Every once in a while, I like to make things difficult for myself by attempting to see 20 species in winter without looking at open water. And I try to do this within the boundaries of Freeport west of I-295. Today I accepted the challenge, and we worked through a total of 6 stops to attempt to reach our goal.
As expected, Florida Lake Park and Hidden Pond Preserve had few species, but between there and the drive in between, our list slowly grew. I was hoping for a few strategic species that we might not easily find elsewhere, but we departed Hidden Pond with only 11 species. Luckily, our next stop at one of my secret spots yielded a few more birds, including our first sparrows of the day in 12 DARK-EYED JUNCOS.
We had a few AMERICAN ROBINS while driving, but had some good looks at a few more at Pine Tree Academy, where we also picked up a HAIRY WOODPECKER and two HOUSE FINCHES.
A RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER called from a brief roadside stop before we arrived at the Hunter Road stretch that is always productive. It was a bit slow today, but a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK and a RED-TAILED HAWK were welcome additions. In total, from all of our stops, we had tallies of 40 ROCK PIGEONS, 31 BLUE JAYS, 25 EUROPEAN STARLINGS, 23 BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, 12 AMERICAN CROWS, 7 American Robins, 6 NORTHERN CARDINALS, 6 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, 6 AMERICAN GOLDINFHCES, 4 TUFTED TITMICE, 3 MOURNING DOVES,
We worked Hunter Road and eventually picked up 2 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, and then finally, we heard an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW calling from the brush (although it never did show itself), for our 20th species on the morning to reach our goal and allow us to head back in for coffee.