Birding with COVID-19

     For those unaware, I got a positive result from my COVID-19 test that I took on the 23rd of March. Just for everyone's peace of mind, we are all good now! 

    Let me get into how this worked for my birding. 

    This meant me having to stick to my family property, luckily for me my family has a small wetland across the road from my house. This meant I could still go out and not worry about getting others sick too! To top it off I was still able to grab 3 FOYs! 

The first was a Fox Sparrow, not super rare and definitely expected this time of year, and I almost missed seeing it! I was walking down the first trail to get to the wetland and there is a little trail that looks out over the field to the north (which happens to be great for Savannah Sparrow all summer long) I just happened to hear a Black-capped Chickadee call and by sheer instinct, I looked over, in the small bush beside it I see a rusty coloured sparrow, Fox! That happened to be my 114th species for the year. 

The second happened just a few minutes after the Fox Sparrow. I was walking along the east side which was in a field, I can hear singing Song Sparrow and Golden-crowned Kinglets all around, then I hear an odd call, familiar, but different. This little bird happened to be a Vesper Sparrow! I unfortunately never got eyes on the bird, but will not be the last time I'll see one this year, so maybe that one will be photogenic. 

The third was definitely a complete fluke. I had been feeling like crap all day so I wasn't planning on going out to the wetland that day. I look out to my feeders and I got my yard first Rusty Blackbird! The cool blackbird was getting pestered by a Red-wing for the seeds it was around, I got some good looks and then by the time I thought, grab the camera, it took off. Guess that's how it goes for birding sometimes! 

All in all, I would like to mention, I had it and even though I got through it I was still down and out for a few days, and I am young and healthy otherwise. This definitely is not something to brush off. 

Please everyone stay safe! 

Even though I didn't get any pictures of the birds I saw for FOYs, here are a couple quarantine photos from my yard, including my first (surprisingly) yard Eastern Phoebe!