Monday, January 25, 2010

Off to Puerto Rico

For those who didn't see it on Twitter or Facebook... I'll be leaving for Puerto Rico tomorrow for 5 days of birding adventure. The actual tour doesn't start until mid-day on Wednesday. Where connectivity is available, I will be tweeting and blogging about the trip. It should be a blast. Thanks again to the guys from 10,000 Birds for sponsoring the contest. Endemics, quite a few exotics, and neat West Indian birds await!

Monday, January 04, 2010

Would you count it? A CBC conundrum.

John from A DC Birding Blog and I were conducting our part of the 75th Long Branch, NJ CBC on Saturday, a count that I compile. We were on a small trail along a frozen lake (like most of the water in our count area that day) and we ran into a gentleman putting up a Screech Owl box. He mentioned that he worked for The Raptor Trust, giving him some good credentials. He didn't know of any Screech Owls around, but did mention something very interesting. Earlier in the day, he ran into a hunter who showed him a photo taken that day of an injured Barred Owl on land within our count area. The owl box guy went to look for the bird, but did not find it. He planned to return later in the day with dogs to see if he could find it and then bring it in for rehab.

So, do I count it as a bird seen on our CBC? My plan is to count it unless someone has a good reason not to.

For a full write-up of our day and the birds we saw, check out A DC Birding Blog.