Friday, February 15, 2013

GBBC: Day One

As planned, I've gotten my first list complete for the 2013 Great Backyard Bird Count.  I had a window of opportunity between the workplace craziness and "date night", and watched every corner of the yard from 4:18 to 4:48.  This half hour brought me fifteen species and generally expected or low counts.  For example, only one chickadee, titmouse, Yellow Rumped Warbler, and wren.  But the junco count looked right (5) and I even spotted two Brown Headed Cowbirds.  I was surprised to see no Pine Siskins, towhees, or chipping sparrows but the weekend is still young.  On the other hand, I was stupified by the number of Red Winged Blackbirds.  I was able to actually see and count as many as 43 birds (!) and there were even more than that in the trees.  This time I even teased out one female among the mob of males.  Tomorrow should be good for  another two or three counts in different parts of the day.  And the expected snow Saturday night may yield interesting results for Sunday.  Lots yet to see!

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