Hey everyone:
Got any tips for bird counts? I'm participating in my first ever bird count, "The Great Backyard Bird Count." There's even a photo contest, though I'll pass on that until I can learn to focus with some regularity. ;)
Here's the link.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc
Okay, I'm bumping this to the top! The Backyard Count is this weekend. Who's participating???
I plan to if our weather isn't too nasty. I do the Project Feederwatch every weekend, I can do it in bad weather from my vehicle :-)
Well, I'm curious about a couple of things…
Do you do it at a certain time each day? My thoughts are that I want to count when I see the most activity, clearly. Since I can do it as many times in as many locations, I might have lots of counts at home!
Also, does anyone goes out of their way to make multiple counts a day. I'll be in 3 different locations on Saturday (2 states) and was considering an event on Sunday along the Mississippi. For that I'd need some help with identification, since I don't know many water birds. But sounds like fun.
click on the "How to Participate" link on that site you posted. It looks like you can count at as many places as you want, and count every day, just keep separate lists.
I may depending what's on our schedule!
I'll be doing it Friday and Saturday. :-)
I'm gonna do it but not sure which day or days! I was checking the different areas and noticed that a town in Kansas had 2 counters that counted over 50,000 Red-winged Blackbirds ! I emailed them thinking maybe an error?
Hmm, I don't know. I've been seeing alot of the Red-wings come in w/ the Starling flocks.
LOL, my DH called me excitedly into the room saying he thought there were Orioles in the backyard. As soon as he described them I knew they were Red-winged Blackbirds. :-)
I have thought I saw a Red-wing but not positive yet. I'm still looking for them as I used to see them all the time, not sure if they winter here though...I'll have to check!
darnit,. i just get in the middle of counting and they all fly off!!!! how DO you all do this?
LOL, well I'm not having any problems here.
I have 1 Coopers Hawk so far. :-)))
Mrs Ed, I would say estimate.
I just finished my count and came on to see if anybody else had done their's! Here's what I had. I picked a non - peak time to count for that reason Mrs. Ed!
10 Cardinals
7 House Finch
2 House Sparrow
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Blue Jay
4 Tufted Titmouse
2 European Starling
2 Red-breasted Nuthatch
Don't know why there are no birds up in the sky
stormy weather ...
OK, it's so dark and cloudy that I'm going blind trying to identify the birds even with my binoculars. They keep disappearing too which usually means there's a hawk around, but keep missing him. Last year it was easy. I have noticed that I've had a lot fewer birds this winter. Last year during the count, I frequently had as many as 30 goldfinches. This year, the most that I've seen at a time is seven.
One other thing, sparrows -- how the heck to you quickly figure out which kind your looking at? I'm going with house sparrow unless I see something unusual. Do y'all concur?
Wow, you have a lot. DO you only count for 15 minutes or do you count all day?
Here's mine so far.:
22 house finches
1 gold finch
5 junco
4 starling
9 sparrow
2 downy
2 crow
(2 squirrels) Hee hee.
I was counting 'til DH just had to get the tractor out and scare everyone away...sign...I'll have to start all over when he's done doing what he's doing!!
lol. darn that DH and his precious tractors. I had the same experience this morning with the garbage trucks.
I only did 15 minutes.
I keep trying to take pictures on this impossibly dark day. My camera is screaming at me to open the flash, but of course, I can't because I'm inside taking a picture through a not so clean window. What am I thinking? Here's an almost nice photo of a white-winged dove and his reflection. Of course, it's not very clear because it's dark! Is there a 12 step program for bird obsessed nuts?
no!
Very nice pic Elphaba!
Here was my final list today from home. I could go to the park and count ducks, but maybe tomorrow. I might be lucky to catch the eagles too. We have 3.
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 2
American Crow - 2
Black-capped Chickadee - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
European Starling - 4
Northern Cardinal - 2
House Finch - 22
American Goldfinch - 1
House Sparrow - 9
I have participated for the past 5 years.
I'll check various times during the weekend and count what I see.
Whatever the highest count is for any particular species is what I submit.
EX: If I see 6 cardinals Sat. morning, 2 on Sat. afternoon and 4 Sun. afternoon - I'll enter 6 for the cardinal count since that was the highest number for the time of the count.
Last year, I had the largest number of mourning doves for my area's count - 27.
This year - WOW.... I looked this morning - about 7AM and counted 57!!
It looked like a Hitchcock scene out there.
They were just gathering before starting to eat. They do this every morning. They just gather on the fence, tree, feeder platform and telephone wires. It's like they are waiting for the breakfast belt to ring. It's so funny.
Then, at about 7:30 they break loose and the feeding frenzy begins.
They take a break and the sparrows & finches take over.
After that, it's a mix of everything.
They are so much fun to watch - I have to tear myself away from the window or I'd get nothing else done.
Nancy
wow nancy, that's a bunch-o-doves. I just looked out the window and there were 6! Now where were they all day! Maybe tomorrow, I won't end the count so early.
