This buck was curious to see what we were up to as two friends and I went to Ocean Shores, WA yesterday to see how many birds we could find and count as our area of the Gray's Harbor CBC. This is the 120th year of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Every year in the late Dec. and early January time frame birders in many areas census the birds in a 15 mile diameter circle. We try to find and count as many individual birds as we can. This information is used to monitor the status of birds during this time of year when the populations are relatively stable, i.e. not migrating and not breeding in much of the Northern hemisphere.
The day was beautiful, a nice break from the cold and snow we have had in most of Washington for the last week.
Mount Rainier was visible in the afternoon when the sun came out and the clouds cleared. Note that it is completely snow covered from our heavy early winter storms.
We managed 72 species over the course of the day including this cooperative Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus
TOmorrow I'll head out on another CBC as apart of the Vashon Island CBC. Wish me well.
Until next time. Good birding and good day!