This week in birds - not

 "This week in birds" is taking a break this week to enjoy and participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. It will return next week.

Will you count?

Presidents Day weekend is quickly approaching and that means, yes, it's time to count the birds again!

This year will mark the 22nd annual count that is held in February and I have participated in most of them. It is a fun, free, and interesting way to learn about the birds that populate your part of the world in mid-winter (for some - late winter here) and to provide scientists with valuable data which helps them to evaluate the status of bird populations and changes in birds' winter movements. 

Anyone can do it. Counting and reporting take no particular expertise. One takes at little as 15 minutes to observe and tabulate the birds in a particular area and then goes to the website, birdcount.org, registers the site, and reports. The website is user-friendly and walks you through the steps.

The count takes place over four days, Friday through Monday. You can choose to report on any of those days or on every day and, as I said, you can count for as little as 15 minutes or for hours - it's up to you. 

After you've made your reports you can revisit the website and watch as other reports come in from around the world. The GBBC originally took place only in the United States and North America but a few years ago it was expanded worldwide and now birders from around the world participate.  

Part of the fun of visiting the website is seeing the wonderful pictures that are submitted by many of the participants. There is a contest each year to select the best of the pictures.

So, no excuses! You can't say there are no birds where you live; there are birds everywhere, even if they are only House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, and European Starlings. They are all important. Scientists need to know where they are and how many there are and you can help. I hope you will. 

My Great Backyard Bird Count

The annual late winter count of birds is over. I spent a part of every day of the four-day weekend counting the birds in my own backyard. 

I did my count while working in the yard, so I can't say that I was entirely focused on birds. Still, the count was pretty successful, with a total of twenty-eight species turning out to be counted. Unfortunately, as always, there were some species that show up regularly in the yard but didn't make an appearance during the weekend and so don't appear on my census.

The first birds to appear on my count were, not surprisingly, the ever-present White-winged Doves.

And the last one, recorded late yesterday, was a particularly colorful Pine Warbler. Looks like he's about ready for spring.

In between, here's a list of everything that I saw in, around, or flying over my yard.

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture 
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Wren
Carolina Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

This is the eighteenth year that I've done this count and this species count is about average for most years, but the actual total of individual birds was fewer this year. I'm not sure what, if anything in particular, that means; it may just be the randomness of birds wandering or my lack of attention in doing the count. Time will tell. But it is always a revelation to me to see the number and variety of species that pass through my yard at any given period of time. It's a reminder, as if I needed one, that Nature is very much present as an actor in my garden and in my daily life.

Wrapping up the GBBC

The weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count concluded on Monday, Presidents' Day. The count had participants from around the world. You can check out the reports from any area that interests you by visiting the GBBC website.

My personal count was a bit hit or miss, not my most successful GBBC experience. I was busy gardening on three of the days, so I combined gardening with bird counting and I'm sure I missed some. On the last day of the count, we had heavy rains so that put a bit of a damper (sorry!) on my counting.

Overall, I managed to find 24 species around my yard. In my best years of counting, I've had more than 30 and there were probably that many or more here this year, but they didn't show themselves to be counted. So, here's what I saw.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
White-winged Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Did you participate in the count? If so, what did you see?

Why aren't you out counting birds?

Mrs. Cardinal says, "The Great Backyard Bird Count is underway. Why aren't you out counting birds?"

Yes, this is the weekend of the big count. It starts today and runs through Presidents' Day on Monday. Participating couldn't be easier. Just note the birds in your yard or in some other public or private space which you designate and then go to the website and report what you've seen.

You don't have to be an ornithologist or even an expert birder. Just be able to recognize the birds in your area by sight or by referring to a bird field guide. And if there are some you can't identify, well, you can report that, too.

This is important, because the information collected by citizen scientists, when collated, helps ornithologists to determine the winter movements of birds and the health of bird populations. Are populations declining or booming? This count will help to tell the tale.

So, get off the sofa, grab you binoculars and go out and count! You might see me because I'm heading outside right now.  

Great Backyard Bird Count wrapup

This year's four-day Great Backyard Bird Count wrapped up on President's Day, February 15, but if you haven't reported your count yet, you can still do it until March 1. 

