Most Wanted - Part 2

Here's the rest of my experience with the "10 Most Wanted Birds" which  Birding Watching Magazine (August, 2013) compiled from a readers' survey.


No. 6 Spotted Owl

Another species that Audubon missed, so I'm in good company not having the bird on my life list.

No. 7 Kirkland's Warbler

Audubon missed this one too. As a native Michiganer, I should hang my head. This rare species nests in the jack pines in north central Michigan, an area where I spent many summers working at a camp. But I was not a birder then, and I have not been back to the area in many years. Perhaps its time to change that.

No. 8 Ferruginous Pygmy Owl - King Ranch, Texas, November 12, 2009.

A field trip with the Rio Grande Birding Festival successfully targeted this species (and then went for Sprague's Pipit). Big birding groups do not provide a photographer with his hoped for opportunities, so my photos of this owl are from Belize in March, 2011.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

No. 9 Green Jay - Southern Texas and Rio Grande Valley - February, 2002; November, 2009

I have birded southeastern Texas and the Rio Grande area twice. This most colorful bird is common year-round, with the same delightfully roguish personality of the Corvids.

Green Jay

Green Jay

No. 10 Blue-footed Booby

This bird rarely strays north of the U.S.-Mexico border, and rarely appears at the Salton Sea. Since I have never birded anywhere near this area, my odds of having seen it are far greater than exceptionally rare. Maybe I'll change that someday.

I hope you get to see the birds you really want to see, but whatever happens, have fun doing it.

Good Birding!!