- 1/1/21 White-breasted Nutatch -- WooHoo! First bird of 2021, seen at feeders in my Hastings' backyard
- 1/1/21 Pine Siskin -- 50(!) of this"erratic" finch species, at my thistle feeders
- 1/1/21 Dark-eyed Junco -- mostly "Slate-colored" subspecies, but a few "Oregon"
- 1/1/21 American Goldfinch -- subtly colored in winter, easy to miss until spring when they turn bright
- 1/1/21 Red-breasted Nuthatch -- usually rare but plenteous this winter! Go find one in a conifer!
- 1/1/21 Hairy Woodpecker -- bigger cousin to the Downy Woodpecker
- 1/1/21 House Sparrow -- an introduced species, declining but still v common, esp around homes
- 1/1/21 Northern Cardinal -- such a cheerful sight, esp in the snow
- 1/1/21 Greater White-fronted Goose -- nicknamed "Speckle-bellies," 30 at Lake Hastings
- 1/1/21 Canada Goose -- large and loud
- 1/1/21 Cackling Goose -- smaller, squeakier-voiced cousin to the Canada, declared new species in 2004
- 1/1/21 Redhead -- aptly-named diving duck, in small patch of open water on Lake Hastings
- 1/1/21 Northern Pintail -- such a handsome duck, 2 on Lake Hastings
- 1/1/21 American Wigeon -- used to be called "bald-pate" for its white crown
- 1/1/21 Lesser Scaup -- sm. cousin to much rarer Gr. Scaup (duh), a diver, on Lake Hastings
- 1/1/21 Hooded Merganser -- unusual in Adams Co, one of my favorite species
- 1/1/21 Mallard -- most common duck around
- 1/1/21 Bald Eagle -- one at Lake Hastings, follow the waterfowl, increasingly common :)
- 1/1/21 Blue Jay -- numbers dropped after 2003 West Nile outbreak, but rebounding
- 1/1/21 American Robin -- always some around in winter if you know where to look
- 1/1/21 Belted Kingfisher -- one at Lake Hastings over tiny patch of open water
- 1/1/21 House Finch -- almost the only red finch around
- 1/1/21 European Starling -- introduced in US 130 yrs ago, now abundant
- 1/1/21 Merlin -- cool name, cool bird, like a faster, tougher Kestrel
- 1/1/21 Western Meadowlarks-- our State Bird; tough to distinguish from less common E. Meadowlark
- 1/1/21 Horned Larks -- very common but overlooked in barren ag fields
- 1/1/21 American Tree Sparrow -- common, countryside, winter version of Chipping Sparrow
- 1/1/21 Northern Flicker -- we're in hybrid zone, mostly "red-shafted" not "yellow-shafted" in winter
- 1/1/21 Northern Harrier -- cool marsh hawk, has jet named after it
- 1/1/21 Northern Bobwhite -- sneaky quail with growing population; I saw 19 in one flock today
- 1/1/21 White-winged Dove -- Stevie Nicks of AZ far more likely to see this, but it's been moving north
- 1/1/21 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- showed up here 20 yrs ago, now abundant
- 1/1/21 Red-bellied Woodpecker -- more around this winter, it seems
- 1/1/21 Downy Woodpecker -- put up a suet feeder to attract these little cuties
- 1/1/21 Red-tailed Hawk -- lots of color variations in winter, can be hard to ID, most common hawk
- 1/1/21 Song Sparrow -- likes wet, grassy areas, usually single or paired, not large flock like Am Tree Sp
- 1/1/21 Spotted Towhee --hangs with smaller, drabber sparrows; used to be called Rufous-sided Towhee
- 1/1/21 Rock Pigeon -- common "city pigeon," lots of color varieties
- 1/1/21 American Crow -- not to be confused with Common Raven, seen in Colorado but not here
- 1/2/21 Mourning Dove -- found 5 groups today, total 46 birds, odd to see so many in January
- 1/2/21 American Kestrel -- colorful little falcon you can see on power lines
- 1/2/21 Prairie Falcon -- sleek winter predator of open prairies, cousin to world's fastest bird
- 1/2/21 Sharp-shinned Hawk -- easy to confuse with Cooper's, another bird-eating hawk
- 1/2/21 Great Horned Owl -- always remind me of cats, but with wings
- 1/2/21 Harris's Sparrow -- birders from the coasts get excited to see this largest of US sparrows
- 1/2/21 Brown-headed Cowbird -- quit laying your eggs in other birds' nests! I'm not a fan.
