All,
Harry Fink, Matt Rogosky, and I conducted our first ever (for either of us) official ABA Rules Big Day yesterday. We kept it to Howard County and made 20 stops between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. What a good time we had and it proved that Big Days at any time of the year can be a blast. Due to the cold weather, all shallow lakes and ponds were completely frozen over, with only a few of the larger bodies of water having a few postage-stamp areas still not frozen. So, we knew that puddle ducks were going to be scarce (we only got Mallard, Black, and Wigeon on the day). Knowing that, we said before we started that anything over 70 species would be a nice day.
Well, we ended up with 75 birds, quite a nice tally for an inland county in January! We were able to close out all the anticipated sparrow species (11 counting towhee and junco), picked up some good divers (goldeneye, lesser scaup, canvasback) which can be tough in Howard County, and lucked into a snow goose that flew into a quarry pond while we were studying a cackling goose. One of the big surprises was that Triadelphia Reservoir was almost completely frozen over and that place is a lock for Common Mergs. Well, we didn't see any and thought sure we'd missed that species but at the last minute we were able to spot 10 or so way out in the lake. Earlier in the week you couldn't count all of the Commons at this location! Alas, no cormorants, Common Loon, or Red-breasted Mergs here, all of which had been seen recently.
Other good birds were a Merlin, Long-eared Owl (Matt's lifer and my 1st-county bird), and Rusty Blackbirds. Our worst misses included Grackle, Brown Creeper, Great Horned Owl, Horned Lark, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Meadowlark, and Hermit Thrush. We tried for the continuing Summer Tanager at Sebring Drive without success. We also made a concerted effort to find Turkeys at a known location for them but saw nary a single track in the snow. No crossbills at Crestlawn Cemetery either.
Hands down the best part of the day was that we stood at 65 birds at 4:30 p.m., thinking that was going to be it; we then proceeded to add five new birds in five minutes at a silage pit in western Howard County as the sun was going down, including the Merlin, Rusties, Cooper's Hawk, Fox Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow. We then added four more new birds including a towhee (!) and three species of owls between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. Last bird of the day? - the Long-eared Owl, which made three low-level passes right over our heads precisely at 6:00 p.m., after I made one single squeak sound by kissing the back of my hand!
Big Days - you should try one! So much easier than Big Years!
Russ Ruffing
Howard County
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