I mentioned here in an earlier post about a bird walk at Brazos Bend State Park that I took on Saturday of the count. I counted 18 species of birds during that jaunt. But I also spent time on the other days observing the birds in my own yard.

My designated observation area includes my one-half acre yard plus my next door neighbors' backyard. Their backyard has several large pine trees that attract many woodland birds, such as woodpeckers, so I like to include it in my observations in order to increase my number of species.

I ended my weekend count with a total of thirty-two species. This includes birds that were present in my designated area or were flying over the area.

There was no lack of Northern Cardinals in my count. They are regular visitors to my feeders.

The female cardinal, with her softer colors, is just as pretty as her gaudier mate.

Many of my American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins have already left. Our very mild winter has no doubt convinced them that it is time to head north and start nesting. There were still a few hanging around for the GBBC.

There haven't been as many Cedar Waxwings as usual in my neighborhood this winter. Instead of flocks numbering in the hundreds, smaller groups of 30 to 50 have been more common.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers dropped in on a regular basis during my count.

Some of our winter warblers, too, have already headed north, but there are still plenty of Pine Warblers around.

Here is the complete list of species that allowed me to include them in my count:

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (flying over)
Black Vulture (flying over)
Turkey Vulture (flying over)
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk (flying over)
White-winged Dove
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow (flying over)
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird 
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal 
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow 

It wasn't the biggest total I've ever had in all the years I have participated in the GBBC, but, considering the amount of time I was able to devote to it this year, I was pretty happy with my results. It's good to know that a variety of birds make themselves at home in my yard.

Backyard Nature Wednesday: Great Backyard Bird Count

There's a big weekend coming up. No, not just President's Day with all the stores trying to lure you in with their giant, once-in-a-lifetime sales. It's even bigger than that, at least for us birders. It's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count. 

This will be the 19th such annual count of birds, a citizen science project that aims to find out just where the birds are and how they are doing in mid-winter. The count used to take place only in North America, but a couple of years ago, it went worldwide and now helps to track bird distribution all around the globe. There are participants on every continent - except perhaps Antarctica. And who knows? Maybe this year someone will chime in from there as well.

There is special interest this year because of the big El Niño event in the Pacific. It has disrupted weather patterns, heating up the ocean, and warming many areas that are normally cold at this time of year, and scientists are predicting that there may be a few surprises in store for the bird counters this year. They may find some species displaced from their normal wintering grounds and turning up in odd places.   

Recently, for example, a Great Kiskadee, normally a resident of South Texas, showed up in South Dakota. Other unseasonal records have included an Orchard Oriole and a Chestnut-sided Warbler in the Northeast, much of which has had an unusually mild and snow-free winter up until now. It's a pretty safe bet that there will be other such reports this weekend.

The count is conducted over a four-day period, beginning Friday and ending Monday, President's Day. The event is held every year on the same weekend coinciding with President's Day. Participants observe and report birds from a specific site on any one or all of those four days. The site may be one's own backyard, which is where I do my counting, or it may be another selected and specified site including any public site such as a park, school campus, etc. 

Citizen science projects like the Great Backyard Bird Count are providing important data that scientists rely upon to give them valuable information. It's a project that is open to all, regardless of the person's skill level. The observer can spend as little as fifteen minutes counting birds or can invest several hours over the entire weekend - you choose. Once the observations are made, you go online to the GBBC website (link in the first paragraph) and report what you saw. Easy peasy!

If you haven't participated in GBBC before, why not give it a try this year? I think you'll find it fun and you'll learn more about the birds in your area, which is always a good thing to do. It doesn't require any special tools - binoculars are helpful but not strictly necessary. Just go outside and look around. The birds are everywhere and they are waiting for you.

Male House Finch, a typical winter visitor to my feeders.

Great Backyard Bird Count Wrap-up

A disappointing 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count has come to an end for me. While the first three days of the count featured fair to excellent weather and birding conditions, this last day was a bit of a wash - literally. It was wet and cold which resulted in my being able to spend only about thirty minutes actually looking at birds. I doubt if it would have mattered much if I'd been able to spend more time. There just weren't that many birds to see.

My weekend of birding in my yard ended with a total of 28 species. I also spent an hour or so on Saturday at Brazos Bend State Park and found 21 species. Even at the park, which is usually a very birdy place, there were not a lot of birds to be seen.

