GBBC Bird Counts for Monday Feb. 15

Post your count numbers for the last day!

Would you believe it, I've had a new bird show up for the count! A Hairy Woodpecker.

Mourning Dove - 10
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 1
Black-capped Chickadee - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
European Starling - 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 11
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 1
Northern Cardinal - 9
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
House Finch - 40
American Goldfinch - 11
House Sparrow - 10

yay Congrats...on your new bird!! We have not had a Hairy since last summer....I just love all my woodpeckers and hate to have any go missing! I am still watching...I am holding out for the Brown Creeper...but I think it may be a no show. Heck might hear those owls again too!

I'm sure that my brown creeper will show up today at 3:30, now that I'm done counting.

I had so many finches today I had to have Ed come help me count.

From work today.

Turkey Vulture 2
Rock Pigeon 25
House Sparrow 15
American Crow 2
Herring Gull 2

all in the parking lot stealing mc donald's fries and dropped breadcrust?

The pigeons roost on top of the supermarket and the gulls and sparrows are always on the lookout for food.

yup. I love to watch gulls and crows chase each other for a fry or something.

Theres an old man that comes in and buys reduced stuff than sprinlkles it around the parking lot for the gulls. It's very dangerous for them because it's such a busy store.

and he thinks he's helping… aww

My list...after work...it felt so good to watch the birds and let them take all of the stress and tiredness away!...they are better than calgon ;o))

Checklist:
Canada Goose - 6
Wood Duck - 3
Mallard - 6
Lesser Scaup - 3
Pied-billed Grebe - 3
American Coot - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 3
Eurasian Collared-Dove - 2
Mourning Dove - 30
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Blue Jay - 6
Carolina Chickadee - 8
Tufted Titmouse - 6
White-breasted Nuthatch - 3
Brown Creeper - 1
Carolina Wren - 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
American Robin - 27
Northern Mockingbird - 3
European Starling - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 10
Chipping Sparrow - 6
Field Sparrow - 2
Fox Sparrow - 6
White-throated Sparrow - 25
Dark-eyed Junco - 18
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 20
Northern Cardinal - 32
Red-winged Blackbird - 8
Brown-headed Cowbird - 25
Purple Finch - 1
House Finch - 16
American Goldfinch - 25
House Sparrow - 8

This is from yesterday evening...

Great list Kim!

Congrats on the Hairy Mrs. Ed!
Amazing list duckmom.
Pelle, way to go on the urban birds!

I have a question. I did a count in my backyard and then I went to the cemented bayou with the mostly mowed grass park that's about 6 blocks from my house. (It's being reforested and will one day be a real park but it does have a some trees.) Do I include it all on the same checklist? It's in the same zip, but I usually describe the area as a "yard," but if I'm including the park and bayou, I should call it something else. Maybe there's an option for just "neighborhood?"

I read that different locations mean different lists. (shrug) :-)

yah, i'd say two locations are different reports.

Hey...I think that is my missing Brown Creeper!! lol

Okay here is my list today.....

Mourning Dove 11
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 1
European Starling 30
American Tree Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 8
Northern Cardinal 16
House Finch 10
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 1

I didn't have time for a count, because I went to look for Lapland Longspur's for 20 minutes before work, but from 0ne view of a field I saw...200+ Canada Geese, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, and about 60 Horned Lark's.

Nice Burd!

Isn't it hard to stop counting today?
Burd, you should include those in a count.

I only counted in the yard for 30 minutes in the morning, so my count was down. I only had 11 species and nothing unusual, but I did have 44 White-winged Doves.

Thanks for the info on how to do two counts in the same area. I was confused b/c zip codes are very small areas here, so I was thinking you could only do one count per zip, but that would not work in other places where a zip code is larger than a neighborhood.

The bayou count even though its cemented and the grass is mowed and trees are sparse:

Loggerhead Shrike - 1
Pine Warblers -- 5
Kildeer -- 6
Some kind of Sandpiper -- 4
Turkey Vulture -- 1
Red-tailed Hawk --1
Rock Doves -- 14
Crows --3
Yellow-rumped warbler --1
Red-bellied woodpecker -- 1
Great-tailed grackle -- 1

Here's my count for Monday:


Red bellied woodpecker-2
Flicker-1
Hairy woodpecker-4
Downy woodpecker-5
White breasted nuthatch-2
Red breasted nuthatch-1
Black capped chickadee-6
Tufted titmouse-8
Mourning doves-16
Goldfinch-24
Crow-2
Blue jay-3
Eastern bluebird-4
Purple finch-2 (unusual visitor!)
Carolina wren-2
House sparrow-6
Robin-1
Junco-8
Song sparrow-2
Cardinal-2

At MashpeeWakeby pond:

Buffleheads-9
Hooded merganser-4
Black duck-10
Herring gulls-6
Red tail hawk-1
Bald eagle-1 (I see one about 1 in 12 visits to this spot so I was lucky!!)

