This past week has been a full one: I’ve added a half dozen new birds to my lifelist, sighted in or near my town! Over the past few days I’ve spotted a Lousiana Waterthrush, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, in Wells Run, the creek that runs through University Park. A few weeks ago I also saw a Cedar Waxwing in the tree right outside my house (whose identification was helpfully confirmed by my neighbor).

This morning at the pond I saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (eat those caterpillars, my friend!), a dozen or so Chimney Swifts (I’d seen these before but never confirmed their identity), and a pair of Orchard Orioles. As this list testifies, I’m still really only an advanced beginner: with quite a few common birds out there yet to be spotted, I’m a far cry from jetting around the world chasing rarities. Which is good, because that gets expensive.

The pond also offered two very small ducklings poking around at the bank with their mother. While these are ‘new’ birds, they don’t make it onto the life tally. Sorry, very cute baby ducks. No sign yet of the goslings, but I’ll keep checking back. I wasn’t able to see the actual eggs, even with the binoculars, but I’m sure there must be some, as the goose has been sitting in exactly the same spot on each recent visit.

On a related note, I hadn’t realized that my lifelist coding was fubar. I apologize for that; it’s fixed now.