Members of Northern Arizona Audubon like to post their first three birds of the year. Mine began with Common Raven, Dark-eyed Junco and Steller's Jay.
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| First bird of 2011: Common Raven |
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| Second bird of 2011; Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco |
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| Third bird of 2011: Steller's Jay |
We wished each other a happy new year over breakfast at 7am in a temperature of 17-below (-27C) and the CBC began for my team with a visit to see what open water remained on the lakes in town. The few open spots were surrounded by birds huddled together, many of them covered in a layer of frost. The closeness of the birds together with steam fog above the water made counting and identification difficult. As the day wore on, with a temperature rising to what seemed a toasty 23F (-5C), the birds became more active and we ended with a count of 1300 waterfowl on the frozen lakes. Two Ross's Geese were the highlight. Cruising the neighborhoods in our territory we found most of the usual suspects and a trip out to Walnut Canyon National Monument added a couple of the species from the pinyon-juniper habitat. Although urban birding isn't the best, it was good to spend time with friends. By the end-of-day my yearly species count had reached 36 species.
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| Ross's Goose |
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