Birding at Rockport Reservoir for Rare Loons

[@markshen3280]

Hawkins, good morning 🌅 to you from Hong Kong 🇭🇰 SAR. With the remaining days in 2024, I wish you the best in health, prosperity and happiness in all your birding adventures for the coming 2025. All the best to you, Happy Birding.🦃🐓🦜🦢🦩🕊️

[@PossiblyAHuman-d5j]

Great job on the chase! The loon identifications are correct.

[@HawkInTheLens]

Thanks for your confirmation!

[@mekey5227]

I would agree yellow billed loon! Large head with broad (yellow HAH) bill and the head shape fits too as a kinda chunky rolling hills typa head LOL great video brother keep it up 👍🏽

[@thesecretthirdthing]

I did not know how big loons are until I saw them in context in a museum. They're huge!

[@thesecretthirdthing]

WOW what an experience with the grosbeak

[@evtheencyclopedia8945]

Congrats on the three lifers! I went out birding today and found both a Great Gray Owl and a Northern Hawk Owl! Neither were lifers, but it is always fun to see owls

[@HawkInTheLens]

Those are some incredible birds too! I haven’t seen either so I’m extra jealous

[@TracyBirds]

Great finds, congrats on your 3 lifers! 😊

[@HawkInTheLens]

Slowly building that life list thank you

[@Robirda]

Enjoyed this video. It was so fun to watch you go after your challenge this year. You did great.

[@HawkInTheLens]

Thanks for coming along and commenting on so many of the vids!!

[@bushchat28d]

Your two IDs of Loons are both correct. Yellow-billed sticks its bill up in the air whilst Common loon is parallel to the water. Also look at your photos and you will see that the culmen (top edge of the bill) of Common is partially black whereas Yellow-billed is all ivory coloured.

[@HawkInTheLens]

Thanks for the extra ID info! That’s super helpful

[@markshen3280]

Here in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 SAR, we have the Oriental Magpies which are slightly bigger and more stalkier than the European counterparts. While there is no Black-capped Chickadees in HK, we do have the Asian Tit ( reclassified as the Cinerious Tit, the Japanese Titanic, and the Great Tit). A Huge Congratulations to your ‘LIFER’ on the Evening Grisbeaks and the Yellow-billed Loon , and Common Loon ! Happy Birding .

[@HawkInTheLens]

Thanks so much! Happy to get those lifers. I hope I get to see some of the Chickadee species around the world someday. The Blue Tit is high on my list

[@ShaynaCossetteBirding]

That was a HUGE flock of Evening Grosbeak!! I've only ever seen one at a time so thats super cool

[@HawkInTheLens]

I know right! I couldn’t believe it

[@WimWiegant]

I agree on the identification of the two Loons, the "naked" eye of the Yellow-Billed being considered a good pointer for its identification, at least in European field guides. But the smashers are the fantastic Evening Grosbeaks...!

[@HawkInTheLens]

Yeah was so awesome to see that many Grosbeak!

[@khango6138]

Epic Yellow-billed Loon, mate, i second your identification! This one I've yet to observe, but one day for sure. Cheers to a new year with new lifers and an even stronger relationship to familiar species! - an ecology student from Vietnam, currently in Belgium.

[@HawkInTheLens]

Yeah really pleased to add that to my life list! Thanks for checking my vids out from across the world!!!

[@kevincox1493]

It would be great if one day you could record the loons calling. I love the calls they make. Nice grosbeaks too. I watched a group of starlings from a distance for five days as I was building a garden. I eventually took my binoculars and they turned to be waxwings 😀

[@HawkInTheLens]

Oh me too. When I grew up we would go canoe backpacking in northern Wisconsin and those loon calls are so beautiful and seren

[@richardwalker9330]

Congratulations! Two lifer Loons in one trip! Someone reported on eBird an Arctic Loon about 3 hours north of me. With the lousy weather and short days, probably not going to chase that one.

[@HawkInTheLens]

Over an hour and a half always makes it tough for me. Might not be worth the potential disappointment unless you have a lot of podcasts to catch up on for the long drive haha

[@birdocs]

Great video, really enjoyed it. Congrats on the lifers!

[@HawkInTheLens]

Thank you!

[@Upturninq]

Is that a dark morph red tailed hawk 1:50? If so that’s pretty cool!

[@HawkInTheLens]

Yeah it’s the same hawk that was flying away in the clip after it

[@grigoryheaton9346]

Congratulations, what a day!! I'm extremely jealous of the evening grosbeaks, they're so tough to find everywhere I've been. I just had a similar day in southeast California with a bunch of rare loons (although nothing as good as yellow-billed!), so I feel the pain of them always being ridiculously far away

[@HawkInTheLens]

Just solidifying that I need to get a scope lol

[@jeremyfreshwater584]

I have seen Bald Eagles nesting along the north side of East Canyon SP

[@HawkInTheLens]

Nice! I’m hoping to get to more of the state parks in 2025 might have to check there for eagles