Every January we await the arrival of the Common Redpoll. In Randall we saw them as early as December. Since we moved to the Long Prairie area last Summer this has only been our second winter. We saw them late in January 2011. This winter has been very warm so we didn’t expect them at all but the temperature dropped 20 degree from Wednesday to Thursday. So we saw our first Redpoll of the season on Friday morning. We must have had somewhere near 70 in our yard. Today the numbers were a bit smaller, only in the dozens. It is also possible to see the Hoary Redpoll here and they can look very similar at times, but I have looked at dozens of photos from last year (and we had large flocks later in Winter) and none of the photos betrayed any Hoary Redpolls that we had missed in our binoculars.

We still miss a few birds. I have been hearing something that sounds a bit like a Kingfisher, but I we not sure. We haven’t seen any Cardinals yet this Winter, but we know they are somewhere (we see them every Winter). Today I saw four birds that might be a Grouse or a Pheasant but didn’t get a close look. Below is a photo of todays picture of an American Tree Sparrow. Common but a favorite of ours.

We have been seeing Tree Sparrows for the last few days. Yesterday we saw one just before sunset and today we saw them in the morning. We had decent sunshine and I was able to get a fairly good photo. Sparrows can be skittish and even when they are not they often blend into the vegetation. Looking at my records, this is first time we have seen them in January in Minnesota. When we were in Randall we would see them in from late February to April. Given our short experience in the Long Prairie area we don’t know if this is unusual or not but even if not we welcome any Sparrow to our backyard.

About things we don’t see. Both Shawnne and I have been hearing a bird (or a group of birds) making a noise a bit like an old car horn in the next property a few hundred feet to our East. Finally 2 days ago when I was walking Sierra, I actually saw the birds, a pair of Pheasants, flying from that property to a nearby field. I have a decent recorder and should have taken it with me so I could compare what we heard to the possible species. But lazy is as lazy does and I had to wait until I saw them.

This is the first year that we have tried to record all the birds we have seen in a consistent manner. Looking back, though, I do think we missed a few. Here is our list of  top ten birds (both mine and Shawnne’s combined).   The Chickadee is around all years, so we were probably was less attentive in winter than we were later in the year.

Here are the top ten birds by how many days we saw them:

Red-winged Blackbird	236
American Goldfinch	223
Black-capped Chickadee	220
Downy Woodpecker	219
White-breasted Nuthatch	217
American Crow	185
Hairy Woodpecker	177
Red-bellied Woodpecker	149
Blue Jay	147
House Finch	145

Here are top twelve birds by month:

American Goldfinch	12
Black-capped Chickadee	12
Hairy Woodpecker	12
Pileated Woodpecker	12
White-breasted Nuthatch	12
American Crow	11
Red-bellied Woodpecker	11
American Kestrel	10
Blue Jay	10
Downy Woodpecker	10
Purple Finch	10
Red-winged Blackbird	10

I am surprised that I didn’t record the Downy Woodpecker or Crow in all 12 months.  In the case of the Crow, it is a bird we hear often more than we see, so we probably missed it last winter.

I am sure the monthly totals will be better next year unless, of course, we move again.

Our birdwatching has slowed to a crawl. We record virtually all the birds we see and in July observations for 2 days would cover 50 lines on a screen. In December I can get almost 6 days on the same 50 lines. During the warm months most of our birding excitement was at home, but now most of our interesting birds are found away from home. Shawnne has seen a Bald Eagle and a Kestrel recently and we both have seen the Red-tailed Hawk. All of these we seen while on the road. We have been hoping for some cold weather and some snow. That usually convinces birds to try for the easy meal at the feeder rather work hard for what’s available in December. The odd weather, I am sure, has affected birdwatching. It is much warmer than usual. It is a bit early for Redpolls, but perhaps if we had some cold weather we might get them here.

The best bird photo recently is of a Pileated Woodpecker. This a photo of a female who has been frequenting our feeders. When we were in Randall we saw them all the time. Here we here them sometimes and get them at our feeders rarely.

December has been a slow month for birdwatching. We are still seeing Red-winged Blackbirds. We see the same 3 every day in the tall grass by the lake. I don’t know if that is normal for here since we never saw them in Randall in Winter. We have had a warm December so far. We have been hoping to see Redpolls, but looking at our records from Randall, we rarely saw them in December and certainly not on warm days. We saw a Brown Creeper today. I did not get a photo. I saw it shortly after I woke up and it was gone once I was dressed and able to get outside.

Shawnne saw a Bald Eagle yesterday. There must be some open water some where otherwise they would be gone. She has seen several Eagles in the last month or so.

Below is a shot of a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Not a great shot but it is the only colorful bird I have photographed in weeks.

Not much birding action lately. Our lake is frozen enough to skate on it. A pair of men were walking across the lake last week when it didn’t look very safe. We have been seeing Purple Finches, some later Brewer’s and Rusty Blackbirds. The Northern Shrike has been visiting. Just today we saw an unidentified bird that I think my be a kestrel but I am not sure.

