Highlights of New Year’s Day birding:
Buffalo Gap:
- Red Crossbills
Abilene State Park:
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Mountain Bluebird (at entrance to Lake Abilene)
Sightings by Lorie Black and Joan Howard
Dan Symond’s New Year’s Day Sightings:
- First bird of the New Year: Great Horned Owl – 1 Flew across 277 south of Abilene at approx. 7:15am
- Second bird of the New Year:Red-tailed Hawk – 1 Sitting on telephone pole on Antilley Rd.
- Third through 301 where Grackle species, I reached Burger King on Antilley Rd. in time for their morning exodus from the Lake Kirby area.
- Lake Abilene:
- Cedar waxwing – 2
- Yellow-rumped Warbler – 5
- House Finch – 3
- Robin – 10
- Blue Jay – 5
- White-winged Dove – 7
- Black Vulture – 14
- Chipping Sparrow – 7
- Marsh Wren – 2
- Northern Cardinal – 2
- Dark-eyed Junco – 12
- Eastern Phoebe – 1
- Pied-billed Grebe – 5
- American Coot – 5
- Spotted Towhee – 5 – three of them were fighting for a sumac bush
- Double-crested Cormorant – 4
- Scrub Jay – 1
- Northern Mockingbird – 5
- Eastern Bluebird – 1 Male sitting on the highest point of a 30ft tree singing his heart out
- Song Sparrow – 1
- Swamp Sparrow – 1
- Vesper Sparrow – 10
- Black-crested Titmouse – 2
- American Kestrel – 2 on the way home
Sightings by Dan Symonds who was chased off by a couple of wild boar. So please be alert to the situation at Lake Abilene.
Wastewater highlights:
- Snow Goose
- Pectoral Sandpiper
- Dunlin
Complete List:
- Snow Goose: 1
- Gadwall: 40
- American Wigeon: 25
- Mallard: 4
- Blue-winged Teal: 15
- Northern Shoveler: 65
- Northern Pintail: 70
- Green-winged Teal: 70
- Bufflehead: 22
- Ruddy Duck: 25
- Pied-billed Grebe: 3
- Eared Grebe: 2
- Northern Harrier: 2
- Red-tailed Hawk: 2
- American Kestrel: 2
- American Coot: 40
- Killdeer: 4
- Greater Yellowlegs: 2
- Least Sandpiper: 1
- Pectoral Sandpiper: 1
- Dunlin: 1
- Long-billed Dowitcher: 12
- Wilson’s Snipe: 5
- Ring-billed Gull: 20
- Greater Roadrunner: 1
- Loggerhead Shrike: 1
- Marsh Wren: 2
- Northern Mockingbird: 2
- European Starling: 15
- Song Sparrow: 2
- Swamp Sparrow: 1
- Red-winged Blackbird: 30
- Western Meadowlark: 4
- Great-tailed Grackle: 10
- Brown-headed Cowbird: 20
- House Sparrow: 6
Sightings by Heidi Trudell and Cole Wild