Been A Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled... #186

Well, it's obvious from the last post date that I have done about El Zilcho birding over the past year. Well that all changed tonight! I shall dub this latest foray as: The-2-year-old-in-tow-car-ride-only-BIG-evening!

Ok...ok. It might not sound like much, but it was really great. My two year old Jane is a great travel buddy. She held her little binoculars the whole time and even tried to look through them like her daddy. Occasionally I'd look back to see how she was doing and the camper just smiled at me with a big happy-to-be-with you smile. Toward sundown she just went ahead and fell asleep, content to let dad bird on.

And the birds WHERE great too. Last year the Eastern Meadow Lark was something of a nemesis bird for me. Tonight I saw at least 20. They were everywhere, singing in full voice and sporting the yellow plume. All in all I saw 28 separate species tonight, the highlight being (can you believe it..) a NEW LIFER! I saw my first BOBOLINK tonight and saw several more afterwards just a-singing. A great bird and a great evening.

It just goes to show you that a simple night of birding can give you more than you'd expect and become a beautiful memory.

Bird on :)

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/bobolink/id

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 For those that may be interested, tonight's list in full:
Eastern Meadowlark
Barn Swallow
Indigo Bunting
Tree Swallow
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Red-winged Blackbird
Song Sparrow
European Starling
American Robin
Turkey Vulture
BOBOLINK
American
Goldfinch
Canada Goose
Mourning Dove
House Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Rock Dove
Savannah Sparrow
American Crow
Common Grackle
Chimney Swift
Northern Cardinal
Carolina Chickadee
Chipping Sparrow
Red-tailed Hawk
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole