It's another New Year's Day, but ten years have passed since I last posted on our AvesInArt blog. Do people still read blogs? I think birders do, I know I do anyway. Off we go then. Last week I randomly remembered that Jorge and I had done our January challenge ten years ago. January 1st thru 31st, 2015. Why not revive the blog by doing another January challenge? 

Jorge's goal is to photograph a different species every day for thirty-one days. Sue's goal is to paint or sketch thirty-one birds seen in 2024. We had two fantastic trips last year - an April week in southeastern Arizona and two September weeks looping around Europe. It will be hard to choose my favorites.

Mexican Jay, Aphelocoma wollweberi, observed April 5th, 2024
Cave Creek Canyon, Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

Jorge went out with his camera after work and focused on a nearby birding hotspot - Horsebarn Hill, on the UConn campus. The afternoon was fairly mild for January and many birds were about, so perhaps the challenge was to choose which to prepare for the post!

Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus
Horsebarn Hill, Storrs, Connecticut, January 1, 2025

January 25th - Day 25.

My bird of the day is a hawk that swooped low over my car as I drove into a parking lot. The black-and-white banding on the tail and wings and bright rufous shoulders are field marks for this species.

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK (Buteo lineatus). Colored pencil and graphite pencil.
January 25, 2015, Tolland, Connecticut, USA.

Jorge's bird of the day is one of the common, but not so easy to photograph, birds that hangs around the barns on campus.

ROCK PIGEON (Columba livia)
January 25, 2015, Storrs, Connecticut, USA