- 1/2/21 White-crowned Sparrow -- easy to imitate their call, which they'll come to investigate
- 1/2/21 Lapland Longspur -- needs to be a sports team name
- 1/2/21 Rough-legged Hawk -- only here in winter, get out and see one!
- 1/2/21 Red-winged Blackbird -- females can be tricky for beginning birders to ID
- 1/3/21 Sandhill Cranes -- 600 in NW Adams Co, usually don't arrive until closer to Valentine's Day
- 1/3/21 Short-eared Owl -- two, at dusk (5:47pm), at Kenesaw WPA, moth-like flight
- 1/4/21 Ring-necked Pheasant -- just one, but a friend reports 50 in his amazing marshy prairie
- 1/4/21 Red Crossbill -- one flyover at Prairie Lake Rec area, lots of pines there
- 1/4/21 Wood Duck -- not common now, but a couple overwinter at Heartwell Park w the Mallards
- 1/7/21 Cedar Waxwing -- look for fruit trees and cedar trees with robins eating the berries
- 1/7/21 Snow Goose -- the first of many which will fill Lake Hastings in the next 10 weeks
- 1/7/21 Cooper's Hawk -- bird-eating machines that will also nest locally
- 1/8/21 Great Blue Heron -- there are usually one or two that overwinter on the Little Blue River
- 1/8/21 Golden-crowned Kinglet -- except for hummingbirds, I think kinglets are our smallest bird
- 1/8/21 Gadwall -- I'll see more of these this spring, but it was nice to see a few on the Little Blue
- 1/9/21 Carolina Wren -- little guy with a big voice, a southern species increasingly found up north
- 1/17/21 Wild Turkey -- finally got to see a couple from the flock that hangs around the golf course
- 1/22/21 Brown Creeper -- like mice in trees
- 1/22/21 Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- so tiny, twitchy, and cute!
- 1/30/21 Killdeer -- our most common shorebird, named for their call
- 2/2/21 Northern Shrike -- a robin-sized songbird that behaves more like a hawk
- 2/5/21 Canvasback -- big, classy diving duck with long, sloping bill
- 2/5/21 Red-shouldered Hawk -- this hawk of wet & woodsy southeast is a rarity for Adams Co. Yay!
- 2/20/21 Common Goldeneye -- one of these divers tucked away on a golf course pond!
- 2/27/21 Ross's Goose -- more adorable cousin of the Snow Goose
- 2/28/21 Ring-billed Gull -- these trash-eaters will gorge on annual spring die-off of shad (fish)
- 2/28/21 Green-winged Teal -- tiny, handsome duck that sounds like a Spring Peeper (frog)
- 2/28/21 Fox Sparrow -- glad to see this woodsy fellow (two, actually!) in my mostly tree-less county
- 3/5/21 Ring-necked Duck -- One of the most dapper ducks, and fairly common in migration
- 3/5/21 Golden Eagle -- I've only seen one once before in Adams Co, both of them fly-overs
- 3/5/21 Common Grackle -- common is right! These come by the 1000's (and eat all my birdseed)
- 3/5/21 Herring Gull -- bigger cousin to the more common Ring-billed, always looks grouchy
- 3/5/21 Common Merganser -- big, heavy-bodied, fish-eating diver
- 3/5/21 Bufflehead -- dainty diving duck that I've read nest in old woodpecker holes! Good for them!
- 3/5/21 American Coot -- awkward, black water chicken that scoots and grunts around wetlands
- 3/5/21 Ruddy Duck -- blue-billed cutie with cocked tail and courtship "bubble" display (Google it!)
