What was your first bird of 2011? Let us know in the comments…and, if you wrote a blog post or have a picture of your first bird of the year online somewhere, well, leave a link in the comments too.
Happy New Year from all of us at 10,000 Birds! And here’s hoping you see many great birds, including lots of lifers, in 2011! After all, 2010 was a pretty great year and there is no reason 2011 can’t be the same!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Carolina Chickadee for me. Calling around the feeder while I was still in bed.
My first bird of 2011 was a Rufous-collared Sparrow singing outside my door.
I twitched a lone waxwing first thing this morning. The only thing I saw before that was a redwing. Quality not quantity this Jan 1!
My friend and I strolled through Mendon Ponds park in upstate NY last night (new year’s eve) around 6:30 pm and happened upon a large group of geese. It was hard to see in the dark but their calls sounded like hundreds. Their sounds became louder and louder until at one point, they all reached a peak unified chorus. It was like listening to the angels sing. It was beautiful. It seemed like a ritual. Do you know what it was? I can’t seem to find any information online. Thanks!
First bird of the year was a small group of White-winged Doves, and already pulled our first lifer of the year with a Golden-crowned Kinglet
Mourning Dove…but at least it beat out the pigeons that were number two!
@Alana: Geese makes lots of noise. It might have been because a coyote was near or it might just have been geese being being geese.
A W/T Sparrow on the patio.
My first bird of 2011 was a lovely Song sparrow at my metro Atlanta feeder in the rain.
A Starling!
Two mourning doves fluffed out to keep warm this chilly Dallas morning. I ended the year with an osprey and a few canvasbacks, both lifers for me. And I’ve already scheduled a birding/family trip to southeast Arizona in a month to use up some frequent flier miles and to look for some more new birds. Also, to try out the spotting scope I got for Christmas. 🙂 http://thainamu.blogspot.com/2010/12/van-camping-and-bird-watching.html
I am not sure which bird was my first of the year hear in Washington State. When I looked out at the feeders there were Steller’s Jays, Varied Thrush, Spotted Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow and Dark-eyed Juncos on the ground and Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Pine Siskins on the feeders. I just saw a blur of colors and activity not an individual species.
Spotted dove in my Honolulu backyard.
@Wilson Cady: Sure, make the rest of us very jealous why don’t you? 🙂
First heard: American Crow. First seen: Ring-billed Gull. Either way, a blah way to start out the year … but within the first 13 hours it got a lot more interesting. 🙂 (More TK on Monday!)
Our first bird was a regular in our CA Central Coast “winter” – a flock of White-Crowned Sparrows. They are quite fun, with their bright white-stripped heads and pale peach beaks. And while normally ground feeders, they have learned to fight the House Finches for the seed at the feeder!
Like many others my first birds of the year were the ones in the garden, at 90+ they were lined up for the birdbath. http://bushbirds.blogspot.com/2011/01/toukley.html
First Birds – I gotta say. Thousands of American White Pelican taking off and flying into first light at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, FL.
A involuntarily artistic impression of that here:
http://virtua-gallery.com/downloads/Flurry.jpg
First bird of the year for me was a Yellow-rumped Warbler in my apartment complex here in Orange County, southern California.
Mine was a Rock Dove at about 2 am after a rock show outside Lee’s Palace. It was the first bird of my documentary about a big year. To learn what I’m up to this year, visit punkrockbigyear.blogspot.com
A flock of twenty-three Mourning Doves were at my feeders when I woke up this morning. It was better than the fifty or so House Sparrows I was expecting.
My husband’s and my first bird of 2011 was one of our resident Western Scrub-Jays perched in its oft used spot at the top of the juniper across the street.
Red-shouldered hawk heard calling outside. Otherwise, first one SEEN was a tufted titmouse here in NY.
Probably a myna, but the first I recall was a grallad (Grey Duck/Mallard hybrid.
