Audubon Winter Bird Count

Hi, Birdsters! (btw, love the new forum!)

Just wanted to post that our family joined in the Audubon Bird Count for our area Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006) and it was a lot of fun.

We counted birds at our feeder from 8 to 11 am--counting the largest number of each species we saw at the same time so that we didn't double count birds. It was the first time we had three pileated woodpeckers at our feeders and trees at one time--quite a feat since we had two hawks feederwatching with us most of the morning!

Our list of backyard birds for Saturday included but wasn't limited to:

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1,
Red-tailed Hawk 1,
Mourning Dove 16,
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2,
Downy Woodpecker 6,
Hairy Woodpecker 4,
Northern Flicker 1,
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Blue Jay 2,
American Crow 5,
Carolina Chickadee 6,
Tufted Titmouse 2,
White-breasted Nuthatch 5,
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1,
American Robin 12,
European Starling 6,
Eastern Towhee 2,
Song Sparrow 3,
White-throated Sparrow 2,
Dark-eyed Junco 4,
Northern Cardinal 5,
House Finch 2,
American Goldfinch 4,
House Sparrow 3

We highly recommend doing the bird counts---either counting your feeder birds or going out on birdwalks with naturalists and expert birders. There are still some counts to come--so don't miss out!

Link for Audubon Bird Counts http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/

Happy New Year! t.

WOW, all that in one day?? Thats great! I would love to do this next year.

Yes, we counted from 8 until 11 a.m. or so. We normally have a pretty good number of bird visitors every day but Saturday we made it a point to count from the front windows and the back windows of the house at the same time...didn't have enough manpower to count the feeders at the side windows though, so we could have added more.

Also missed some other species -- fox sparrows, red-breasted nuthatches and a wild turkey that came in the afternoon (after we turned in our count). I had been trying to lure the fox sparrows out of the hedges all morning by sprinkling millet around but they wouldn't cooperate! Had to be contrarian and come out when we were finished!

Cornell and other bird groups do "feeder watch" counting http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/ and the Audubon Society organizes the Great Backyard Bird Count in February which we will sign up for, too. http://www.audubon.org/gbbc/index.shtml

Anyone else do the wintertime counts? Just wondering....

Audobon has a winter bird coutn and a spring bird count.
And the National Wildlife Federation sponsers a backyard feeder count also.
I am sure if you check out their websites there is more informaiton and dates.