(415 non-ABA, 402 ABA, mostly Ohio)

I have always tried to see Lifebirds close to home whenever possible, which is basically Northwest Ohio, Southern Michigan and Northeastern Indiana. For the most part, I have been successful: (290) RedThroated Loon, RedNecked,Horned, Eared, and PiedBilled Grebes, DoubleCrested Cormorant, Least Bitterns, GreenBacked and Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Tundra, Trumpeter, Black and Mute Swans, Greater WhiteFronted, Snow, Ross, Chinese, and Canada Geese, Brant, Common and King Eiders, Black and WhiteWinged Scoters, Mallard, Gadwall, Fulvous Whistling Duck, BlueWinged and GreenWinged Teal, Ruddy Shelduck, Canvasback, Redhead, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, American Black, Ruddy, Wood, Harlequin, Muscovy, LongTailed, and RingNecked Ducks, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Garganey, Common, RedBreasted, and Hooded Mergansers, Virgina and Black Rail, Sora, American Coot, Snowy, BlackBellied, Lesser Golden, Piping and SemiPalmated Plovers, Killdeer, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary, Spotted, Stilt, BuffBreasted, SemiPalmated, Least, WhiteRumped, Baird's, Pectoral, Upland and Purple Sandpipers, RedNecked, Red and Wilson's Phalaropes, ShortBilled Dowitchers, Common Snipe, American Woodcock, Red Knots, Dunlin,Ruff, Marbled and Hudsonian Godwit, Bonaparte's, Herring, RingBilled, Little, Franklin's, Great and Lesser BlackBacked Gulls, Common, Black, Least, Caspian and Forster's Terns, Pomarine Jaeger,Turkey Vultures, Golden and Bald Eagles, Mississippi and Swallotailed Kites, Northern Harrier, Northern Goshawk, SharpShinned, Cooper's, RedTailed, and RoughLegged Hawks, Osprey, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Gyrfalcon, Ruffed Grouse, Northern Bobwhite, RingNecked Pheasant, Wild Turkey, Chukar, Rock, Mourning and WhiteWinged Doves, Yellow- and BlackBilled Cuckoos, ShortEared, LongEared, GreatHorned, EasternScreech, Barred, Snowy, Barn and NorthernSawWhet Owls, Whipporwill, Common Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, RubyThroated and Rufous Hummingbirds, Belted Kingfisher, RedBellied, Downy, Hairy, RedHeaded Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, Eastern Kingbird, Sage Thrasher, Acadian, GreatCrested, Willow, Alder, Least, Yellow Bellied, Vermilion and OliveSided Flycatchers, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Eastern Phoebes, Horned Larks, Tree, Bank, Barn, Cliff, and NorthernRough Winged Swallows, Purple Martins, BlueJay, American Crow, Tufted Titmouse, BlackCapped and Carolina Chickadees, Brown Creeper, BrownHeaded,White- and Red-Breasted Nuthatches, House, Winter, Marsh, Sedge, and Carolina Wrens, GoldenCrowned and RubyCrowned Kinglets, BlueGray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Townsend's Solitaire, Veery, Wood, Swainson's, GrayCheeked, Varied and Hermit Thrushes, American Robin, Northern and Loggerhead Shrikes, Gray Catbird, American Pipit, Cedar and Bohemian Waxwings, European Starling, YellowThroated, Bell's, RedEyed, Warbling, Philadelphia and Solitary Vireos, Prothonotary, BlueWinged, Tennessee, OrangeCrowned, Nashville Blackburnian, BlackThroatedBlue, Black Throated Gray (ABA), BlackThroated Green, ChestnutSided, CapeMay, Cerulean, Magnolia, Brewster's, GoldenWinged, Lawrence's,YellowRumped, YellowThroated, Prairie, BayBreasted, Blackpoll, Yellow,

Yellow Warbler at Oxbow Lake My first YellowBellied Sapsucker in the Bahamas. Losing my hair early made me love this, my first Royal Tern. Great name, too!

