Lake Birding and Other Recent Outings....

The past couple of weeks, I've been checking Lake Lanier for birds that I need for my life and year lists. The past two times, no luck, this time! Bingo!

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15799133
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15799159

Some of the birds were over a mile out...so no pictures of them, but here are a few pictures of closer up birds.

Common Loon

 Horned Grebes with a Pied-billed Grebe

Fisherman with gulls


The Bonaparte's Gull was lifebird 305! HOGR and BOGU are both yearbirds.

On Wednesday, I birded a horse-farm/riding lesson place during my sisters horse-riding lesson.

I saw:

Chipping Sparrow 200+
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 7
Merlin 1 YAY

+ a few others.

I'll be doing that again. :)

I'll try to get better pictures next time.

Rufous Hummingbird

A Rufous Hummingbird showed up at a couple's house 10 minutes from my house...so 10 days after the initial discovery, I saw the bird!

Mountain Hike

On Thursday morning at 6:45, I departed for Ellicott Rock SC/NC/GA. The 6 mile trail starts in Georgia, goes into South Carolina and stays along the Chattooga River until Ellicott Rock, the border between North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

A terrible picture of a Eurasian-collared Dove at McDonald's in Jefferson GA
 

As soon as we started approaching the mountains it began to rain, a major annoyance. We arrived at the trail-head around 10:10 AM. There were about 11 of us, 3 birders and some hikers.

This is a list of the birds I saw:

Wild Turkey

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Eastern Phoebe

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Carolina Wren

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal .... The Wild Turkey let me get a dismal picture. So, we hiked 6.4 miles in the rain!!!!! ~Gwinnett Birder~

Stuff

Going hiking Thursday at Ellicott Rock on the border of Georgia, South and North Carolina. Target birds include Red Crossbill (very long shot) and Ruffed Grouse (long shot). Then I'm going birding Friday at Mill Creek Nature Center, I'll report on those Friday afternoon!

 A Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Below is a Golden-crowned Kinglet in my yard a couple days ago!

 

Golden-crowned Kinglet