We had our third annual Christmas Bird Count today. The weather was cold. It’s winter. But the rain and snow stopped by 8AM and there was no wind. Here is how Emigrant Lake looks when the wind is NOT blowing, a rare occurence in almost any season (click on image for full screen view):
Yes, those two figures in the tree are adult Bald Eagles. They were the only two for our count this year. Our team has the only large lake in the count circle so we need to get the eagles. These two were right in front of us.
In the crystalline winter light the Lewis’s Woodpeckers were glistening and their coloring sharply visible. Overall we had dozens on the Ashland count this year.
The Ashland Count species total was 118, up from 112, last year and 107 in 2010, our inaugural year of modern-day counts here.
CLICK HERE FOR CHECKLIST OF BIRDS WE SAW IN OUR AREA AROUDN EMIGRANT LAKE, AND SOME LEWIS’S WOODPECKER PICS.
