CBC in Chapel Hill

It is the day known as boxing day in England. It began snowing here in Chapel Hill about 8 PM on Christmas, and this morning we awoke to a lovely winter wonderland (photo above of the front door of our house). My friends Pam and Perry who live across the creek from us have been doing the CBC for 25 years in this local area which includes the 230 acres that we live on. I joined them this morning for 2 hours.

Because of the snow most of the birds seen were at my feeders. The highlight was 4 female and 2 male purple finches. When I started this big year on January 1st, I had a single female purple finch which at that time was a new bird for our property. Having 6 in all this morning was a real treat, and seemed a fitting find near the end of my birding adventure.

We walked several of our trails, looking and listening for other birds, but with the fresh snow it seemed that most birds were probably hunkering down trying to stay warm. The snow was still falling lightly this morning as we walked, but with no wind it was a delightful and magical stroll. With the snow starting last nite, this is the first time since 1947 that snow has fallen on Christmas day here in Chapel Hill.

We saw 24 bird species this morning. This evening I checked Narba to find that the black-vented oriole was seen for the 5th day in a row at Bentsen, but the white-throated thrush found 2 days ago in the valley was not relocated. As a result, I am going to stay in a holding pattern about going down to south Texas to see if the thrush is refound. If it is, then I will probably decide to fly down there. Stay tuned!