A recent trip to Horicon Marsh NWR was the beginning of The New Birder Experience. What was the first official bird to land on Stacia’s Life List?
The weather was practically perfect: warm, breezy and clear. The birds were active and showy offering me, as teacher, a much easier time to point out birds. We took our time to really enjoy each new bird, a generally good practice with newer birders. The temptation to rattle off every singing bird, every airborne feathery creature was there, but we weren’t on a big day. This was purely for fun and I wanted to not overwhelm.
Horicon Marsh is completely loaded with birds year round and we were not disappointed. Lifer #1 was no other than a Great Egret (a bird we saw plenty of throughout the day but did not photograph). We traveled along the main dike road for the wide open views and one of the most fun sightings were all the young American Coots.
These photos were taken by Stacia with our 100-400mm Canon lens
Unbelievably, within a few minutes of driving on the dike road we were treated with a flyby American Bittern, a great bird for a first time out! We saw a Black-crowned Night-heron, American White Pelicans, and just a nice sampling of large marsh birds. We had a fantastic time and plan on many more birding trips!!
Over 80 Tree Swallows in one tree
A rare photo of Birdfreak birding since he usually has the camera
i’m also a new birder. this was a great joy to read!
Ecesis – glad you enjoyed and great to see another new birder! Our ranks are growing constantly and the more birders, the more bird conservationists!!
Now that’s not bad: getting your life American Bittern on the same day as your life American Coot!
Beautiful images, and a great list to usher in what will inevitably be “listmania.” 😉
I hope the sightings were duly archived in eBird?
-Mike
Wow, those would be lifers for me 🙂
Awesome start!
Besos,
Mel
Great shots! Congrats to the new birder!
Wow, a bittern. Here in NL they are extremely rare to see. Most impressive start of a life list. Well done Stacia (and Eddie 😉 )
Thanks everyone! We’ll try to get out as often as possible to find more birds. One of the cool things for me (Birdfreak) is the feeling of everything being new again… and relearning what makes each bird unique. It is fun!!