New Years Day - again

[Gary Davidson <>]

I found Alan's report of his first birds of the new year an intersting idea.  I thought I might add mine, - from a Western Canada perspective.  From here in the "far west", Alan's list actually arrived on my computer before noon on December 31.  And as I write this, just before noon on Jan 1, it is well into the 2nd in Aus. 

 

Now there is a big difference between North Queensland in summer and Canada in winter!  Alan managed over 20 species without any effort at all.  In order to match his number I would certainly have to work at it!  The weather was in my favour, actually very mild for January, a balmy 3ºC.

 

There was nothing at all making any noise at midnight, so no head start from there.  First thing in the morning I could hear nothing outside as I lay in bed either!  I got up and looked out at my bird feeders and got bird #1 of 2006 - Varied Thrush.  Followed quickly by (#2)American Crow, (#3)Song Sparrow and (#4)Red-breasted Nuthatch.  I drove down to the lake and picked up (#5)Common Raven, (#6)American Coot, (#7)Mallard and (#8)Bald Eagle.  Around town I found (#9)Golden-crowned Kinglet, (#10)Brown Creeper, (#11)Dark-eyed Junco, (#12)Northern Flicker, and of course (#13)European Starling.  At another part of the lake I found (#14)Herring Gull, (#15)Canada Goose, (#16)Horned Grebe, (#17)Common Goldeneye, (#18)Bufflehead and (#19)Red-breasted Merganser.  I still hadn't matched Alan's total, so I tried a few more spots.  A bit more searching produced (#20) Red Crossbill, (#21) Steller's Jay, (#22)Black-capped Chickadee and (#23) Bohemian Waxwing.  Three hours had elapsed since I left the house and I had finally broken 20, I'm sure that if Alan had kept going till 11:30 his list would have been much longer!

 

I know there are people on this list from other countries, how about hearing the first 20 from a few other far-flung locations?
Gary

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