A month and a half in with great birds

Good day fellow birders and friends!

At this point I am a month and a half into my "Junior Big Year" of birding.   Some birders decide to do a "big year" where they travel across a designated area of land (Continental US and Canada is a common one) and see how many bird species they can get.  Birders doing big years are usually out and about across North America birding.

As I'm 11 years old, I unfortunately can't do that but I have decided to do a "Junior Big Year" this year in 2011 and I have been fortunate to travel to Florida, California, and around Virginia so far and have Texas, Ontario, and Alaska on the books for the future.

I have decided to just start blogging now, so I'll give you a brief overview of what has happened in the first month and a half of the Junior Big Year.  Highlights are as follows:

White-winged Dove, South Florida, listed as "rare" for the area, life bird for me

Brown Shrike, vagrant from Asia seen in McKinleyville California.  This Brown Shrike is the 3rd one ever recorded in the Lower 48 States with only a few other records from Canada and Alaska!

Another highlight is a Say's Phoebe near Arcata California.

Sage Thrasher in North California is another highlight.

And now the Virginian rarities.  Back near home there has also been some exciting birds and I have added Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle, and Rough-legged Hawk as well as Redhead and Trumpeter Swan right near home.  The Trumpeter Swan is a juvenile and is only the 2nd recorded record for the county!

Also present about 3 hours from home near Richmond Virginia is an Allen's Hummingbird young female visiting somebody's hummingbird feeders in Chester Virginia. I made the trip over to see her, Little "Martha Gail" is so special.  Big thanks to the homeowners for letting people into their space to see the rarity.

At this point I have a total of 198 species and 350 is my target for year's end.

Check back to see how the Junior Big Year continues!