7BY3: Quarterly Report October 18, 2018
Posted by indigobunting in Uncategorized.trackback
I only added eight species in the third quarter, but what a lovely eight they were: blue-headed vireo, peregrine falcon, mute swan, black-crowned night heron, least tern, common tern, common nighthawk, and American bittern. The blue-headed vireo was an unexpected treat in a Vermont state park. The peregrine falcon flew over my house, some sort of prey in tow—I was sitting on my front porch when I saw it. I saw the swan, heron, and terns on our quick trip to Rhode Island. We saw the nighthawk on the Indiana University campus. And at the end of a work-related fishing trip, Tim and I snuck over to our beloved interpretive center in Paul Smiths, New York, and flushed the bittern from its marshy hiding place as we walked by. It’s only the third time I’ve seen a bittern (and I’ve only heard one once).
Year-to-date count at this quarter: 138. (2012: 110. 2013: 173 [which turned out to be that year’s total]. 2014: 116. 2015: 124. 2016: 113. 2017: 141.)
Route 153 
Numbers-wise you have had a good year! I feel a bit sorry for the least tern. Imagine going through life with a name like that?
I like the blue-headed vireo, and the common nighthawk immediately meant that I head René’s voice – from ‘Allo ‘Allo (a British TV series) – saying, “‘Allo, This eez Nighthawk. Come in London. Over.” (Nighthawk was his Resistance code name.)
Oh, fantastic. I’d forgotten about ’Allo, ’Allo! (And yes, so many “least” birds…)