My life list (1 Viewer)

[Cillana]

Sightings before 2005 in order by Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America, my new fav field guide. All of these birds were seen in south Louisiana or southeast Texas.

1. Mallard
2. Gadwall
3. Lesser Scaup
4. Wood Duck
5. Canada Goose
6. Snow Goose
7. American Coot
8. Pied-billed Grebe
9. Double-crested Cormorant
10. American White Pelican
11. Brown Pelican
12. Ring-billed Gull
13. Laughing Gull
14. Red-tailed Hawk
15. Red-shouldered Hawk
16. Osprey
17. Turkey Vulture
18. Black Vulture
19. Cooper's Hawk
20. Great Horned Owl
21. Northern Bobwhite
22. White Ibis
23. Roseate Spoonbill
24. Great Blue Heron
25. Great Egret
26. Snowy Egret
27. Cattle Egret
28. Tricolored Heron
29. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
30. Green Heron
31. Killdeer
32. Rock Pigeon
33. Mourning Dove
34. White-winged Dove
35. Eurasian Collared-Dove
36. Inca Dove
37. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
38. Belted Kingfisher
39. Red-headed Woodpecker
40. Red-bellied Woodpecker
41. Downy Woodpecker
42. Hairy Woodpecker
43. Pileated Woodpecker
44. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
45. Purple Martin
46. Barn Swallow
47. Eastern Kingbird
48. Eastern Phoebe
49. American Robin
50. Eastern Bluebird
51. Brown Thrasher
52. Northern Mockingbird
53. Loggerhead Shrike
54. Cedar Waxwing
55. Blue Jay
56. American Crow
57. Fish Crow
58. Carolina Chickadee
59. Tufted Titmouse
60. Carolina Wren
61. European Starling
62. Red-winged Blackbird
63. Common Grackle
64. Great-tailed Grackle
65. Boat-tailed Grackle
66. Brown-headed Cowbird
67. Orchard Oriole
68. House Sparrow
69. American Goldfinch
70. Northern Cardinal
71. Indigo Bunting

2005 Lifers:
(in the order I saw them)
April 17 on Ship Island, MS
72. Willet
73. Sanderling
74. Sandwich Tern
75. Least Tern
76. Semipalmated Plover
77. Piping Plover
May in Baton Rouge, LA
78. House Finch
June 20 in Cocodrie, LA
79. Black-necked Stilt
June 21 in Chauvin, LA
80. Black-crowned Night-Heron
June 23 in Cocodrie, LA
81. Clapper Rail
June 27 off the coast of Cocodrie, LA
82. Royal Tern
83. Forster's Tern
84. Caspian Tern
June 29 on the Isles Dernieres, LA
85. American Oystercatcher
86. Wilson's Plover
87. Reddish Egret
88. Common Nighthawk
July 1 in Port Fourchon, LA
89. Black Skimmer
July in Cocodrie, LA
90. Little Blue Heron
91. Bronzed Cowbird
92. Seaside Sparrow

 

[prairiemerlin]

Very nice list! You have quite a lot of good birds on there! Have you looked at the Sibley Guide to Birds? It is a little pricey and very large, but a good "read at home" book. How long have you been birding?

 

[Cillana]

Very nice list! You have quite a lot of good birds on there! Have you looked at the Sibley Guide to Birds? It is a little pricey and very large, but a good "read at home" book. How long have you been birding?

Sibley's has been highly recommended to me. I picked Kaufman as a field guide, but I might get the big Sibley's to keep at home when I find the cash. I used the Audubon Society field guide growing up, but that one belongs to my parents so I had to get my own when I moved out.

I've been birding in some capacity most of my life. I grew up in a little town in Southwest Louisiana. We lived on a well gardened lot on a gravel road with woods (mostly pines) on 3 sides. Sometimes I would go on walks down the road or trails in the woods. There were also lots of birds visiting our backyard. My mom didn't like us to have a bird feeder for fear that the neighborhood cats and strays would use it to their advantage. Sometimes we spread seed out in the yard, but mostly the birds liked all our gardens and fruit trees. We had a purple martin house too. A few years ago the lots were all cleared and the roads were paved and we started seeing a lot less variety in the birds that visited the yard. I also saw alot of birds during frequent visits to nearby Sam Houston Jones State Park and Lake Charles Yacht Club.

Since I've been attending college and living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I've gotten more into birding than before. I like to go to "the lakes", a bunch of large and small interconnected man-made ponds (formerly swamps), to take pictures of waterfowl. This spring I took a Marine Vertebrate class that included a field trip to an undeveloped barrier island of Mississippi. This summer I took a couple marine biology field classes in Cocodrie, Louisiana, a tiny spot of civilization in a huge salt marsh. Neither of the classes were about birds but I got to see a lot of new birds from my dorm balcony and on our boat trips. I wrote about all the birds I saw there in Your Birding Day.

A couple years ago my parents moved to Southeast Texas. They live a neighborhood with lots of mature trees and a park in walking distance. I added the White-Winged Dove to my life list while visiting. There is also a bird sanctuary nearby that my parents have visited. I'd really like to go when I can find the time. My mom saw a Least Bittern there and the people that run the visitors center said that there have been sightings of King and Yellow Rails.

 

[Cillana]

Finally got to visit the Anahuac NWR near my parents house on Nov 25. It was quite dry. I went into greater detail of my trip in My Birding Day. I added the following birds to my life list (in the order I saw them):

93. Wilson's Snipe
94. Northern Harrier
95. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
96. Ruddy Turnstone
97. Lesser Yellowlegs
98. Greater Yellowlegs
99. Common Moorhen

 

[Cillana]

After visiting the Dagmar WMA near Little Rock, Arkansas, early this year I added:

100. White-throated Sparrow
101. Hermit Thrush
102. Golden-crowned Kinglet
103. Winter Wren

 

[Cillana]

Birding in Baton Rouge and nearby St. Gabriel, Louisiana:

104. Yellow-rumped Warbler
105. Blue-headed Vireo
106. Pine Warbler
107. Ruddy Duck
108. Hooded Merganser
109. Ring-necked Duck
110. Canvasback
111. Yellow Warbler
112. Anhinga
113. Sharp-shinned Hawk
114. Orange-crowned Warbler
115. Redhead
116. Rufous Hummingbird
117. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
118. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
119. American Pipit
120. American Kestrel
121. Song Sparrow
122. Swamp Sparrow
123. Common Yellowthroat
124. House Wren
125. Brewer's Blackbird
126. Eastern Meadowlark
127. Savannah Sparrow

 

[Cillana]

First visit to Baytown Nature Center, Texas

128. Least Sandpiper
129. Green-winged Teal
130. Northern Shoveler
131. Short-billed Dowitcher
132. Herring Gull

 

[Cillana]

Kisatchie National Forest, Louisiana

133. Red-cockaded Woodpecker
134. Bachman's Sparrow
135. Henslow's Sparrow

 

[stephennj]

Very nice progress ! Louisianna must be quite an overwintering ground. You'll get 200 by the end of the year at this rate, after that things get tougher but just as fun.

 

[Cillana]

Very nice progress ! Louisianna must be quite an overwintering ground. You'll get 200 by the end of the year at this rate, after that things get tougher but just as fun.

Thanks.

Although some of my ticks are from outside of Louisiana, they are all species found in Louisiana as well. If I only stayed in Louisiana I could get 322 species (451 if you count those on the review list too).

 

[Cillana]

Back in Baton Rouge, LA:

136. Tree Swallow
137. Northern Parula
138. Northern Rough-winged Swallow

In Cocodrie (Terrebonne Parish), LA:
139. Lincoln's Sparrow

In Cravens (Vernon Parish), LA:
140. Le Conte's Sparrow

 

[Cillana]

First trip to High Island, TX:

141. Summer Tanager
142. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
143. Gray Catbird
144. Yellow-breasted Chat
145. Neotropic Cormorant

Didn't spend near enough time there. Only went to 2 of the 4 reserves and didn't even go down to the beach. I need to go back!!!!

At my parents' house in Baytown, TX, for Easter and saw these:

146. Kentucky Warbler
147. Broad-winged Hawk
148. Swallow-tailed Kite

 

[Cillana]

Back to birding in Baton Rouge and St. Gabriel:

149. Baltimore Oriole
150. Scarlet Tanager *GOAL!!!!* :bounce:
151. Prothonotary Warbler
152. Mississippi Kite
153. Acadian Flycatcher
154. Red-eyed Vireo
155. Painted Bunting

 

[Tero]

132 Herring Gull?
I would have though like #30.

 

[Cillana]

I don't know why they're so uncommon around here. We have tons of laughing gulls and ring-billed gulls.

PS I probably saw them as a kid, just didn't know what they were. Have only been doing serious birding for about 3 years.

 

[Cillana]

Spent the weekend in Cocodrie, LA

156. Black-bellied Plover
157. Whimbrel
158. Dunlin

 

[Cillana]

This morning in the Atchafalaya Basin:

159. White-eyed Vireo
160. American Redstart
161. Eastern Towhee
162. Yellow-throated Vireo
163. Eastern Wood-Pewee
164. Swainson's Warbler

Complete trip list here

 

[Cillana]

Back visiting my parents in Baytown, TX. Went for a walk/birding in the wooded park next to the subdivision and saw:

165. Blackburnian Warbler
166. Black-throated Green Warbler

Birding in Chambers County, TX:

167. Purple Gallinule
168. Spotted Sandpiper

 

[Cillana]

At the Bluebonnet Swamp in Baton Rouge, LA:

169. Barred Owl

 

[Cillana]

While leaving the parking lot from work today, I saw something with a white rump and bright yellow on its wings land in a tree nearby. I got out and snuck up to the tree (no binocs) and sure enough it was a Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted of course). For such a common bird, they sure have been eluding me for a while.

170. Northern Flicker