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Counts

Ladder-backed Woodpecker
A Ladder-backed Woodpecker, which did not show up in these counts

Since finishing my small year, I’ve enjoyed going back to not counting birds quite so much. I’m still participating in Project FeederWatch and I did the Great Backyard Bird Count the weekend before last, but it’s good to just enjoy the birds for what they are instead of as checks on a list.

Still, I do like participating in these citizen science projects and so I’m list blogging, which seems hardly worthy of the Kreativ Blogger Award kindly bestowed on my by Angie at woman, ask the question.

For the GBBC, I counted along the pond trail after work on Friday and then stuck with my backyard on Saturday and Sunday, which are my Project FeederWatch count days anyway. I didn’t do a GBBC count on Monday.

This year’s count yielded no surprises. I haven’t seen anything new in the neighborhood or in my yard this year, and I haven’t seen any American Goldfinches. Maybe the Lesser Goldfinches have claimed the yard, but last year I regularly saw both species.

And here are the counts. The numbers in parentheses indicate the greatest number of individuals seen at one time…

GBBC Day 1 (2.12.10): Pond Trail:

  1. White-winged Dove (4)
  2. Northern Mockingbird (1)
  3. Carolina Wren (1)
  4. Eastern Phoebe (1)
  5. American Crow (4)
  6. American Coot (1)
  7. Ring-necked Duck (3)
  8. Gadwall (30)
  9. American Widgeon (9)
  10. Pied-billed Grebe (1)
  11. Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)
  12. Blue-winged Teal (3)

GBBC Day 2 (2.13.10): Backyard:

  1. Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
  2. Chipping Sparrow (13)
  3. House Sparrow (3)
  4. Carolina Wren (2)
  5. Bewick’s Wren (1)
  6. White-winged Dove (10)
  7. Lesser Goldfinch (3)
  8. Blue Jay (1)

GBBC Day 3 (2.14.10): Backyard:

  1. Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
  2. Blue Jay (2)
  3. Northern Mockingbird (1)
  4. Mourning Dove (1)
  5. White-winged Dove (9)
  6. Carolina Wren (2)
  7. Lesser Goldfinch (5)
  8. Chipping Sparrow (23)
  9. House Sparrow (1)

Project FeederWatch – Month 3 (a running total):

  1. White-winged Dove (23)
  2. Mourning Dove (1)
  3. Blue Jay (3)
  4. Carolina Chickadee (2)
  5. Black-crested Titmouse (2)
  6. Carolina Wren (2)
  7. Bewick’s Wren (1)
  8. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
  9. Northern Mockingbird (1)
  10. European Starling (1)
  11. Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
  12. Chipping Sparrow (24)
  13. Northern Cardinal (1)
  14. HOuse Finch (2)
  15. Lesser Goldfinch (7)
  16. House Sparrow (17)

Be sure to check out the latest edition of I and the Bird (#119) hosted at Somewhere in NJ, which includes my poem “Hummingbird Heading Out to Sea.”

Published inBirdsNature

One Comment

  1. BILLOFTHEDESERT BILLOFTHEDESERT

    I read your response to the barbaric treatment of coyotes in western Oklahoma.

    I hope this will contribute something to the public’s awareness.

    From the BBC:

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