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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Starting Off the Year List in the East

Temperatures soared into the upper 40s to start the new year, so we woke up on January 1st to a total lack of snow in Buffalo. It was raining all day, which seemed to keep most of the bird activity down in the neighborhood, and then we had a Buffalo Sabres hockey game in the late afternoon so there wasn't much time for birding. Still, I did tick twelve species to start 2011:

  1. Black-capped chickadee
  2. Northern cardinal
  3. Mourning dove
  4. Downy woodpecker
  5. Blue jay
  6. Tufted titmouse
  7. White-breasted nuthatch
  8. Dark-eyed junco
  9. American crow
  10. European starling
  11. Rock pigeon
  12. House sparrow

Opening face-off: Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins on January 1, 2011

 The Sabres' game was one of the best hockey games I have ever seen live. There were seven goals in the first period. The Sabres came back from a two goal deficit to lead 5-4, then ended up trailing 6-5 late. Drew Stafford scored an extra attacker goal in the last minute of play to tie the game and get the hat trick, then Miller stopped Zdeno Chara in the shootout to get the 7-6 win. My throat is sore this morning from all the yelling!!

18,000+ fans on hand to watch the Sabres beat Boston 7-6 in HSBC Arena

The snow is coming down again as of today so I hope to get some wintery backyard bird pictures in the near future, particularly of the eastern species I don't get a chance to photograph back home. Birding will have to take a back seat until the end of the World Junior hockey tournament on the 5th, and then I'll see how many species I can turn up here in New York!

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