Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Time for the annual wrap-up of what I saw where. Overall 2025 was a medium year. I spent about two months out of the country, though I didn’t take any major birding trips. I finished the year with 389 species total including 32 life birds including the very endangered and hard to find Ridgway’s Hawk:

• Green-breasted Mango – Juan Jose Flores Park, Heredia Costa Rica
• Stock Dove – St. Andrew Square Garden, Edinburgh Scotland
• Willow Warbler – Yorkshire
• Eurasian Skylark – The Coach House, Mesnes Lane, Leyburn Yorkshire
• Red-legged Partridge – The Coach House, Mesnes Lane, Leyburn Yorkshire
• Common Swift – Middleham | Yorkshire, England
• Reed Bunting – Marfield Wetlands NR | Yorkshire, England
• Rook – Marfield Wetlands NR | Yorkshire, England
• Red Kite Road from Skipton to Masham | Yorkshire, England
• Red Grouse – Road from Skipton to Masham | Yorkshire, England
• Little Gull – Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge–West Pond | New York
• Costa Rican Swift – Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica
• Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher – La perica | Costa Rica
• Riverside Wren – Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica
• Gray-cowled Wood-Rail – Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica
• Ruddy-breasted Seedeater – finca san martin | Costa Rica
• Gray-headed Tanager – Ecoturístico La Tarde | Costa Rica
• Charming Hummingbird – Ecoturístico La Tarde | Costa Rica
• White-crested Coquette – Ecoturístico La Tarde | Costa Rica
• Great Curassow – Finca Miguel Sanchez, Rio Piro | Costa Rica
• Laughing Falcon – Vía 245, Golfito | Costa Rica
• Bare-throated Tiger-Heron – Vía 245, | Costa Rica
• Golden-naped Woodpecker – Botanika Osa Peninsula
• Greater Antillean Bullfinch – Westin Puntacana | Dominican Republic
• Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo – Westin Puntacana | Dominican Republic
• Black-crowned Palm-Tanager – Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic
• Stolid Flycatcher – Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic
• Broad-billed Tody – Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic
• Vervain Hummingbird – Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic
• Hispaniolan Mango – Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic
• Palmchat – Punta Cana | Dominican Republic
• Hispaniolan Woodpecker – Punta Cana | Dominican Republic
• Ridgway’s Hawk – Punta Cana | Dominican Republic

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A belated announcement of a milestone in my home county. On July 20, 2024 at Plumb Beach, Brown Pelican was my 300th species for Kings County. I saw this pair on a Brooklyn Bird Club field trip led by Peter Dorosh.

The count does not include escapees and hybrids. It does include introduced and established species like Monk Parakeet, Mute Swan, and the ubiquitous Rock Pigeon.

I initially thought this was #299, but I didn’t realize I was not counting a Thick-Billed Murre I had seen in Dead Horse Bay back in 2005 before I started keeping regular eBird lists.
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I’ve had a little more time for local birding this year. I actually managed to get my sixth (and final expected) woodpecker for Brooklyn on February 8, a Red-headed Woodpecker that has set up housekeeping in Greenwood Cemetery:

This is months earlier than I’ve traditionally done it, but thanks to global heating and the fossil fuel industry, Northern Flickers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are now spending the winter here. Red-bellied Woodpecker is another traditionally southern species, especially in the winter, that moved northward with rising temperatures decades ago. Downy and Hairy are the only two that should be around right now. I even heard a repeated double tap in Prospect Park today and looked around because, well, you never know.
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My life list for Jefferson Parish is embarrassingly low given that it’s where I grew up. Part of that is that the East Bank where I lived doesn’t have a lot of good habitat, even compared to adjacent Orleans Parish. If I ever get down to Grand Isle, I should pick up a bunch of species, but for now it’s been a slog of chasing one or two species at a time. Last week there were maybe three I could have gotten without crossing the river. I tried for two and found one after a couple of tries: Savannah Sparrow.

I found this one on the last morning of my trip at the Bucktown Marina, which is rapidly developing into a really nice hot spot with some good habitat. It is a shame that most of the rest of the Jefferson Parish lakefront has been mowed into oblivion. It had far more interesting brushy habitat when I was living there last century. Who else remembers Mr. Walter’s Park? I never did find out who Mr. Walters was. Now I wish I had met him.

Overall 2024 was a slow year. I didn’t travel anywhere I hadn’t been before, and I lost a month of prime rarity season in New York to a bout with pneumonia that put me in the hospital for over a week. But there were still some interesting birds to be found the rest of the year.

I finished the year with 364 species total (surprisingly 19 more than 2023, perhaps because I traveled to the West Coast a couple of times for the first time since quarantine) but no life birds. (Harris’s Sparrow was new on my ebird life list, but I did see one on Long Island years ago before eBird was a thing.) I did pick up some species for my state and county lists though.
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