- 3/5/21 Blue-winged Teal -- males IDed by crescent moon on face & matching white hip patch
- 3/9/21 Double-crested Cormorant -- I'm often asked to ID this one; big dark "duck" sits low in water
- 3/9/21 Northern Shoveler -- kind of Mallard-colored but big shovel of a bill, dabbles for plankton
- 3/11/21 Barn Owl -- heard it screeching; first bird on my list that I haven't actually seen
- 3/12/21 Savannah Sparrow -- streaky little sparrow of fields and roadsides, common in migration
- 3/12/21 Yellow-headed Blackbird -- large flocks of these are a sight to behold!
- 3/15/21 American Golden-Plover -- after 5" rain, lots of great flooded field habitat for this shorebird
- 3/15/21 Greater Scaup -- bigger, less common, rounder-headed cousin to L. Scaup
- 3/16/21 Greater Yellowlegs -- long-billed, long-legged shorebird with strong, bright call
- 3/17/21 American White Pelican -- these sky tanks come through NE in surprising numbers
- 3/18/21 Lesser Black-backed Gull -- a great surprise at Lake Hastings!
- 3/19/21 Cinnamon Teal -- I'm lucky to get 1-2 of these a year; a striking (& aptly named) creature
- 3/19/21 Baird's Sandpiper -- harbinger of spring for me every year
- 3/19/21 Lesser Yellowlegs -- daintier, more graceful and needle-billed of 2 yellowleg spp. here
- 3/19/21 Franklin's Gull -- flocks can be found following tractors as they migrate thru NE
- 3/19/21 Turkey Vulture -- thanks for eating all our roadkill, TVs
- 3/20/21 Eastern Phoebe -- another harbinger of spring whose arrival means that bugs are awaking
- 3/20/21 Greater Prairie-Chicken -- famous for their strange song-and-dance on quality prairie
- 3/20/21 Great-tailed Grackle -- weirdly machine-like calls, seem fond of truck stops
- 3/21/21 Long-billed Dowitcher -- plump shorebird that probes mud w/ sewing machine motion
- 3/21/21 Wilson's Snipe -- the v. real (& v. camouflaged) character behind "snipe hunts"
- 3/21/21 Horned Grebe -- not yet in breeding plumage but still pretty cute
- 3/22/21 Pied-billed Grebe -- common but overlooked, sits low in water; strange, haunting cries
- 3/22/21 Chipping Sparrow -- looks like summer version of Am. Tree Sparrow, more heard than seen
- 3/24/21 Brewer's Blackbird -- could be mistaken for the ubiquitous grackle; has "squishy" call
- 3/26/21 Lincoln's Sparrow -- cuter version of Song Sparrow
- 3/26/21 American Pipit-- found in migration along rocky shores of reservoirs; high, thin call
- 4/5/21 Purple Martin -- big, dark swallow; one roost in Omaha hosted 50,000 birds!
- 4/5/21 Eastern Bluebird -- they need our nestboxes, so thx to all who put them up
- 4/5/21 Eared Grebe -- long, floppy ears (just kidding), weird hairdo and red eyes (not kidding)
- 4/8/21 Swainson's Hawk -- often seen following tractors in spring
- 4/9/21 Peregrine Falcon -- wins the animal kingdom's top speed award
- 4/9/21 Field Sparrow -- accelerating song described as dropping a pingpong ball
- 4/9/21 Tree Swallow -- metallic blue back, often nests in bluebird boxes
- 4/9/21 Barn Swallow -- my dad used to hate when they dive-bombed him in our backyard
- 4/10/21 Vesper's Sparrow -- named for its evening singing; sounds like Song Sparrow
- 4/10/21 Osprey -- the "fish eagle," population rebounded when DDT banned in US in 1972
- 4/13/21 American Avocet -- how many birds do you know with an upturned bill?