As of 6:00 P.M. this afternoon, my yard ranked 187th overall among the sites that had reported, but counts are still being entered and tabulated so that is almost sure to change. Birders will still be sending in their reports until the end of the month when data collection is closed.

Of the 28 species which I reported, all were common residents. I did not see any unusual or unexpected birds this year. I did have one Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a bird that is in the area during winter but one that I don't always see on my yard count. But other than that it was pretty ho-hum.

As usual, the most numerous bird that I was able to report was the American Goldfinch. I had flocks of 30 - 40 birds at the feeders at times.

The Chipping Sparrows were a close second. I've actually had more of these wonderful little birds this winter than I have in most winters. Flocks of 15 - 20 are common.

The White-winged Doves have been one of the surprises of the winter, in that there have not been the big flocks that I normally see in winter. It's rare to see as many as ten at the feeders at once, whereas in previous years they would have covered the feeders. More disappointingly, the White-wingeds were the only doves that I saw during this count. I did not have a single Eurasian Collared-dove, Inca Dove, or even a Mourning Dove to report.

  

A couple of times I had moderately-sized flocks of Brown-headed Cowbirds in the yard, but they were the only member of the blackbird family. I had no Common Grackles or Red-winged Blackbirds as I do in most years. 

Even the Cooper's Hawk that is present in the backyard on most days did not show up to be counted. At least the Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawk pairs were more cooperative.

The highlight of the count for me was the presence of a Red-headed Woodpecker this year. When we moved here in 1988, there were still plenty of woods in the area and plenty of Red-headed Woodpeckers present. Over the years, the woods have been cut down to provide house sites and the Red-heads have moved on. These days, it is rare to have one in or around my yard and so this one was very welcome indeed.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2014

(Cross-posted from Backyard Birder.)

How did you spend your Presidents' Day weekend? I spent mine counting birds.

Yes, this was the weekend for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, an activity that has now gone global. Beginning last year, the Count started accepting reports not just from North America but from all around the world. When I last checked the website, reports had been received this year from every continent except Antarctica. Participants count birds in their own yards or other designated places.

This year, I counted birds in my yard as I always do, and on Saturday I also did a count at Brazos Bend State Park. We had a family cookout there to celebrate our older daughter's birthday, and, of course, I insisted that we go on a bird walk after lunch.

In fact, the highlight of my weekend counting came on that walk. It was around 3:00 in the afternoon and we were walking around Forty-Acre Lake when we heard two Barred Owls calling to each other in the woods nearby.  Since I do my bird counting during daylight hours, it isn't often that I get to list an owl species, but Barred Owls frequently become active in mid to late afternoon hours and, fortunately for me, these two certainly were!

I ended my day with 31 species counted at the park. With more time and effort, I could have probably doubled that, but, after all, birding was my secondary activity on this particular day.

On the other three days of the four-day holiday weekend, I observed and counted birds in my yard. My goal for the weekend was 40 species, but I ended with only 34. As always when I do an official count of birds in my yard, I was frustrated by the no-shows, the birds that I know are there but that just didn't turn up during my count period.

Where was that Pileated Woodpecker that has been so active in the area in recent weeks? Where are the Eastern Phoebes? I haven't seen one in my yard all winter. Where was the Red-tailed Hawk that flies over my yard every day - except for this weekend? That Killdeer that flies over and calls noisily on occasion - where was it this weekend?

And on most days I can count on flyovers in the late afternoon from a number of waterbirds and waders, but this weekend? Nary a one showed a feather.

Perhaps most frustratingly of all, the tiny Brown-headed Nuthatch did not make an appearance. I didn't even hear it calling during the time that I was counting.

For most of the weekend, I thought I would have to include the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on my list of no-shows, but just at about 6:00 this afternoon as the light was fading and I was about to call it a count and head indoors, I heard the sapsucker calling in the big pine tree just across the fence in my neighbor's yard. I looked up and finally was able to find it far, far up the 100+ foot tree.

 It was really too dark for this picture, but I had to give it a try after waiting so long for him.

Encouraged, I decided to wait just a few more minutes to see if something wonderful might turn up. Nothing did. My last bird of the day, the last bird of my count was that Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

*~*~*~*

Here are the 34 species that did deign to show themselves for my yard count.

