I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I extend a hearty welcome and good fortune to you for the new year of 2026. Now, let’s review our findings for December 2025 and (if you care to) report tallies of your 2025 birding experiences.
I want to begin with a satellite view of Mississippi to show you the locations of my 2025 birding adventures. Each number is identified below the photo and I’ll reveal my totals for each location.
1 ) My home, 2 ) Hurricane Landing at Sardis Lake, 3 ) Wildlife Refuge at Sardis Lake. 4 ) Lower Lake of Sardis, 5 ) Bryant (marsh) Grenada Lake, 6 ) Wildcat Brake at Enid Lake, 7 ) Grenada Sewer Lagoons, 8 ) Noxabee Wildlife Refuge, 9 ) Random sites (include Phillip Brother’s Catfish Farm in Eden Mississippi, Graham Marsh Project near Sardis Lake and upper Dam of Sardis Lake, 10 ) Tupelo Buffalo Park.
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1) I got to see my first of year Brown Creeper in December. I would have missed this one if I hadn’t been studying the Oak in my yard for other species. This was my only new sighting for the month.
Brown Creeper — Certhia americana
I had the second largest yearly number of sightings at home ( 41 ) with no new lifers recorded in 2025. The species that visit or are permanent residents prefer an environment of mixed Pine and Hardwoods, available water sources (ponds nearby) and one of the highest elevations in Mississippi. Elevation is not what one would expect, since we are only 500+ feet above sea level.
2 ) Hurricane Landing is an easy 10 minute drive from my house to the boat ramps of Sardis lake. I didn’t find many new birds there in 2025, other than my first of year sightings ( 6 ), but was able to catch a lot of videos showing animal behavior.
3 ) The Waterfowl Wildlife Refuge of Sardis Lake has been my treasure chest of observations for the few years I have been birding. My tally there was ( 28 ) with 4 lifers recorded in 2025.
American Redstart — Setophaga ruticilla 2025 lifer
Buff-breasted Sandpiper — Tryngites subruficollis 2025 lifer
4 ) The lower lake of Sardis is another area where I get a huge variety of bird species. In 2025, I recorded ( 29 ) birds with only 1 lifer.
Tri-color Heron — Egretta tricolor 2025 lifer
5 ) Bryant marsh at Grenada Lake is a seldom visited location for hard to locate species. I only saw ( 3 ) first of year species there in 2025 with 1 lifer spotted.
American Bittern — Botaurus lentiginosus 2025 lifer
6 ) The Wildcat Brake of Enid Lake is an out-of-the-way place that always has unusual species available. I only found ( 7 ) FOY birds there but 2 were lifers. I was thrilled to see my new and old friends there.
juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron — Nyctanassa violacea 2025 lifer
7 ) The Water Treatment Facility in Grenada Mississippi is my “Go To” site for waterfowl. Though my numbers were small ( 6 ) species this year, I filled my files with the migrants that traveled into our state.
Bufflehead — Bucephala ableola
8 ) Noxabee Wildlife Refuge offers anything I need from swamps, prairie and a semi-tropical environment. I found ( 28 ) species with 1 lifer there in 2025.
Canvasback — Aythya valisineria 2025 lifer
9 ) I collected the most species from random sites around the state. Traveling along and collecting an errant bird fits into this file. Three distinct sites I visited were Phillip Brother’s Catfish Farm, Graham Lake Marsh Project and the upper Sardis Lake area. I found ( 44 ) species with 3 lifers among them.
American Avocet — Recurvirostra americana (at Phillip’s Catfish Farm) 2025 lifer
Merlin — Falco columbarius Taiga (seen at Graham Marsh) 2025 lifer
10 ) I like to visit the Tupelo Buffalo Park in Tupelo, Mississippi to see if they have acquired any new species to fill my exotic bird collection. I observed ( 10 ) species there, but chicks were the best items they had to offer.
juvenile Emu — Dromaius novaehollandiae
The number of birds I observed in 2025 was 202 with 12 lifers included in that total. Those few new species increased my life list to 287.
That is my report and I open the floor to you. Please share your findings in the comments.