- 4/13/21 Bonaparte's Gull -- delicate, fashion conscious (I'd let them design me a suit any day)
- 4/14/21 Whooping Crane -- 4 of only 800 in existence; continent's tallest bird, a real stunner
- 4/14/21 White-faced Ibis -- goofy looking, goofy sounding; range expanding northward
- 4/14/21 Marbled Godwit -- yep, that's its name (godwit apparently means "good creature")
- 4/14/21 Loggerhead Shrike -- 80% population decline in my lifetime; native grasslands imperiled
- 4/17/21 Pectoral Sandpiper -- I'm told males have inflatable chest sacs, but I've never looked
- 4/17/21 Hudsonian Godwit -- glorious, one of the best plumaged shorebirds
- 4/17/21 Willet -- loud, so very loud; this shorebird has bold B&W "mockingbird" wings
- 4/17/21 Semipalmated Sandpiper -- yet another shorebird, named for partly webbed toes
- 4/22/21 Wilson's Phalarope -- feed by spinning in tight circles (Shovelers do, too, only slower)
- 4/26/21 Snowy Egret -- look for the golden slippers on this princess
- 4/26/21 Cattle Egret -- aptly named, like the less gracefully named Oxpeckers of Africa
- 4/26/21 Glossy Ibis -- close southern cousin to the White-faced, electric blue facial skin lines
- 4/26/21 Upland Sandpiper -- listen to a recording of these pinheads: unmistakable call
- 4/27/21 Yellow-rumped Warbler -- "butterbutts," most common early warbler, some overwinter
- 4/27/21 Orange-crowned Warbler -- you've been w/in 20 ft of one, I bet; common, overlooked
- 4/27/21 Semipalmated Plover -- cute, like a baby Killdeer; calls "cheer-up! cheer-up!"
- 4/27/21 Brown Thrasher -- Mimidae family, related to Mockingbirds, great singers
- 4/27/21 Eastern Kingbird -- Latin name "Tyrannus tyrannus," will chase hawks, herons...fearless
- 4/27/21 Western Kingbird -- common, vocal flycatcher; check fence- and power-lines
- 4/27/21 Lark Sparrow -- bolder facial pattern than most sparrows
- 4/27/21 House Wren -- bubbly song of summer; put out your birdhouses
- 4/27/21 Grasshopper Sparrow -- secretive, nondescript denizen of grasslands, insect-like song
- 4/27/21 White-throated Sparrow -- whistle their song to them and they'll come look you over
- 4/27/21 Cliff Swallow -- clouds of these fly out from Platte River bridges when you drive over
- 4/27/21 Bank Swallow -- smallest of the 6 local swallow species (Purple Martin is largest)
- 4/27/21 Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- drabbest of the lot
- 4/27/21 Chimney Swift -- do bathroom things, bedroom things, all on the wing; look it up!
- 4/27/21 Red-headed Woodpecker -- big, bold, block pattern of black, white, red
- 4/27/21 Least Sandiper -- yep, you guessed it: world's smallest sandpiper (<1 oz)
- 4/28/21 Great Egret -- tall, white, heron-like bird in marshes, gifted at stabbing fish
- 4/28/21 American Bittern -- well camouflaged heron with funky, "gulping air" call
- 4/28/21 Stilt Sandpiper -- midsized shorebird, elegant in breeding plumage
- 4/29/21 Spotted Sandpiper -- on pond and lakeshores, constantly bobbing their rear ends
- 4/30/21 Clay-colored Sparrow -- about as plain as they come, but distinct buzzy call
- 4/30/21 Dunlin -- droopy-billed shorebird with diagnostic black belly patch
- 4/30/21 Short-billed Dowitcher -- my awesome wife made me a shirt w the silhouette of a SBDO
- 4/30/21 Whimbrel -- shorebird rarely seen here, always an honor. I saw 3 today!
- 4/30/21 White-rumped Sandpiper -- later migrant; high-pitched, mouse-like call in flight
- 4/30/21 Forster's Tern -- by far most common white tern in these parts
- 5/2/21 Baltimore Oriole -- get your grape jelly out; you could get dozens in your yard!
