The three biggest owls in North America are the Great Gray (tallest), Snowy (Heaviest), and Great-horned (2nd Heaviest). On February 1st, I went to see a well known Great Gray Owl quite a ways from my area. That same night, I heard a Great-horned Owl in a woodlot by my house. Lastly, on February 8th, I found this Snowy Owl perched on a telephone pole out in the country.
How’s that for a Big Year?
Snowy Owl, Linwood ON
Great Gray Owl, Ontario CA
I am so happy for you!
I would love to see a great gray owl and a snowy owl. Both would be lifers!
Today I went for a walk to participate in the Great backyard bird count on eBird and heard a barred owl. I went half a mile and could hear the owl from beginning to end because it was somewhere in the middle!
How’s your Year so far guys?
How many species have you spotted?
I got off to a good start with 102 species in January, with Smew, Scaup, Bearded Reedling and Short Eared Owl amongst the highlights. February has been terrible for birding though with near constant rain here in England, so I’m still only on 109. No new lifers yet.
And I thought my 38 species were a good number for the first two months… :)
It’s strange that where I live (Essex , England) is largely urban and much of it doesn’t look too pretty, but being near the coast there is quite some diversity of habitat, so it’s good for birding. There are some wonderful wetlands and a few sites where it’s possible to get forty, even fifty, species in a day.
was lucky enough to travel to panama in january which was spectacular, my first real “birding trip”. plus we’re finally getting a bit of rain again in northern california so a lot of the places here are really starting to come to life. 279 birds on the year so far. more than 100 lifers in panama, but also managed to get some local lifers that were really exciting for me, with this lewis’s woodpecker maybe being the highlight of those
I haven’t been out much at all, thanks to chronic conditions kicking every last square inch of my butt. However, the Doctor and I managed to snag ourselve some time in the mountains this afternoon. On the way up, we stopped at a local park that’s known for winter birds, and photographed two lifer Ross’s Geese.
I finally got a camera. I had bought one back in the summer a camera that was too heavy for me to enjoy and sold it. Now I have one that is half the weight and I am so excited to get started with it. I can’t wait to try it out.
That is more birds than I have in my whole lifelist!
As for birds this year I do not keep great track of my year to year numbers, rather just my lifers but according to eBird I have 29 species this year which should be pretty close.
We do not even have that many species this time of year near me. Right now is the winter resident season!
My goal is to get my ≥ 30 lifers this year. I have one so far. If I travel that will not be hard if I don’t that is a different story.
I have only 19, but I’m nowhere near finished uploading, so we’ll have to see…
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2026-01-01&user_id=mkanimallover&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Aves
I got one of those SD card phone-connecting usb thingies, so I can finally upload all my camera obs! Here’s the first one https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/338985646
Da photo sucks but it’s a start! I promise I’ve got better photos that I’ll upload…eventually.
Those are so hard to photograph, but I love them! There’s been quite a few around our yard this winter.
Awesome! (Great name for it btw) I use one of those, and they’re amazing!
That is not a terrible photo AT ALL. That is so good!
I call them transporters. They are one of those things that no one really uses the same name for!
I know they move a more than any bird I try to photograph. Even hummingbirds usually rest for a bit.
There are two in my area that I’ve seen, a Barred owl in my yard and an eastern screech owl in my friend’s yard!
I have 56, out of which 55 are from a single trip in January
1 lifer (Eastern yellow wagtail) which Merlin picked up but I couldn’t spot
