Great Backyard Bird Count, Day Three

The Great Backyard Bird Count of 2011 has been a lot of fun. I'm doing well piling up observation hours (six so far) and also species. Adding in today's 23-species barnburner, I'm up to a total of 28. I finally landed that pesky and elusive Eastern Towhee, and since yesterday's post have also picked up a Hermit Thrush and a Northern Flicker. By my sense of things I am still coming up a little short. I have not seen Common Grackles, Red Winged Blackbirds, nor Purple Finches, all which have been around recently. Tomorrow may be the charm. Counts are better, too. I continue to see ridiculous numbers of American Goldfinches (now up to a max of 17!), but I got more believable numbers of Northern Cardinals (7), Mourning Doves---shown above (5), and Juncos (3). If we assign my maximum count to each species I have now recorded some 73 individual birds all on my little patch of Earth. Well, one more day to go and hopes of a fine ending to this marvelous observational adventure!