Valentine's notes

Cloudy and cold over the weekend with on-and-off snow the whole time. Only a total of about 2", just enough to make us feel like we have a little winter.

Three hour of birding around the county this morning:

Wood Duck 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Turkey Vulture 14
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Kestrel 1
Rock Pigeon 3
Great Horned Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 7
American Crow 35
Carolina Chickadee 18
Tufted Titmouse 14
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 14
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Eastern Bluebird 22
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 8
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 4
Eastern Towhee 7
Field Sparrow 23
Song Sparrow 20
Swamp Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 45
Northern Cardinal 10
Eastern Meadowlark 7
Common Grackle 1
Purple Finch 1
American Goldfinch 4

Still a quiet time, not a lot of spring activity yet. We're mostly forest and pasture here in the Highland Rim without extensive wetlands, hence the shortage of waterfowl. I still keep expecting to see more birds in the pastures and edges, like Vesper and Savannah Sparrow, or more longspurs or larks. I guess we're a tad far north for the midwinter sparrows, and a tad southeast for the longspurs in good numbers.