It’s the first day of 2009 and Pam and I hope it will be a great year for all of you!

We also hope it will be a year of many new birds for both of us.  But, we all have to start somewhere each and every year.  So, as I posted yesterday, I thought I’d start off 2009 with a post about literally the 1st bird each of us see, whatever it is and wherever it is.  I think this bird qualifies as a significant bird for us because it will be the 1st bird of the first full year of birding for us.  It will hold the cherished spot atop our 2009 list and will be seared into our brains forever because of the circumstances in which it was seen.  The bird should be very proud of itself

And The Winner Is

Pam woke up a bit before me and spotted a female Northern Cardinal as her first bird of 2009.

I got out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen to make some coffee and as I was walking back to the living room I saw a male Eastern Bluebird, all puffed up against the cold, eating some suet.

Here’s a picture I took a while back that shows the Cardinal and Bluebird hanging out together:

How About You

So, the Cardinal and Bluebird were our first official birds of 2009.  What was yours?

Please participate and post a comment about the first bird you saw today.  It will be neat to see what everyone found as they opened their eyes on January 1st, 2009!

Sitting On The Deck Minding Our Business

It was a beautiful Christmas day with temps right around 62. We were sitting on our deck watching the birds come and go from the feeder when we heard the familiar call of the Great Horned Owl.  He seemed to be way off in the distance, a few yards over.  A couple minutes later the sound was much closer.  Most of the time we hear them at dusk, when it’s too dark to see anything.  This time it was 3PM and still very light outside so I kept my eyes open in case I might actually see something.

A Big Shadow In The Corner Of My Eye

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big bird flying to the top of the neighbor’s pine tree.  I said to Pam, “over there” and we looked over in the direction of the shadow to see the owl perch on the tippy-top of a pine tree, about 100 feet up in the air.  Fortunately we had the camera with us out there so I was able to take some pictures:

I had to use maximum (12x) zoom on the camera and crop the pictures quite a bit to get these but they came out great as far as I’m concerned The owl sat up there for about 5 minutes turning his head from side to side to listen to the other owls call. We heard two others besides him. Finally he flew off the tree towards one of the other owls. We saw him again a bit later sitting partway down a tree right before dusk.

Worth The Wait

While it was frustrating hearing the owls for two years without seeing them, it was worth the wait!  We were able to get some good pictures of the Great Horned Owl as well as fantastic views with the binoculars.  There was enough light and it was a nice clear day.  That was the first time I had seen an owl in the wild since I was a kid and the 1st time ever for Pam.  She was very excited to finally see one somewhere else besides the Zoo!

Now that we’ve seen the Owl we hope to see him again very soon.  They are magnificent birds and I think it’s neat that they are living amongst all of us people like this.  It shows how much nature is right in your backyard if you listen, and look, long enough!

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes, out of the blue, you are hit with a realization or observation that impacts your life in some way, however small.  That moment happened to me a few weeks ago when I noticed a bird doing something we had seen it do many times in the past but this time it was different.

The Significance Of A Bird

Birds are all around us but we usually don’t notice them.  But, every once in a while we catch a glimpse of one and it has some significance to us, for whatever reason.  I thought it would be interesting to write a short post about significant birds we have seen as we see them.  So its fitting that the first bird to make an “impact” on me in my recent incarnation of birdwatcher was  a woodpecker, specifically the Pileated Woodpecker.

Seeing Woody The Woodpecker

For both Pam and I the Pileated Woodpecker reminds us of Woody The Woodpecker, the famous cartoon character that originated in the 1940’s and remained popular through the 60’s and 70’s.  It is a fairly large bird and it is easy to notice, especially as it hops down the trees in your yard.  That’s exactly how I noticed it a few weeks ago.  It was inching its way down one of the Sweet Gum trees in our backyard heading for our suet feeder.  Once it got to within 10 feet or so it made the short flight over to the feeder where it immediately began pecking away at the suet.  What was funny was how the suet was literally flying all over the place as he pecked at it.  I don’t know how much he actually got but it sure was fun watching

Since that Saturday we haven’t seem him again.  I’m sure he’s still around we’re just missing him.  Hopefully he stops by our feeder soon.

Making An Impact

I don’t know what it was about seeing that happen on that particular day.  Over the last two years we’ve lived in this house both of us have seen him do that same thing multiple times.  Maybe it was the way he went about doing what woodpeckers do or maybe I was just more receptive to the nature that is all around us.  Whatever it was, it made an impact on me and I was much more interested in it than the other times.  I guess that’s when the spark went off and I became a birdwatcher again, and the Pileated Woodpecker became the first bird on my life list.

What About You

If you are a birdwatcher, what was your first bird and how did it impact you and motivate you to take up watching birds?  If you aren’t yet a birdwatcher what would it take for you to become one?