These uncommon winter visitors were all welcome additions to my 2024 list, but the most notable rarity of the January 100 was a Mountain Bluebird that I was fortunate enough to see out at Heckscher State Park over the weekend. An evening stroll through Central Park offered a lovely sample platter of waterfowl, and I also picked up Ovenbird at Bryant Park, a pair of Purple Sandpipers at Hudson River Park, and Lincoln’s Sparrow at Union Square Park. The slowly increasing amount of daylight at the end of each work day afforded me the opportunity to make several brief jaunts into Manhattan to seek out specific year birds of note. Connecting with these stealthy denizens of the marsh on Day 1 of 2024 was undoubtedly an early highlight of the month! This visit featured a handful of confiding Marsh Wrens, several noisy Virginia Rails, and a surprise American Bittern that flushed and flew past me at close range. The extensive wetland habitat at this site always delivers quality prizes for the Montauk Christmas Bird Count, and it is a hotspot worth checking at any time of year. I continued on to Big Reed Pond, where I spent more than an hour patrolling the trail system. I am always grateful when I get to begin the year with a seawatch, and my early morning efforts produced a number of local specialty seabirds, including Northern Gannets, Razorbills, and all three scoter species, as well as huge flocks of American Robins dancing through the skies overhead. As the first sunrise of the New Year crested the horizon over the Atlantic Ocean, I was already in position at the Point. To my great delight, a series of haunting trills echoing through the shadowed forests along the roadside landed Eastern Screech-Owl as the first species on my 2024 year list! A brief stop at Little Reed Pond added a few more birds in the predawn gloom, including Hooded Merganser, Great Blue Heron, and Hermit Thrush. I set out for the East End well ahead of daybreak, pausing along the way to try my hand at some nightbirding. I decided to take advantage of my proximity the furthest reaches of Long Island and committed to starting 2024 at Montauk. I have not missed the mark since I started keeping track in earnest, and I was eager to see what the first month of 2024 had in store.Īs usual, I spent New Year’s Eve celebrating with friends, this time out in the Hamptons. One tradition that I have always been partial to is the January 100, a quest that inspires me to start the annual cycle on the right foot by trying to find as many species as I can during the dead of winter. While I am not the type to dive deep into a proper Big Year or get hypercompetitive about racking up a massive tally, I do enjoy playing against myself with small-scale year listing goals and personal challenges. For those of us who enjoy keeping track of our annual species counts, everything old is new again, and the possibilities feel limitless. The first few weeks of a new year are always an exciting time in the world of a birder.
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