Lots of New "Year Birds" Around the County ~ January 6, 2026

I started off the day at 5:00 AM, hoping to find some owls. For the owls' protection, I won't get too specific, but I checked several spots in Moore Township and ended up hearing 3 Great Horneds, an Eastern Screech-Owl, and a Northern Saw-whet Owl! It was a very good start to the day.

Around sunrise, I checked an area along E. Best Road and found 54 Wild Turkeys. I took a couple photos of a good portion of them.

Wild Turkeys

Nearby, I found a Black-capped Chickadee, 2 Eastern Bluebirds, and 2 American Tree Sparrows. I quickly checked Schlegel Road and Graver's Hill for field birds and came up empty.

I drove over to the Grand Central landfill to check out the gulls. Among the usual Lesser Black-backed, American Herring, and Ring-billed Gulls, I found 3 Great Black-backed Gulls, getting a few distant photos of one through the screening as it took off.

Great Black-backed Gull

My main birding spot for the morning was the Martins Creek Nature Trail, also known as the John M. Mauser Nature Education Trail System (a real mouthful) and, before that, the Tekening Trails. I saw a nice variety of woodpeckers that included 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, a Northern Flicker, and 5 Red-bellieds, a Hairy and 3 Downy Woodpeckers. Just before reaching the river, I found 2 Winter Wrens. One of them was inquisitive long enough to allow me to get some nice photos of it.

Winter Wren

As I walked along the river, I came across 5 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a Purple Finch among numbers of White-throated Sparrows.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Purple Finch

Also along the river, I saw 8 Mallards and 8 Common Mergansers among around 200 Canada Geese, plus a Common Raven. One Black and one Turkey Vulture were seen overhead.

From there, I drove the short distance to Riverton where I saw 54 Common Goldeneye on the river north of the Belvidere bridge.

Common Goldeneye

Also there were 11 Buffleheads and 4 Common Mergansers.

The Martins Creek Environmental Preserve produced 74 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Hooded Mergansers, a Northern Harrier, and a Savannah Sparrow.

I went down to the Martins Creek PPL boat launch area and found two very hardy Killdeer and 2 American Pipits on the ice shelf downriver from the boat launch.

Killdeer

One of the two Killdeer with one of the two American Pipits.

American Pipit

Also seen there were 2 Bald Eagles, a Belted Kingfisher, and a Common Raven. On the way back home, I saw an American Kestrel along the Martins Creek-Belvidere Highway. I ended the day getting 18 'year birds' for the year.

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