"Birding" on January 11

Well, my "Property Big Year" got off to a slow start thanks to 1) being out of town on my first Friday off and 2) recovering from the flu on my second Friday off. But, I was able to get out just a little bit and see some birds. All of them were ones that you would expect to see around here on January 11. Guess I'll have to really double my efforts to make up for the past two weeks!

Last night, I was having a restless night and around 10:45, a Great Horned Owl began calling from somewhere just around our house. I couldn't tell exactly what direction he was calling from, but he was close. That was pretty cool to hear.

'08 Property List as of Jan. 11: 20

I went walking in our woods on Sunday and found several winter migrants there along with most of the "regulars." I found a couple of Northern Flickers, a Hermit Thrush, an Eastern Phoebe and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I will be interested to see what has come in with the strong north winds we had yesterday.

Two Great Horned Owls have been calling to each other over the past week. I hear them every night when I go outside. They are hanging out around the three acre clearing in the woods that the drilling company cleared.

Update on the drilling: The clean-up is going slowly. They have pulled up some of the boards from the drilling area. They have also pumped the drilling mud back into the casing. They are leveling the pond area and will dig out some more of it once more of the boards are taken up. I think that it's going to be one of my favorite spots on the property. It's so quiet down there. I'm going to build some Wood Duck boxes and see if we can get some nesting around it.