Was just reading about the Great Backyard Bird Count. It will be February 13-16 this year. How many here are participants?

I did it last year & will do it again. It's fun & especially going in after the fact by Cities around you to see what's out there.

Joni
Elwood, IL
Zone 5

I would like to try it since I have never done it before Here is the web page.

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

I did it last year too. I like reading the results.

New Jersey
Zone 6

I did it year before last. My bird population is way down this year but still plan on doing it.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

I did my first one today not even in my yard on a bird walk at a place called Welkinweir. It was fun but I had help

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

I did one today also at home. What was coold is that usually I only see one downey woodpecker but today I had 4...2 males and two females.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

You certainly hit the downey jackpot My highlight was the yellow-bellied sapsucker

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

Rainy day here and the birds didn't cooperate by showing up much. Have seen likely between 40 and 50 take off in the yard when I would open the back door the past week. This just blows my mind! When we lived in the county, we had a huge variety of blooming plants in the yard. Both in front of the house and behind were fields. Lots of trees in the yard. I should think we would have seen a much larger variety of birds there. But honestly it seems we have far more here. Maybe they stayed in the trees, which were frighteningly tall pines. Or perhaps in the brushes fence row. We now live in a 5 year old subdivison in town with the houses quite close. The back yard runs into a farmers field. We, and one other neighbor 4 doors up, are the only ones I can tell in the whole subdivison who have flower gardens. It's just interesting to me how many birds we see....and at that a couple we have never seen in our part of the state before. Anyway, if anyone else here is in a new subdivison, don't lose hope. The birdies will come! Did discover yesterday that we have several fox sparrows and a couple white-capped sparrows that I hadn't noticed before.

I need a pro to help me. I am having so many birds enjoying the seeds I put out. My feeder with about 5lbs of BOSS and two feeders each filled with thistle seed have to be refilled every other day. They are the tall ones with yellow.

I also have a hayfield full of robins. There is no way I can count all these birds.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

Dianne I am new at this but I went to their web page and frequently asked questions how to count huge flocks this is one answer

How do I estimate the number of birds when theres a roost or a huge flock?
First count the birds in a small part of the flock. Then estimate how many blocks of equal size would make up the entire flock. Multiply number of blocks by the number of individual birds you first counted to come up with an estimate. For a more detailed explanation of this technique click here.


http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bird-counting-201






sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

I'm getting the usual response to my reported hummingbirds. All of my reported birds have been added to the report except for the hummingbirds. They're always under review. I'm only reporting 11 Ruby-throateds and 2 Rufous. I realize that seems exceptional but it's lower than I had a week ago.

Valrico, with one list reporting, was 15th in the nation for reporting Ruby-throateds last year. On average all but one of those localities had two or fewer reported from each list reported. Only Rayville Louisiana had more reported from one count, ten.

If the count were two weeks ago when I had 18 Ruby-throateds, I'd have topped last years highest count for one town, Miami - 17 individuals from 10 counts.

The only non-hummer surprise in my yard this year has been a female Painted Bunting that has been coming to a feeder for the past 5 days. She's a first for the yard. Actually, I haven't seen her at a "feeder". I had once put pavers under a feeder to try to catch the falling seed and at some point I gave up and collected them, leaving them outside my kitchen window in a stack. I've been putting finch seed on the stack and it's become one of the preferred "feeders" in the yard.



Steve Backes
Valrico, FL (east of Tampa)

Thank you so much Sarah!
I have so many birds at the feeder, there's no way I could count them. If they would just hold still for a minute. I took pictures of everything in the yard and was going to count them that way. Your idea is better.

I've never participated before, but I will send in a checklist from today. Checking over the list for Louisiana, I noted that Dickcissel is not recorded, so it will be good to add the one that is currently visiting along with a pair of White-winged Doves. The hummer tally doesn't set any records but the 3 Ruby-throated, 1 Black-chinned, and 1 Buff-bellied are very entertaining nonetheless. I am also participating in an atlas project for Louisiana so I can make my birds count twice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9