Mourning, Connecticut, Kentucky, Canada, Wilson's, Hooded,WormEating, and Black-and-White Warblers, Northern Parula, Ovenbird, Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes, Common Yellowthroat, YellowBreasted Chat, American Redstart,RoseBreasted, Evening, Pine and Blue Grosbeaks, Northern Cardinal, Indigo and Painted Buntings, GreenTailed, Spotted and RufousSided Towhee, Henslow's, Vesper, Savannah, AmericanTree, Field, Chipping, Song, Harris's, WhiteThroated, WhiteCrowned, Fox, Lincoln's, Swamp, LeConte's, Grasshopper, ClayColored and Lark Sparrows, DarkEyed Junco, Lapland and Smith's Longspur, Snow Bunting, Dickcissel, Bobolink, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, YellowHeaded, Rusty, and RedWinged Blackbirds, BrownHeaded Cowbird, Common Grackle, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet, Western and Summer Tanagers, House Sparrow, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch, Red and WhiteWinged Crossbills, Purple and House Finches, Common and Hoary Redpolls, American Avocets and Whimbrels.

I've also taken Pleasure Trips (not Birding Excursions, since my travel companions have never been birders <grin> so I sneak my birding in on the side) to the Bahamas: (17) Magnificent Frigatebird, Caribbean Coot, WhiteCrowned Pigeon, RingedTurtle, CommonGround, Inca and Collared Doves, Cuban Emerald, Bahamas Woodstar, YellowBellied Sapsucker, Bahama Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, BlackThroatedGray, Pine, Palm and Kirtland's Warbler, and StripeHeaded Tanager. Florida: (52) Common Loon, AmericanWhite and Brown Pelicans, Northern Gannet, Anhinga, American Bittern, Black- and Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons, Cattle, Reddish, and Snowy Egrets, Wood Storks, Glossy, White, and Scarlet-mix Ibis, TriColored, and Little Blue Herons, Sandhill Cranes, Limpkin, Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Mottled Duck, Common Moorhen, BlackNecked Stilt, Willet, LongBilled Dowitchers, LongBilled Curlew, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, American Oystercatcher, Wilson's Plover, Laughing Gull, GullBilled, Sandwich, and Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Black Vulture, BroadWinged, RedShouldered and ShortTailed Hawks, Crested Caracara, Burrowing Owl, RedCockaded and Pileated Woodpeckers, Fish Crow, Florida Scrub Jay, Bachman's Sparrow, BlackWhiskered Vireo, Gray Kingbird, and BoatTailed Grackle Las Vegas: (2) Chihuahuan Raven, GreatTailed Grackle New Orleans: (6)WhiteFaced Ibis, King and Clapper Rail, Purple Gallinule, WhiteEyed Vireo, Swainson's Warbler Ontario: (3) Tropical Kingbird, ScissorTailed Flycatcher, BandTailed Pigeon Niagara Falls: (2) Glaucous and Iceland Gulls SanFrancisco: (28) Pacific Loon, Clark's and Western Grebes, Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, Cinnamon Teal, Surf Scoter, Heerman's, California, Thayer's, Western, GlaucousWinged and Mew Gulls, California Quail, Anna's Hummingbird, Acorn Woodpecker, RedBreasted Sapsucker, Scrub Jay, Common Raven, Wrentit, Plain Titmouse, Bushtit, ChestnutBacked Chickadee, Pygmy Nuthatch, California Thrasher, Hutton's Vireo, Townsend's Warbler, Brewer's Blackbird St Louis: (1) Eurasian Tree Sparrow Kansas City: (1) Western Kingbird Washington DC: (2)American Wigeon, Northern Mockingbird Illinois: (2) Greater Prairie Chicken , Monk Parakeet Maine (9) Arctic Tern, Common Murre, Atlantic Puffin, Greater Shearwater, Razorbill, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Black Guillemot, Saltmarsh Sharp-Tailed Sparrow, Bicknell's Thrush.

 

I found these guys (my first TriColored Heron, my first Bittern, and my first Wood Storks) in Florida.

It is still a very real possibility to obtain Sabine's and BlackHeaded Gulls, BlackLegged Kittiwake, ChuckWill's Widow, and Nelson's SharpTailed Sparrow, (5) close to home I understand, so hopefully if the reader knows of any nearby, please:

E-Mail Me at:

bijou@smta.cc