Bird Love

Man, I love birding. Nothing is as absorbing and rewarding as being out there, catching glimpses of birds in the air, in the trees or on the ground. The rewards are ephemeral...nothing you can keep (unless you have made the effort to photograph )
and what sightings you get can often be hard-won.
I spent most of yesterday counting birds with Bruce and Helen, and Helen's daughter, Holly. We were covering a small sector of Loudoun County, Va. for the 111th Audubon Christmas Bird Count. It was a little cold, but not too bad...it started out around 25, but shot up to 50 by 2:00. Patchy snow here and there. No wind to speak of. And lots of bright sunshine. Considering that most of the east coast had just endured a massive snowstorm, that left up to 30" in some areas of New Jersey, and 18" in Boston...we were actually very lucky! Our highlights included getting a good long look at a hovering Sharpie and seeing a flock of 15+ Northern Flickers going over an Osage Orange tree for what we werent sure, but something in or on the tree was very attractive to the Flickers and a small troop of Titmice. We stopped about 10 feet away and watched for a good five minutes.
Collecting information for scientists to use for projects like this Occurrence Map put together by eBird is such a privilege :)
The Christmas Bird Counts in our area are organized by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, which itself is a crucial organization striving to, among many issues, educate the public about the importance of wild places for wildlife and people.