Birding Goals and a little Patch Birding

Bald Eagle perched on a snag on my way to Decker Lake, West Valley City, Utah

Usually each year I make three challenging birding goals. Some ambitious personal and family goals as well as some increased responsibilities at work have really put a crunch on my birding and bird blogging time. That's okay though. "To everything there is a season" right?

So this year, one of my goals will still be to average at least one eBird checklist per day and I invite you to take the One-a-Day eBird Challenge too. Another eBird related goal will be to have a checklist submitted for each week for my regular birding patches. Then, when I run the bar chart in eBird it will show a complete week-by-week year of the bird comings and goings from my little corner of the world. It will help me and science better understand migration patterns. Now if all of you and your birding friends did the same, think of the increased understanding we'd all have. I also find it very fulfilling personally to enter and follow eBird data. It's not for everyone though. One Utah birder recently commented that counting birds sucks the life out of her. If that is the case, by all means, don't count the birds! Just enjoy looking at them. Other Utah birders have a little eBird competition brewing so my normal eBirding will contribute to that fun little game and friendly competition.

I had considered doing a Davis County Big Year, but I am postponing that for some future year. That half-hour drive north to Antelope Island will be too hard on family time and on the family budget this year. No goals related to life birds for me in 2012. I'll take whatever I get and can afford to chase. So all in all, my goals for this year involve a little more zen and a little more life balance.

One birding patch that I have visited a few times before, but plan to visit each week during the winter waterfowl season on my lunch hour is Decker Lake. Below are some recent images from birding at or near Decker Lake.


(Don't forget, you can click on the images to enlarge your viewing pleasure. A nice lightbox that Blogger now has as a standard feature now opens up on your screen so you can scroll through and better enjoy the images.)

The above and below photos reflect a pretty common winter scene at Decker Lake. Do you see the Cackling Goose in the middle of the photo above? How about the female Common Merganser in the photo below? Which other species can you pluck out of the pictures?

As common as Red-shafted Northern Flickers are, I can't explain why, but every time I see one, it takes my breath away and I get an adrenaline rush. Maybe that is part of why birding is so addicting.

Killdeer on Ice. I thought all the Killdeer would have headed out of town to warmer climes by now, but a few hardy (or dumb) birds try and stick out the cold of Utah's winter. One thing interesting to me about this photo is that I discovered that Killdeer have black toenails.

Not a great photo, but still the awe inspiring iridescence of Black-billed Magpie wings and tails constantly impresses.

Three Long-billed Dowitchers still hanging out in Utah in winter, just past the edge of the ice on the lake, doing what Dowitchers do best, bobbing for food.