Every day I try to get 20 species in the yard for my 20 Bird Minimum Daily Requirement . So far this year it usually takes about an hour in the morning to do this. As it gets colder, and the local reservoirs freeze, the gulls and geese are not moving through my neighborhood as much, and it is getting tougher to get those 20 birds.
Yesterday it was -4°F at 6:30am and I had to drive my daughter down to Baltimore for a clarinet audition at the Peabody Institute. I only got 8 birds before I had to leave, and didn’t get back until a quarter to 5 and a Downy Woodpecker was the only other bird I was able to get for the day. So yesterday was a pretty spectacular Birding Fail, and my first such day for my yard this year.
Some days are like that, and even a birding big year sometimes has to take a back seat to the family!
