18 December 04
Christmas Bird Count
Tomorrow is the Putah Creek Christmas Bird Count. I’ll be joining about 40 other people scouring a circle which is about 15 miles in diameter, trying to count every single bird in our area.
Today was foggy all day, which doesn’t bode well for raptors or anything other than possibly waterfowl. Tonight we heard geese flying through the dark and the fog, honking to keep in radio contact. We’ll be taking our radios too…
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Dumb question #235. How do you make the birds sit still while you count them?
If they did, life would be so much easier.
One did, though. It looked like a black-necked stilt. We were on an unpaved country road at the time and I backed up to get a better look with binoculars. No stilt, but a greater yellowlegs… Oh well. But what are those weird things in the grass? Cryptic, weird birds? Snipe. Five. Five snipe at once. They were the only snipe reported on the count.
So, thank you to the greater yellowlegs masquerading as a stilt.