I purchased a new pair of binoculars. I chose a Steiner Predator Extreme 10 x 42 binoculars. My old Swift Audubons wore out and I don’t think they were worth fixing. These were the best of those I examined. I looked that Nikon Monarchs 10×42′s and a Leupold 10×42. I hate the Nikons. That surprised me because this model is chosen by the NJ Audubon Society. In any event the diopter adjuster is terrible, the adjustment is too coarse. I like the Leupolds but they had a too narrow field. The Steiners are bit more expensive than the other two and a bit better made. The diopter adjustment is the finest among any I looked at. The field is a bit narrow for my taste by not narrow for a roof prism binocular. They are useable. They do have a bit of chromatic abberation. Not unusual in their price range but more than I prefer. ( I compared them with a 20+ year old Adblerblick binocular. That model is not as well made as the Steiner but it has very low chromatic abberation.

Are there better binoculars in my price range? Perhaps. Should I have purchased the newer Swift Audubons? Again perhaps, but I heard a lot of criticism of that model and I needed to know I would be comfortable with what I chose.

Our birding is slowing down. I am taking fewer pictures each day and on some days I wiil take none at all. Tuesday, 11/22/11, was a gray day, not wet just cloudy and dark. We saw a Northern Shrike (and I mean we since Shawnne also saw it). I managed to get a passible photo of the Shrike. Certainly not a rare bird in MN, but not one that one sees every day. Both of us also saw a Mourning Dove and I managed to get a photo (not a great one either). The Mourning Dove can show up in any month of the year, but it is uncommon after October or Before March. In any event this is the first time I have seen one in November in Minnesota, Looking at my records we have now recorded Mourning Doves in all 12 months of the year. Both photos were taken through a window that has 3 panes of glass so it isn’t sharp.

We have a few Red-winged Blackbirds hanging on. A blast of cold weather this week froze the lake so they should be moving on soon. We had a flock of Canada Geese last Sunday that I think contained a Cackling Goose but the photo I took was taken through four sheets of glass (two doors) so it is not sharp. I haven’t decided whether or not to upload it yet.

We saw a Rusty Blackbird yesterday. It isn’t a rare bird but because it is so easily missed in a flock of blackbirds it needs to be looked for. I don’t think I have seen these more than 5 or 6 times in my life. In the last 4 or 5 years the situation didn’t allow a lot of time to scan flocks of birds. (Most of the time when I was in Memphis, I lived in a development which was built on land completely bulldozed so that no original trees of foliage was left. It was not a good place to see any birds.) Now back in Minnesota and on a lake we are on an ideal place to see birds. At this point of the year the huge flocks of blackbirds (mostly Redwings) have dwindled to a handful. So we have been seeing a late season Common Grackle and now the Rusty. With the first snow today the season is truly coming to a close so very soon we won’t have even have the stragglers.

Birding has really slowed down. We are seeing about 12 different species a day. That compares with 17 per day in October and 21 per day in September of this year.  Are we missing any birds? Yes. I have seen flying ducks I cannot identify. Just today I saw something that was probably a Pied-billed Grebe, but I didn’t get a good enough look to be sure. I don’t think I have missed too many of those who might eat at our feeders.  If we have a favorite bird for this month it probably is the Trumpeter Swan. We have had a family on our lake for the last fews days.  I have managed to take a mediocre photo. (Updated to say that I have a better photo than the one I inserted on 11/12/11.) Good enough to know they are swans not good enough to be sure they are Trumpeters.  I also looked with my spotting scope and I can assure you that the birds in question are Trumpeters.  We heard Tundra Swans fly overhead but have not been able to get any pictures.

Bad news. My binoculars a Swift Audubon 8.5 x 44 pair that I have had since around  1990 have bitten the dust.  I expected that since the one eyepiece has been getting looser and looser since late Summer.  Today it just popped off. Not something I can fix and probably not worth having fixed. The hard thing for me is selecting a pair. I have looked at a few already. The Leupolds had too narrow a field, but seemed otherwise fine. The 10 x 42 Nikon Monarchs in one store had a diopter adjustment that was crude and I was not impressed with the pair I looked through. I am hoping to get to a store closer to Minneapolis that might carry a larger assortment than that found in Brainerd.

It is getting down the the end of Fall and the start of Winter. I wish I had always kept meticulous records of the birds I have seen. Even now I don’t know if I have all the right detail, there is no way from our records to know we are getting only a trickle of Red-winged Blackbirds and not the flood we see in Summer. We saw a handful today not the several hundred that could have been counted on a Summer day. In any event many of our friends are truly gone. The last Robin we recorded was on October 22, the last Harris’s Sparrow was on October 28th (perhaps we might be surprised and see one again but I don’t think so).   The last Common Grackle was on October 10th.  This is the first year we have recorded the White-throated Sparrow in November, usually they are gone before the third week of October. We didn’t see it today and we only had one individual for the past few days so it may be gone. Again hoping against hope to see it again.

To your left. You can see a photo of the Harris’s Sparrow and friends taken 10/27/11.

naturally we saw one Grackle today!