Thanks to BirdingGirl, I discovered The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s very cool citizen science project, Project FeederWatch.
I picked Saturday and Sunday as my count days as those are the days I’m home. The idea is to count the highest number of individuals seen at one time that show up to partake of the delights provided for their enjoyment.
I have a dinner bell with meal worms, a platform feeder, a suet feeder, and a couple of tube feeders as well as a birdbath and a good variety of native plants.
This weekend, most of the usual suspects showed up, though not in great numbers:
- Bewick’s Wren (1)
- House Finch (1)
- Blue Jay (2)
- Northern Mockingbird (2)
- Northern Cardinal (1)
- Carolina Chickadee (1)
- White-winged Dove (7)
- Carolina Wren (1)
- House Sparrow (6)
- Chipping Sparrow (4)
- Black-crested Titmouse (2)
The project runs from November up to sometime in April so I’ll be posting my counts here. Maybe I’ll think to take some pictures next time too.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
Hi! It’s nice to find another local blogging birder and I look forward to reading through your past and future posts. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online resources are wonderful. I use eBird and their 2 online guides quite often.
-Mikael
I didn’t know about the guides. I’ll have to check them out. Thanks for the tip.
Hi James. Found your site through the Nature Blog Network. Glad you got into Project Feederwatch. I’m working on my 4th season of watching and counting. Your content (at least what’s showing up on the main page here) is a great mix of nature and tech stuff. I don’t use wordpress, but that thing about the gravatars was very interesting! Also, I see you’re a Lost fan. Are you counting down the days until Jan 21? Anyway, welcome to the NBN. Stop by my blog if you get a chance.
Heather, thanks for coming by. I’m not yet counting the days to Lost, but I am eagerly anticipating it!