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove 
Inca Dove
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin 
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-Winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird 
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

*~*~*~*

And here is the species list from Brazos Bend.

Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
White Ibis
Glossy/White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Killdeer
Barred Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Loggerhead Shrike
American Crow
Tree Swallow 
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch

Get ready to count

Yes, it is just a few days now until the annual Great Backyard Bird Count begins. Are you ready to count? It's easy - and free - to participate. You just go to the website and sign on. Then count the birds in a specific area - it can be your yard or a public area like a park - and report them on the site. Then watch the map fill up with reports from around the country, and, this year, from around the world.

In the past, the bird count only included the United States and Canada, but this year it is going global. I am really excited to be able to see those counts from all over the world. But really the ones that excite me most are the ones from my neighborhood and state. It's always interesting to see what other birders in my area are reporting.

Scientists can determine much about the health of various bird populations by analyzing the data from the bird count from year to year. Even a layperson like myself learns about the movement of birds in her area by looking at those numbers. This will be my eleventh year to participate in the count, and my records from all those years are available to me as a picture of how my yard and its birds have changed.

If you've never participated before, let this be the year that you start your picture of your own backyard. You don't have to have any particular expertise in birds - just be able to identify and count. If you care at all about birds, I can practically guarantee you will enjoy it.

(Cross-posted from Gardening With Nature.) 

The Great Backyard Bird Count is on!

This weekend marks the fifteenth annual Great Backyard Bird Count. This event is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. Thousands of people with an interest in birds from all over North America and the State of Hawaii go into their yards or to some public space over the four day weekend and watch and count birds and then report what they have seen on the GBBC website. Participation is free and is open to anyone, regardless of their level of expertise about birds.

This is one of several citizen science projects related to birds or butterflies that take place throughout the year and in which I participate. I have to admit, though, that this is probably my favorite of all. This is my ninth year to participate since 2003. (I've only missed one year, 2004, due a death in my family.)

My designated count area is my suburban garden and I count on all four days of the event. I try to spend as much time as possible outside observing the birds during the weekend, but if you choose to participate, the time you spend is entirely up to you. A participant can spend as little as fifteen minutes counting.

There are around 30 - 35 species of birds which could reasonably be present in my yard in mid-winter and I try to see and count as many of them as I can. This year is off to a poor start, mostly because of rainy weather. Over two days of counting, I've only tallied twenty species so far. But even under less than optimal conditions, it is always a pleasure to watch and count birds and I always learn more about the birds and the Nature that exists in my yard in the process.

For anyone who has the slightest interest in Nature, this really is a fun and educational project. There are two days left in the weekend, plenty of time for you to take part. Just go to the GBBC website and read the instructions and start counting. The data collected are important to ornithologists in studying bird populations and in attempting to devise ways to assist populations that are in trouble. You can help in that effort.

Female Northern Cardinal in my yard. She got counted today. 

We interrupt this blog...

We interrupt this blog for this important event:



Yes, it's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count and I'll be picking up my binoculars to count the birds in my yard. Why don't you join me by counting the birds in your area and entering your information on the website? It's fun, it's free, and the information provided can help ornithologists determine how to best assist our birds. If you enjoy birds, here's a way you can help them.

(You can follow my weekend bird counts at Backyard Birder.)

Calling all bird geeks

For many birders in Canada and the United States, this is the week we have been anticipating for months now. In just a few days, we will begin one of our favorite citizen science projects, the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Every year on Presidents' Day weekend, thousands of birders across the continent, and across the ocean in Hawaii, take part in this four-day-long census of birds. It is a survey to find out just where the birds are at mid-winter and how they are faring. By this time, the migrants have settled in their winter homes but have not yet started their spring flight north, so this count can give a very good idea of numbers as well as the health of the bird population before it disperses to its breeding grounds.

This will be the thirteenth year that the count has taken place. It has grown substantially in the number of participants each year and ranks with the Christmas Bird Count in its popularity and importance in the birding community. The GBBC is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Bird Studies of Canada.

The great thing about this project is that it is fun, free, and open to anyone who wants to count birds and report them. Participants do not have to have any particular expertise in birds; they simply have to be able to observe and report. All they have to do is go to the GBBC website, sign in, give some information about the area they are censusing, and then enter information about what birds they saw. Participants can spend as little as fifteen minutes in observation, or if you are a real bird geek like me, you can spend as many hours of each of the four days that you can manage to squeeze in.

