Today is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count here in the USA!
You do need to know the species -- just plain 'sparrow' or 'warbler' isn't enough. (I'm no good at these myself.)
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Great Backyard Bird Count Begins!
You do need to know the species -- just plain 'sparrow' or 'warbler' isn't enough. (I'm no good at these myself.)
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9 comments:
Vicki
We have something similar over here in the UK. It's a great concept isn't it?
I love all the birds that come into my feeders and spend time in my barren trees, so this should be fun.
Well, I'm no good at names except for the obvious red birds, blue birds, mockingbird or bluejay.
I can tell you that looking out my window right now at the 5 feeders we filled yesterday,they are wrapped up in birds! There is about 2 inches of snow and it is falling fast and heavy and should continue this for about 7 more hours so the weather man says. I covered the big bird bath out front and when the snow stops I will uncover it and fill it with feed for them. The snow is so beautiful!! :)
I'll be happily watching and counting this weekend. We have so many sparrows, it's difficult to identify them - but I finally am certain that I have mostly American Tree Sparrows who are kind enough to have a distinctive dot on their chest! Unlike the Chipping Sparrows that do not. And yesterday our resident cardinal showed up with two wives! This will be so much fun.
Great challenge!
Some of the birds you show are very odd!
I've been out most of the morning and haven't had time yet to do some observing but am preparing to soon.
A quick glance a minute ago showed me nine male cardinals, a ton of gold finches, juncos, and some kind of sparrows. Lots of purple finches, some nuthatches, titmice, blue jays, and chickadees.
Have fun in the snow, Carol! I just heard from Sue in Dallas where they have 9+ inches! And my niece, who's visiting Baton Rouge, is getting snowed on too!
Liz, I'll get my bird book and try to figure out this sparrow thing.
Miss Yves -- I thought it would be fun to have some exotic birds. That Hammerkop looks vaguely dog-like to me.
Neat program. With all the snow we've had-I've noticed the birds are easier to see or so it seems to me-maybe I'm just spending more time looking :)
I had to look twice at that Lily Trotter because, at first, I thought he was standing on twigs. Then I realized they were his feet! Those are some amazing-looking birds.
We're doing the GBBC here, too. Lots of fun!
Since we feed the birds regularly, we have lots around to watch. And they do show up really well against the snow.
The Lily Trotters, I learned, are also called Jesus birds ... because they can walk on water -- well, water lilies.
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