LOL, That is alot of Doves Nancy! I know the only thing I see w/ that high a number is
European Starlings this time of year.
There were hardly any birds today because of Hawks so I took down one of the main feeders and cleaned it.
Tomorrow, I'll clean 1 nyger feeder at a time.
I was off work today, so I went all over to count. I watched my feeders, went for a walk by the lake, watched in the park, and drove by some fields where I always see cool birds. Here's the combined list of what I saw in these spots:
17 House Sparrow
4 Yellow Rumped Warblers
1 American Goldfinch
2 Cardinals
3 Blue Jays
1 Red Bellied Woodpecker
2 Mocking Birds
2 Redwing Blackbirds
4 European Starlings
8 Cedar Waxwings (first time to see them ever!)
10 Mourning Doves
2 Inca Doves
7 Eurasian Collared Doves
18 Rock Pigeons
2 Crows
8 Black Vultures
1 Great Tailed Grackle
4 Boat Tailed Grackle
5 Common Grackle
1 Loggerhead Shrike
1 Red Shouldered Hawk
1 American Kestrel
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Crested Caracara
1 Cormorant (I'm pretty sure Neotropic)
1 Killdeer
2 Brown Pelicans
4 Cattle Egret
1 Great Egret
2 Laughing Gulls
1 Squirel and 1 gray cat (LOL)
Not a bad day even though it was overcast. This is in the southeast Houston area.
Very nice list rntx!!
I'm doing the count again tomorrow.
I'll say, that IS quite the list. I wish I lived in Texas right now to see all of those.
I'm sure sick of living up here in coldville, so at least this gives me something interesting to take my mind off of it. We're in for another bad storm this weekend, Ice then snow and wind.
I will post my list tomorrow...I'm can't type anymore..LOL!! Here is a pic of some of the American Goldfinches I counted today. I had over 200 and this is just one area they were eating. I have over 20 feeders plus 4 thistle socks so it was a challenge to say the least! Sorry for the poor thru the window pic!
LOL, how neat that is!!! I certainly had alot more before the Hawks came back and once they leave I'll have much higher numbers but you certainly have me beat w/ 200!!
Wow dellrose, I had ONE! And look how nice and yellow they are. Good food and spring on the way!!!
So that's where all my goldfinches went! kidding!
I wasn't going to do the count today unless the sky cleared a bit. It's so dark that it's nearly impossible to tell what I'm looking at, but then I saw a pair of Northern Flickers. I know that up north y'all see these all the time. This is the first time that I've ever seen one! I was so excited that I had to do a count so I include them! It's not at all impressive because a Cooper's Hawk had just flown through, but I counted him too!
The Northern Flickers were hanging out about 10' above a Red-bellied woodpeckers nest. I had just seen one of the red-bellies poke her head out before the flickers arrived. The Red-bellies didn't make a peep, however, and they just hid until a sparrow chased off the Northern Flickers. Interesting eh? There's something profound in the power of a sparrow.
Well I woke up to 1 lone Sharp-shinned Hawk in the yard.I did see a Red-tailed Hawk soaring way up high too. Its a good thing they give you 3 days to count otherwise I'd have nothing but Hawks. :-)
LOL Pelle, you are in Hawk Central. Well I suppose that is important to know too!
(((H)))
(big hug)
OMG! I was just reading about hawk central when I heard the birds having a fit. There was a giant red-tailed hawk hopping around in a squirrel's nest in the neighbor's yard. I took some pictures but there are lots of tree branches in the way, so they're not great. It looks like he had white feathers going all the way down his legs. I didn't think red-tails had feathered legs. He was so huge that he could barely get up the air again when he dropped from the nest.
OMG! I just saw a flock land in another tree -- 77 Cedar Waxwings!
Make that 111 Cedar Waxwings! I just don't know which 15 minute count to use -- the one with the Northern Flickers or the one with the waxwings! I think I'll see what I get tomorrow and then decide what to use. I wish it were a nice day so I could take pictures!
Wow Elphaba you have a busy yard! I would faint to see that many Waxwings! As I understand the rules you report the most # of birds you see at one sighting. I counted off and on all day yesterday and just reported the most I counted at one time. For instance the most GF I counted at one time was 218. Other times of the day I had counted different amounts but the most at one time was the 218. In other words I would say you would report the 111 on the CW and also the largest amount of Flickers at one time!
Have fun everyone!!
Did mine for today and here's what I had.
6 Cardianls
21 House Finch
3 Downy WP
1 Red-bellied WP
6 WBN
2 RBN
1 Carolina Chickadee
7 American Goldfinch
4 Junco
The starlings seem to be moving on since I have taken away the peanuts. The sad thing I have noticed is the junco's are getting fewer and fewer everyday.
Right, I counted for 5 hours yesterday. Let's say I had 22 finches at 10 am, but never got above that number all day. Then I had 2 chickadees at 1pm, then I still counted all of them. I think the 15 minutes is the "least" time to count. So good for you, 111 waxwings is huge. I've only every seen about 6 at a time.
