In a couple of weeks Pam and I will take part in our first “official” bird count, The Great Backyard Birdcount 2009. The GBBC is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. It is annual event that takes place in February.
Lots of Participants
In 2008 over 85,000 checklists were submitted and over 9.8 million birds of 635 species were reported. Obviously, lots of people take part. We’re looking forward to being part of the 2009 edition.
Our Plan
The count takes place from February 13th to the 16th. We will be around most of the weekend except for a few hours on Saturday. Our plan is to spend some time Saturday afternoon as well as Sunday morning and afternoon recording all the birds we see in our backyard during those times. Hopefully, we have some good activity and are able to get some good counts. This will be a good opportunity to test our identification and “binocular handling” abilities. We have a fairly large backyard so we will need to pay attention and count correctly.
A Good Opportunity
The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to participate in birding. You don’t need to be experts, Pam and I definitely aren’t 
, and the information you gather is used to further science. If you are getting started in birding like we are, this is a great way to contribute and have fun at the same time.
To learn more about the GBBC, visit their site, then get ready to count!
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Thanks for putting the word out. Oddly, our state audubon (massaudubon.org) is doing this Feb. 7th and 8th…which is just this coming weekend. I’ll have to stock up on plenty of special bird treats!
You’re welcome.
Pam and I are looking forward to participating. It should be fun and hopefully we count a bunch of birds.
Curious to know how you and Pam did in the bird count? I didn’t participate in the national one, however, I did do the Massachusetts one. It was quite difficult doing the head counts with them all fluttering around! Mostly, all the ordinary visitors, but I did manage to see a Pileated Woodpecker from my living room window. I would have to say that was the highlight! Hope you both saw lots! Cheers!
We had fun and saw most of the usual suspects, no new birds were seen. Pam and I were able to spend some time on Saturday and Sunday afternoon watching the yard and I was able to spend some time on Monday morning. It was a bit of a challenge keeping track of the birds but I think we did a fairly accurate job.
It was fun and I think we will participate in the 2010 version.
Hello Mr. Mark and Ms. Pam,
I wanted to share our latest experience with you all. I have a feeder and a water bowl on our back deck for the birds, if they are out of food back there and see me come out they will fly down and fuss at me. I still have alot of Pine Siskin, not as many as I did only about 30 now. They are so used to seeing me on the back deck now that I have been able to get within a few feet of them. They are very tame little birds.
Yesterday after my daughter Elizabeth ( she is 6) was finished with school we went out to the back deck to play. There were Pine Siskin, Brown-headed nuthatch, Mourning Dove, Purple Finch, Carolina Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Titmouse and Goldfinch. All flew away to the trees except one Pine Siskin who is so tame, it will just stay at the feeder and eat and peep at us.
Elizabeth and I walked slowly to the feeder within inches of this little girl. Elizabeth named her Rosabelle. She said” Oh, hello Rosabelle! How are you today? You are so cute!”
We put seeds in our hands and held them close to her but she would not eat from our hands. My hand was actually touching her . She finally had enough of us I guess and flew away to the oak tree only to return when we moved away from the feeder. Amazing experience for us.
If we sit very still all of them return and feed with a watchful eye on us of course. What a blessing that my birds trust us so much!
I just thought I would share this experience, maybe today someone will sit on my finger!
My blessing has turned into a curse sort of.
I thought it was so wonderful to have so many birds all winter. It has been a learning experience for me. I got to observe Pine Siskin and their behavior up close and personal for the duration of the winter months. I also learned that such a large number of them was a bit unusual. I also learned having them hang around as long as they did in those large numbers was unhealthy for them and for other species.
I started noticing a few of them acting sick and sure enough I found 2 dead. I called our local county extension office and was told they more than likely have Sallmenilla.( Iam sure I spelled that wrong.) To let them disperse and not feed them for a while and bleach everything down. So last week end was spent bleaching the feeders I am keeping throwing out older ones, raking up and disposing of seed waste and bleaching out the bird bath. I found 3 more dead birds, I Siskin, I Goldfinch, I female Cardinal during the cleaning process. Almost frightening. Hopefully this will do the trick though as there is no more food or a water source and I will wait till April to put food out again.