Greetings All:
This year's competition: Rich Kostecke's Austin yard vs. Anthony Hewetson's
Lubbock yard. The rules: anything that can be seen from the yards (no
restrictions to yard 'airspace'), heard birds subject to review and
agreement, no eye gouging, and no birding below the belt.
Rich ended February with 35 species, having added Pyrrhuloxia, Red-winged
Blackbird, American Robin, Common Grackle, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Eastern
Screech Owl, and Red-tailed Hawk to his list.
Anthony maintained a slight lead, making it ot 38 species by adding
Mourning Dove, Orange-crowned Warlber, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Sandhill
Crane, American Goldfinch, White-throated Sparrow, Purple Martin, and
Sharp-shinned Hawk to his yard list for 2016.
Our advantages: woodland birds for Rich and an open sky for Anthony - and
disadvantages: closed canopy for Rich and no real woodlands for Anthony -
will probably become more obvious as the various migrations start to kick
in.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock