New Year's Rough-legged Hawk

Carrie and I have been bringing in the New Year watching the original Star Wars Trilogy at home. Before we got started with the trilogy, we had a nice group of birds come to our feeders this morning, including at least two Red-breasted Nuthatches.

Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
European Starling 6
Dark-eyed Junco 6
Northern Cardinal 3
House Sparrow 4

After watching A New Hope, Carrie agreed to join me on a drive to find some New Year's birds. Our first stop was State Farm Corporate South, where we had a decent variety of waterfowl.

Cackling Goose 6
Canada Goose 150
Mallard 6
Northern Shoveler 8
Ring-necked Duck 1
Lesser Scaup 5
Bufflehead 1
American Coot 8
American Robin 1

Next, we drove around on the country roads North of Downs, where we saw a few Horned Larks fly across the road and enjoyed great looks at a couple of Red-tails and a beautiful light, male Rough-legged Hawk!







From Downs, we drove to Moraine View State Park, where we added a few more species.

Canada Goose 200
Lesser Scaup 2
Hooded Merganser 1
Ring-necked Pheasant 50
Wild Turkey 50
Red-tailed Hawk 3
American Coot 1
American Kestrel 1
American Crow 8
Black-capped Chickadee 1
European Starling 30
American Tree Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Northern Cardinal 9
House Sparrow 2

Among the birds we saw there were 50 Wild Turkeys and 50 Ring-necked Pheasants, and they were nowhere near the hunters!





Here is one of the Red-tails we saw.



I had hoped to see a Bald Eagle at Moraine View, but we did not find one there. On the way home, however, while we were stopped at a red light at the corner of Route 9 and N Hershey Rd., Carrie spotted a Bald Eagle soaring above. This brought our New Year's Day count to 30 species!