Showing posts with label Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2012

GBBC 2012

Sent in my count for the yesterday. I spent the entire morning on the deck and looking out the windows to come up with my list. It's not terribly large but this has not been a winter for either manyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif species or many individual birds.

Just 14 species on my list.

Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 15
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 7
American Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 9
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 35
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch 18

I didn't actually "see" the Raven or the Crow, but they were calling from somewhere nearby. The voices of the two are pretty distinct.

I first heard the Pileated Woodpecker calling from across the street where there's a tree that has obviously gotten its attention. Then it flew through the yard heading for another excavated tree up on the hill that I saw the other day.

The Red-tailed Hawk flew out of one of the white pines on the hill above the Aerie and circled once before disappearing over the ridge.

I spotted the nearly invisible Brown Creeper working its way up a locust trunk on the other side of the yard. Once it got to the second level of branches it swooped down to another tree deeper into the woods and I lost sight of it.

The rest were visitors to the several feeders I've got on the deck and in the side yard. They are here nearly every single morning--right after I scare the fattening squirrels away.

The rest

Friday, February 17, 2012

The GBBC is On!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is underway!

Starting today (February 17) and running through Monday (February 20) the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society are sponsoring an event aimed at counting birds all across North America. Participants should count (and identify the species of) birds in any one locale for a minimum of 15 minutes. You can do this in your backyard, at a nearby park or sitting in the woods somewhere. After tallying your list, you can go to the GBBC web site and post the results.

The web site has a multitude of information for those not familiar with such efforts. There are How-to links; an instructional video; and a running tally of numbers of checklists, species and individual birds. Check out all the links on the right side of the GBBC page, too. The Photo Gallery and Learn About Birds are especially enjoyable.

And there are prizes for some lucky participants, too!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

GBBC this weekend!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening this weekend. If you've any interest in birds and birding here's an opportunity to be part of a citizen-scientist event sponsored by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology.

Participation is easy. All you need do is count the birds you see in your immediate surroundings for at least 15 minutes and send the results to the folks at Cornell. You can count for a longer period of time and you can do your counting on any of the four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday). You can limit your count to your backyard or visit other likely birding spots nearby. Just be sure you send only one checklist for each location and for each day you count. (You have until March 1 to submit your lists.)

A full listing of the rules and links to send your bird checklist are found here.

If you;re a photography buff, there's also a GBBC Photo Contest.

And here's a GBBC link to associated activities for kids.