The first day of January offers some of the most exciting birding of the year; for just a moment, every bird is new and ready to be plucked for the year list. Too bad New Year’s Day has to directly follow New Year’s Eve… many a promising year of birding has to be postponed a day or two on account of mysterious headaches, nausea, and fatigue!
I’m hoping to start the new year off right by scanning Lake Ontario for winter waterfowl. Corey, no doubt, will rack up at least a couple of new birds for New York state by the end of the first day of the year! What will you be doing this weekend and where will you be birding on New Year’s Day? Share your plans in the comments below.
Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend!
Apparently some parts of New York like Black Dome Mountain in the Catskills had a White Christmas.
Too bad Santa didn’t give Corey that Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch he had asked for…
I’m flying to Cairns on Saturday night, so I won’t be drinking and will wake up for tropical birding in an exciting place!
That’s a breathtaking view there!
Looks like winter wonderland :0) Beautiful ! :0)
Beautiful, postcard-perfect, shot!
May you have a Happy New Year!
This is just….AWESOME!
I wish you a Happy NewYear!
My birding will be the boreal forest. I may find 23 species, or I may find 1 (happened before) depending on the weather. One year, disgusted with the winter boreal forest, I flew to the BC coast for the new year (went to visit my sister…yeah, that was the reason, not the birds)–that was glorious. Some day I’ll go tropical and probably fall face first when my senses are overwhelmed.
Gorgeous winter scene and a beautiful sky. Happy Skywatching and I wish you a very Happy New Year!
One of the “First Day Hikes” in a state park might be a good choice. I’ll be at Deception Pass, Washington. See you at Skywatch too.
Jordan Lake CBC. Looking to start the year off right.
I’ll be on the Lake Huron coast trying to make a Snowy Owl the first bird of ’12. Of course, that would entail driving out there for an hour with my eyes closed…or making sure I leave before dark so no birds are visible on the way. Both of those prospects are uninviting.
I only really work my county list, having neither the time nor the means for anything more extensive or exotic. So I will be hitting 4-5-6 hotspots in York County PA and starting my new cabin list for the new year. I keep trying (and failing) to break 40 species on January 1. I’ve come really close several times and always end up missing something easy to keep me from making that mark. The weather doesn’t look promising this year–high winds–but we’ll see what happens.
Gorgeous! Happy New Year!
I’ll be in my local patch has I do every year, Carlton and Wallingwells woods. Highest count so far gas been 53 species as there odds quite a large lake at there edge of it.
I’ll be birding locally, thinking globally. 😉
Just urban Heidelberg for me, around the house. I am hoping my first bird of 2012 will be one of the Blue Tits we have at our feeder at the moment.
I have never kept a year list but might actually keep one in 2012, because I have some promising business trips coming up during the course of the year: one fixed, two pending acceptance by my employer. Fingers crossed for a very happy year 2012.
I hope I get a chance to go birding somewhere in Costa Rica, preferably in cloud forest.
Going to Santa Cruz Island to get a glimpse of the Island Scrub Jay.