If you have any interest at all in birds, this is the citizen science project for you. Check in at GBBC and get ready to count. The information that you provide can be very helpful to the ornithologists who track the movements of birds and can be useful in planning ways to assist birds, who are facing challenges from every direction these days.

Be a bird geek! I promise it doesn't hurt at all.

GBBC wrap-up

This year's Great Backyard Bird Count is history, but we will have to wait until after March 1 for all the data reports to be finalized. Participants can still report their counts up until that date, so until then we won't know whether this will be another record-breaking year for the popular mid-winter bird survey.

If I had to guess, I would say that this probably will not be a record-breaker. The severe weather in many places probably limited some counters' efforts, so we may fall a little short of the record of 634 species that were reported in the 2008 count.

As for my own personal count, I ended the weekend with a total of 28 species, not a record-breaking year for me, either. There were several species that are regularly seen in my yard that did not show up during the weekend - birds like the little Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the Eastern Bluebird. I didn't even see a Black Vulture or a Red-tailed Hawk flying over my yard, even though in the usual course of events, I see them almost every day. Neither did the big Pileated Woodpecker or the little Brown-headed Nuthatch put in an appearance.

I was pleased to encounter one unusual bird, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Although these birds visit our area in winter, I almost never find one in my yard, so seeing one here was a great treat for me.

I always enjoy consulting the top ten lists on the results page of the GBBC website and this year is no exception:

Most Frequently Reported Birds
Rank Species Checklists
1 Northern Cardinal 43,160
2 Dark-eyed Junco 39,415
3 Mourning Dove 36,884
4 Downy Woodpecker 32,141
5 Blue Jay 31,831
6 American Goldfinch 30,994
7 Tufted Titmouse 29,393
8 House Finch 26,847
9 American Crow 24,808
10 Black-capped Chickadee 24,086
Statistics updated 17-Feb-2010 18:05 ET

Most Numerous Birds
Rank Species Individuals
1 American Robin 1,783,686
2 Canada Goose 574,979
3 American Crow 422,279
4 European Starling 420,545
5 Snow Goose 368,170
6 American Goldfinch 343,885
7 Common Grackle 329,365
8 Dark-eyed Junco 301,610
9 Red-winged Blackbird 244,892
10 Mourning Dove 229,709
Statistics updated 17-Feb-2010 18:05 ET

When the final count is in, some of these rankings and numbers may change, but there is unlikely to be any great upheaval in the standings. For a look at all the various "top ten" lists, click here.

Calling all bird geeks!

As a certified bird geek myself, one who is never happier than when outside, binoculars in hand, gazing at some feathered phenomenon, this is absolutely one of my favorite weekends of the year. It is Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July all wrapped up together. Yes, this is Great Backyard Bird Count weekend. The count starts today, Friday, and continues all the way through Monday, Presidents' Day. It takes place every year on this weekend, and I have been looking forward to it now since Christmas.

In the event that you are among the uninitiated, here's a little background. The GBBC is a joint project of the National Audubon Society, Bird Studies Canada, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It is a citizen science project. People with all levels of skills in birding, from beginners to experts, participate. There is no charge for participating. All you have to do is observe and count the birds in your yard or at some alternate site and then report what you saw on the GBBC website.

Many people choose to count birds in parks, wildlife refuges, or other public places, even commercial properties. All of the counts are important, because the object is to find out where the birds are here at mid-winter. Bird populations are always shifting due to climate change, habitat destruction (or improvement), availability of food and other reasons known only to the birds. This weekend's survey will help the ornithologists who track such things have a better idea of which birds are where all across Canada and the United States, including Hawaii.

Considering the truly bad weather conditions that prevail in much of the eastern part of the continent now, it will be very interesting to see what results the bird watchers will report and how the weather might be a factor. It probably will be more of a factor for the reporters rather than the reportees.

Here in Southeast Texas today, it is a cold, gray, cloudy day with a temperature of around 39F the last time I looked. The conditions are not the best for watching the birds, but any day I can get outside with my binoculars in my hand, it is a good day!

Happy birding and don't forget to report what you see to GBBC.