Turns out that my first bird digiscoped in 2012 is an American robin and I got it by holding up my iPhone to my scope. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. Non Birding Bill and I tried to take some time off but with his show, it was a bit more action packed. When he takes Man Saved By Condiments to New York at the end of February, I'm hoping to come out and visit for a few days, maybe even try a New York Birds and Beers.

I've been trying to figure out what my resolution for 2012 should be. No matter what I come up with it cannot compare to the smashing success that was 2011 (eat more cultured butter). But I thought this year should be more bird related. So I think I'm going to try and be a better contributor to eBird. I started off okay with it in 2011 then ended up doing survey work where I wasn't allowed to submit some of my observations (until the project is finished) and got out of the habit.

But as I looked to my BirdsEye App on my phone to see what birds are being reported in my area, I noticed that there are several birding hot spots that haven't had any reports for over a year or in some cases 2 or 3 years. I think I'm going to do my part to submit observations for those areas to eBird and check out areas that are under reported. There are a ton of places to watch birds and these places wouldn't have been listed on eBird the app as birding hot spots had there not been some activity going on. So I'm hoping that I find some habitat and interesting bird observations for 2012.

Again, hope your year is off to a great start.