- 5/3/21 Northern Waterthrush -- found bobbing along wooded streams
- 5/3/21 Common Yellowthroat -- it is both common & yellow-throated
- 5/4/21 Yellow Warbler -- seeing one up-close made me fall in love with birds when I was 15
- 5/6/21 Rose-breasted Grosbeak -- listen for the sharp "squeak" call note and you'll find them
- 5/6/21 Warbling Vireo -- relentless summer singer with a warble that ends on high note
- 5/6/21 Swainson's Thrush -- common migrant, cousin to Am. Robin w lovely flutelike song
- 5/6/21 Least Flycatcher -- most common of the vexing "Empidonax" flycatchers
- 5/6/21 Great-crested Flycatcher -- always wish I could get better looks, high in leafy trees
- 5/6/21 Black Tern -- graceful black and gray, found swooping over marshes
- 5/8/21 Orchard Oriole -- skinny, less flashy local oriole
- 5/9/21 Gray-cheeked Thrush -- is that a kind, gentle face or just a blank stare?
- 5/10/21 Tennessee Warbler -- once you learn the song, you'll discover them all over town in May
- 5/10/21 Red-eyed Vireo -- sings even through the dog days of summer
- 5/10/21 Black-throated Green Warbler -- one pooped on me in northern Michigan
- 5/10/21 Gray Catbird -- they really do "meow" (or "miaow," if you prefer)
- 5/10/21 Dickcissel -- one of most common cropland birds, says its name all day long
- 5/10/21 Bobolink -- found these in alfalfa field; wonderful cascade of a song
- 5/10/21 Eastern Towhee -- sings "drink your tea!"
- 5/10/21 Nashville Warbler -- bold, white eye-ring on gray head with yellow throat
- 5/10/21 Blackpoll Warbler -- more compactly built than most warblers with orange legs
- 5/10/21 Green Heron -- go-go-gadget neck and a punk hairdo
- 5/10/21 Red-necked Phalarope -- phalaropes are polyandrous and males do nest duty
- 5/10/21 Sora -- funny little marsh chicken with a great laugh
- 5/10/21 Virginia Rail -- will call to you if you grunt or clap your hands or slam a car door
- 5/12/21 Marsh Wren -- will E and W populations be split into unique species?
- 5/14/21 Northern Parula -- have a bad habit of singing from HIGH up in leafy trees
- 5/14/21 Black-and-white Warbler -- behaves more like a nuthatch or creeper than a warbler
- 5/14/21 Bell's Vireo -- listen for their frantic song coming from isolated plum thickets
- 5/14/21 Eastern Wood-Pewee -- lazy song of my childhood summers
- 5/14/21 Blue Grosbeak -- I keep forgetting these exist; they surprise me each spring
- 5/15/21 Indigo Bunting --singing its couplets; color of my new Prius, which Em calls "racquetball"
- 5/15/21 Eastern Screech-Owl -- imitate their ghostly call and little birds will come investigate
- 5/15/21 Barred Owl -- been looking for this bird in Adams Co 20 yrs! "Who cooks for you?"
- 5/16/21 Blackburnian Warbler -- probably my fav. warbler; check out that throat!
- 5/17/21 Philadelphia Vireo -- the cutest vireo; tough to ID, but helps when it's singing
- 5/18/21 American Redstart -- real twitchy, constantly fanning its colorful tail
- 5/18/21 Ovenbird -- like a tiny little chicken strutting on the forest floor
- 5/18/21 Chestnut-sided Warbler -- God the artist at work in this plumage design
- 5/18/21 Mississippi Kite -- keep expanding range from the south into Nebraska towns
- 5/18/21 Alder Flycatcher -- one of the perplexing Empid flycatchers, best ID'ed by sound
- 5/22/21 Common Nighthawk -- most common of 4 NE species in the Goatsucker family
- 5/22/21 Northern Mockingbird -- 1st one I've seen in Adams Co since 2003!