Wow nice variety sacar!

Still good variety for the yard Elph!

boy sacar, you sure have the woodpeckers!

Pelle, I get a good group when the hawks aren't lurking around! And, of course with the snow mix that we are getting today my numbers are better.

Nanny, I haven't seen a brown creeper since last winter. Sure do miss them!

I also have not seen a single pine siskin...I had so many last winter. Has anybody seen any?

Mrs. Ed....I just love those Hairy woodpeckers. They have so much character and they play nice with the little birds at the feeders unlike those pushy Downies!


This message was edited Feb 16, 2010 10:41 AM

I had ONE siskin for the count, and I had not seen any in months. I'll be interested to explore the results and see where people are seeing the redpolls. I have read that they are scarce this year. must be lots of food up north.

I confess: woodpeckers are my favorite birds (after bluebirds, that is) so I work at bringing them into the yard. The nut hatches, chickadees & titmice just happen to like their food, so I get them, too. My teen-age son jokes that I need to get into a 12-step program!

There were red polls on the Cape last winter but I haven't seen a single post this year. I love poring over the results of this count and also of the Feeder Watch count....fascinating!

I had some Pine Siskin earlier this winter but as soon as they get a whiff of a hawk being around they leave and don't come back. :-(

I love the woodpeckers too sacar. I had a pair of Northern Flickers around till one was killed on the highway. I haven't seen any around for a while.

Pelle....maybe the hawks that frequent my yard are scaring the siskins away. Last winter, I was throwing dinner scraps out into the woods to keep the crows around. They were doing a good job of hassling the hawks and holding them at bay. The 3 crows that I have this winter aren't as aggressive....and are not earning their keep!

They have a Black-headed Gull in Cape May along with a number of Bonapartes!

http://www.birdcapemay.org/blog/

Here's their normal range, http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-headed_Gull/id

LOL sacar, I rarely see Crows anywhere near my yard.

You know, I've been thinking about getting a RBW nest box since I have a female visiting every day. I"m too darned afraid that the starlings or sparrows will try to nest in it. Those sparrows go for anything.

Cape May seems to be a bird watching haven. I see so many bird watching tours for that area....gotta check it out someday. One of my favorite places to go birding is Cape Hatteras, NC...talk about variety!

In the Winter and Spring another good place in New Jersey is Turkey Point. I've never been there but if the weather clears up I would love to go.

http://www.njwildlifetrails.org/DelawareBayshoreTrails/Sites/tabid/440/Scope/site/Guide/DELBAYSH/Site/31/Default.aspx

Here is a field report from there. Scroll down to "Wintering Hawks, Eagles and Owls-Turkey Point"

http://www.cmbo.org/fieldtrip/

Mrs Ed, I read in one of my books that if you put the nest box up high enough, the larger woodpeckers fare better with the usual nuisance birds. I don't have boxes up for my big woodpeckers (yet....maybe this year!) but they seem to nest nearby in the woods somewhere because I see the families in the summer.

Pelle...thanks for the links. Wow, sure looks like fun!!

Sacar, I was wondering about that, because there are some boxes at a nearby park that are really up high. But then I think about sparrows making nests in the signs at stores and I rethink it! Last year, the sparrows tried to build nests in our trucks! Under the hood up by the window. Now we stuff chicken wire in there!

And I thought I was mean to the grackles! Poor little sparrows. Last year, a pair of RBW made a nest at the very top of a huge tree. They were constantly harrassed by Starlings. I really wanted to shoot those Starlings. It's a good thing that I don't own a gun -- for oh so many reasons!

Here, "they" say to put the box high up on a tree with direct sunlight. How is that possible unless it is a dead tree?

http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/redbellied_woodpecker_house.htm

Yeah....pest birds are a drag, that is for sure. I don't see starlings here except in the Fall when they are moving through in large numbers. For some reason, they don't stay. We work at driving off house sparrows because of the bluebirds and we don't feed any millet based mix in the winter. They don't care for the woodpecker food. We get grackles in the summer but, other than being noisy, they don't seem to bother any of the other birds.

Elphaba....I know that feeling of seeing red, though. Any time I see a HOSP sitting on one of the nest boxes, I get really agitated!!

Mrs. Ed....check out this site on the RBW:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/lifehistory