reports)- Roseate Spoonbill (2 reports)- Cooper’s Hawk (6 reports)- Gray Hawk (3 reports)- Peregrine Falcon (2 reports)- American Avocet (4 reports)- Solitary Sandpiper (1 report)- Long-billed Curlew (1 report)- Stilt Sandpiper (3 reports)- Forster’s Tern (2 reports)- Green Parakeet (1 report)- Barn Owl (2 reports)- Eastern Screech-Owl (2 reports)- Great Horned Owl (2 reports)- Common Pauraque (3 reports)- Ruby-throated Hummingbird (7 reports)- Black-chinned Hummingbird (1 report)- Broad-tailed Hummingbird (1 report)- Rufous Hummingbird (4 reports)- Green Kingfisher (2 reports)- Black Phoebe (1 report)- Tree Swallow (5 reports)- Cave Swallow (5 reports)- Verdin (4 reports)- Carolina Wren (3 reports)- Marsh Wren (1 report)- Eastern Bluebird (4 reports)- American Robin (1 report)- Sprague’s Pipit (2 reports)- Cedar Waxwing (1 report)- Ovenbird (7 reports)- Tropical Parula (1 report)- Pine Warbler (6 reports)- Golden-crowned Warbler (2 reports)- Field Sparrow (3 reports)- Western Tanager (1 report)- Crimson-collared Grosbeak (2 reports)- Black-headed Grosbeak (4 reports)- Orchard Oriole (4 reports)- Lesser Goldfinch (2 reports)- American Goldfinch (9 reports) These are all sightings in Hidalgo County yesterday, of birds we haven’t seen yet this year.  Tantalizing.  Here I am, back at work, and all these other people are out birding.  My vocation is getting in the way of my avocation. The good news is that we have already gotten 110 birds in the county.  Can’t get the rest all at once.  We’ll get them over time. We’ll report back.