Participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count yesterday and came up with five new species for my backyard year list -- amazing what a little warmer weather and snow melt will do.

Highlight (or lowlight) was a female Brown-headed Cowbird (above) -- or least I think it is. Any other nominations?

Full list follows.

The trails at the Celery Farm are currently icy and treacherous. A walk to the Scout Platform netted several Hooded Mergansers, Canada Geese, two Turkey Vultures and plenty of gulls.  Plenty of high winds, too.

One sign of spring: Red-winged Blackbirds are at my feeders -- as many as a dozen perched nearby at once...

If you're planning to visit DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands soon, check out a new "duck map" that will give you an idea of what ducks are being seen in which impoundments.

The Record's Jim O'Neill did a story on the map in the EnviroWatch section in today's editions.

Link is here, with a one-click to see the map, which includes photos of 12 of the most commonly seen ducks this time of year. (I helped put the map together and most of took the photos.)

Ducks seen this morning at DeKorte include Canvasback, Ring-neck, Bufflehead, Common Merg, Gadwall, Black Duck, Ruddy  and Mallard. 

(Rob Fanning reports seeing 10+ Hooded Mergs at the CF this morning, and his first Wood Duck of the year at Halifax Road yesterday.)

The Record has a strong editorial today pushing for a better federal response to the serious decline in bats, some of our favorite mammals.  As the editorial points out, the Little Brown Bat population in New Jersey has declined by 80 percent in recent years.

The link is here.

Things are vert slow at my feeders this morning, and Lake Appert is still frozen. All I have so far are four species in 10 minutes -- Great Blue Heron, White-Throat, Song Sparrow and (distant) gull.

Link to Great Backyard Bird Count is below.