Epic condo birding update

You know it's going to be a good day of condo-birding when a Peregrine is loafing out your window pre-dawn... 

Haw-daym! Had another fantastic day of lakewatching ... And is it surprising? Well, kinda.. Cause I'm sitting in my warm office when I see the birds...

But at the same time, mother nature has been handing out epic low pressure like it's lunch! We've had 3 major systems pass through since Dec 15th, and at least 4-5 other weaker low pressure systems pass through since mid December on top of that.. It's actually a pretty extreme streak ...

LOTS of east winds to go along with it.. Good old North Atlantic Oscillation is POSITIVE for the first time in a while... Remember last winter when we didn't have east winds for months? We're getting the opposite now, and this the kind of weather I like :)

Anyways below is the ebird link to my entire day of lakewatching from the condo:

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Dec 26, 2012 7:45 AM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments: Dad and Mom helped in the afternoon
23 species

Canada Goose 72
American Black Duck 5
Mallard 34
Canvasback 1
Greater Scaup 261
Lesser Scaup 4
Surf Scoter 22
White-winged Scoter 103
Black Scoter 2
Long-tailed Duck 266
Bufflehead 1
Common Goldeneye 114
Common Merganser 165
Red-breasted Merganser 29
Pacific Loon 1 extremely good looks at 8:41am directly with Common Loon. Report to be sent to OBRC
Common Loon 1
Black-legged Kittiwake 2 2 juv's together at 957am
Ring-billed Gull 148
Herring Gull 275
Glaucous Gull 2 first winter and second winter birds
Great Black-backed Gull 47
Rock Pigeon 1
Peregrine Falcon 1 adult female from the lift bridge pair

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12374306

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Obviously Pacific Loon is new for the patch list, but so is Canvasback! Giving me 50 species... Still need to go outside and get goodies like Cardinal.. 

Here's my post to hambirds to explain the loon:

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Just had a Pacific Loon fly east past Green Rd. in very close proximity to a Common Loon, maybe 100ft up and only a few hundred meters offshore. I have toyed with the thought of ID'ing a Pacific Loon in flight in the past, although this was one of those exciting moments in birding where the situation is ideal and the features were blatantly obvious, even in flight. The overall size of the body/head/neck etc was less than half that of its Common companion.


I guess the odds of relocating the bird would be very slim, but wanted to get the word out and let people know that things are happening on this very strong NE wind (50kmh+)

Good birding and happy holidays!

Brandon

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A darn good day... A darn good day indeed... 

A pic of the Kittiwakes taken from my office...