I am shocked and appalled to admit I don’t yet have a bird in 2011. I don’t know what happened… I didn’t get outside until dusk and there was just nothing around. All I have is the weird ostrich-like things in Halo: Reach.
Barred Owl, while owling for the Christmas Bird Count in Wilmington. Pretty good start to the year! Second bird: Mourning Dove. Third: Great Blue Heron.
@Nick: You’re fired. From what, I don’t know, but you are definitely fired! Or I could lend you one of the 98 species I spotted today…
Glaucous-winged Gull started a very nice day of twitching and birding ’round Vancouver. Best of the day: Northern Mockingbird.
American Crow. Which is not particularly exciting, but just fine with me.
black capped chickadee at my backyard feeder in bethpage
Little Wattlebird! Out the window!
What’s so dull and uninteresting about having a crow as your first bird of the year? If it were the other way round I wonder how many crows would have been thrilled to see us!
This morning we were woken by the wonderful call of a Northern Flicker. Black-capped chickadees followed. I’m pleased to say that I share my days on a regular basis with these as well as the odd crow or two. For me, there’s lots of interest with our ‘common’ birds!
I live in Shanghai, so the first bird I had was either a Eurasian Tree-sparrow or a Oriental Turtle-dove…..
I live on the banks of the River Ebro in the Catalonia region of Spain. The first bird of 2011 for me was a Great Cormorant that was flying up-river just as I opened the curtains! Have to tell you that I also saw my first Firecrest later in the day! I have a challenge of 200 birds for 2011 which you can read on my blog:
http://www.riverebro.com/2011/01/200-birds-in-2011-a-learner-birder-challenge/
My first bird of 2011 was a Mallard that responded to my screech owl imitation.
House Sparrow! Can I have my job back Corey?
Outside my bedroom window I have a feeder of black oil sunflower seeds. So, every morning, I have black capped chickadees, dark eyed juncos, American goldfinch, house finch, cardinals and bluejays. This will be my first full year of “birding” and looking forward to the variety of different birds I have when spring arrives. 🙂
@John: That is just plain weird. Perhaps you need to practice the imitation a bit more? 🙂
@Nick: Yes, but you have to take a pay cut, which means that you will have to pay me.
First bird was a Red Bellied Woodpecker, followed by Northern Cardinal, Carolina chickadee and titmouse.
First heard, lots of crows. First seen, western scrub jays – six of them in the front yard.
My first bird was a pair of Gambel’s Qual in the Sonoran Desert in Quartzsite, Arizona… seen through the window while checking email not so early in the morning on 1/1/11.
oops… I really DO know how to spell Quail.
I saw 5 Eastern Bluebirds while out for a brisk New Years walk in Mid-Michigan.
Obviously these dudes are wintering over.
Surprisingly it was a Raven.
Saw 2 Bald Eagles along the Animas River in Durango, CO. New year’s day.
I first heard a Black-billed Magpie but first saw an American Crow. Yay for Corvids!
Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca). There’s a male that attacks its reflection in our bedroom window every morning this breeding season.
Here’s my blog post about my first bird of the year:
http://susanfoxrogers.typepad.com/blogrogers/2011/01/first-bird-of-the-year.html
Eastern Wild Turkey. Though their range is not traditional to Northwestern Ontario, where my friends observed over 20 flying up into poplars to rest for the evening, they have spread in the last few years. Saw them Jan. 1. Wish I had some photos, but the only ones are on Facebook and not mine.
First bird of 2011 was the same (possibly the exact same) as the last of 2010: a crow. I didn’t blog him…
We have so many backyard birds, I believe the first one I actually saw was a male cardinal.
As I was out well before sunrise for the Anderson Christmas Bird Count on January 1st, my first bird of the year was a pair of hooting Great Horned Owls!
Just came vack from Africa. My first was a Hadeda Ibis.
http://demersus.net/2011/01/first-bird-of-the-year/