My wife and I drove to the Acton Nature Preserve on Saturday (2/19/2022) to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. Our group on Saturday counted 30 species and one hybrid for a total of 347 individual birds. For more information on the event please go to https://www.birdcount.org/.
I took pictures of 19 different species and saw several more of which I could not get a photograph (Great-tailed Grackle, Bufflehead, and Great Blue Heron are the two I remember specifically). Three species did not have usable photos (Black Vulture, Carolina Chickadee, and Red-winged Blackbird), so I ended up with 16 decent to good photographs. These birds were: American Goldfinch, Bewick’s Wren, Black-created/Tufted Titmouse hybrid, Brown-headed Cowbird, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Eastern Bluebird, Field Sparrow, Harris Sparrow, Hooded Merganser (on a pond adjacent to the Nature Center), Northern Cardinal (two separate photographs: one male, one female), Northern Mockingbird, Sharp-shinned Hawk (that was eating a cotton rat), Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, and White-throated Sparrow.
Three of these photographed birds were new species for my life list, all sparrows:
Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Tamron 150-600 mm lens; 500 mm; ISO-1600; f/6.3; 1/640 sec.
Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Tamron 150-600 mm lens; 600 mm; ISO-1250; f/6.3; 1/1000 sec.
Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Tamron 150-600 mm lens; 500 mm; ISO-1000; f/6.3; 1/800 sec.
After the bird count, we got to listen to a wonderful lecture on the history and changes to bird naming conventions by Dr. Billy Teels. It was extremely interesting.
It was a great day!