Between friends being in town and an interminable fever/chills cycle, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time doing my Project FeederWatch counts this weekend, but I did observe some interesting things.
The Blue Jays are suddenly showing interest in the suet feeders again. They were all over them last summer, but lost interest when it got cold out. Now that it’s a bit warmer (or at least was on Sunday) they’re interested again.
A Red-bellied Woodpecker made an appearance this weekend. This is the first one I’ve seen in the yard and thus the first time he’s shown up in my counts. I wonder if the Golden-fronted Woodpecker that used to come by regularly last summer will be back around soon.
The House Finches are coming around a bit more regularly. Probably looking for the hummingbird feeder, which I may put back up this week. After reading Dave Bonta’s haunting and beautiful “House Finch,” I checked for eye disease on them and the goldfinches, but fortunately found none. I keep my feeders clean and thus far have been fortunate not to have seen any infected finches, which you’re asked to report to PFW if you see it.
Cardinals seem to enjoy coming around every day except my count days. Perhaps they had all headed down to Florida for the Super Bowl.
After deleting the fever birds (you know, the penguin and the albatross I saw), I got this count:
- Red-bellied Woodpecker (1)
- Bewick’s Wren (1)
- House Finch (2)
- White-winged Dove (8)
- American Goldfinch (2)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
- Chipping Sparrow (3)
- Carolina Wren (2)
- Carolina Chickadee (2)
- Mourning Dove (1)
- Black-crested Titmouse (1)
- Blue Jay (2)
- Northern Mockingbird (1)
Not many individuals, but a good variety of species.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
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