As hinted at in the last post, we have an announcement! We've been keeping track of our backyard birds for the last three years. The last two years we had 35 species. In 2017, we were really hoping to break that record, and we did! Here's to 36 species! Here they are:

1. Black-billed Magpie 2. European Starling 3. Townsend's Solitaire 4. Eurasian Collared Dove 5. American Robin 6. Golden Eagle (1.19.17) 7. Red-tailed Hawk 8. Great Horned Owl 9. Canada Goose (1.22.17) 10. Dark-eyed Junco (1.22.17) 11. American Kestrel (3.2.17) 12. Killdeer (3.6.17) 13. Common Raven (3.16.17) 14. Turkey Vulture (3.24.17) 15. Western Meadowlark (3.24.17) 16. Sandhill Crane (3.30.17) 17. Mountain Bluebird (3.25.17) 18. Northern Flicker (3.24.17) 19. Mallard (3.25.17) 20. Great Blue Heron (3.31.17) 21. Audubon's Warbler (4.15.17) 22. Barn Swallow (5.2.17) 23. Bullock's Oriole (5.9.17) 24. Northern Rough-winged Swallow (5.18.17) 25. Tree Swallow (5.10.17) 26. Yellow Warbler (5.13.17) 27. Western Kingbird 28. Mourning Dove (5.23.17) 29. Northern Mockingbird (5.23.17) 30. Common Nighthawk (6.4.17) 31. Swainson's Hawk (6.13.17) 32. Hummingbird (July 2017) 33. Bald Eagle (Dec 2017) 34. Pinyon Jay (Dec 2017) 35. White-crwoned Sparrow (Dec 2017) 36. American Goldfinch (Dec 2017)
And a few photos (not necessarily from the yard, but close by):
[Image] Blurry bald eagle in the yard [Image] Bluebirds and cows [Image] Dark-eyed junco [Image] American goldfinch (Desert Girl identified this one all by herself by looking it up in the bird book) [Image] American kestrel--nesting again in our yard [Image] Killdeer [Image] Mallard [Image] Common ravens circling (Desert Girl's photo) [Image] American robin [Image] Sandhill cranes [Image] Turkey vultures We didn't get a couple species I thought we would, so maybe next year we'll break 36? It helps that the kids are improving their birding skills. We'll try to keep track again on the sidebar of the blog.

If you're keeping track of birds you see, hope your 2018 list is longer than ever!