The 4th of July Birding Challenge

Gray Catbird

Last week, June 29th, an email came through on the CTBird email list about a challenge - the 4th of July Birding Challenge.

Eastern Kingbird

The 'rules' are simple - any common bird name that has 'American' or a state name in it as well as a state's bird counts and of course, the Bald Eagle!  So birds like: American Crow, Tennessee Warbler, and Brown Pelican (state bird of Louisiana) count.  For complete list and more details, go to http://www.thermalbirding.com/2013/06/4th-of-july-birding-challenge/.

Song Sparrow

So I figure I would give this challenge a hand by birding over at Nonnewaug High School.  I chose Nonnewaug for a few reasons - it's close, I like birding there, has a variety of habitats, and I have not been there in a while. So off I went.

Butterfly sp?

I had planned on doing my usual loop - lower athletic field then over the foot bridge to the field where the garden is.  However,  nothing beyond the footbridge had been mowed and since I saw one tick on me already (I had put DEET spray on), I did not want to take any chances so I did not go to the other field.  Darn - and that is where I tend to see warblers too.  Oh well.

So, here's what I saw/heard:

Damselfly sp?

Eastern Bluebird (male), Turkey Vulture, Red-Tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Blue Jay (3), American crow, Tufted Titmouse (2), White-Breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, American Robin, Gray Catbird (9), Cedar Waxwing (4), Chipping Sparrow (3), Song Sparrow (3), Northern Cardinal (2 - m/f), American Goldfinch (5), House Sparrow (3)

 So now, here's the species that count towards the Challenge:

Coyote (?) Scat

American Crow, American Robin, and American Goldfinch because they have 'American' in their names and the following state birds: American Robin (CT, MI, WI), Northern Cardinal (IL, IN, KY, NC, OH, VI, WV), and the Eastern Bluebird (MO, NY).

So of the 19 birds I saw, 5 qualify for the Challenge or 26% of the species I saw/heard.  I was surprised not see see a Mockingbird or Black-Capped Chickadee which would have counted as state birds which I have seen at Nonnewaug in the past.

 So my question is this:  Do I bird Nonnewaug again next year or find another place to take the Challenge?  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

DATA:  10:40am-12:21pm; 79F/82F; partly cloudy; breeze; humid