2010 Great Backyard Bird Count: A Summary

Tweet There was snow cover on the ground during the entire period, which kept the feeders very busy.



Sparrows as a group were the most numerous birds, breaking many of my previous all time highs for the yard. I had 15 Eastern Towhees (tie), 38 American Tree Sparrows (record), 35 White-throated Sparrows(record), 8 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Fox Sparrow, and 8 Song Sparrows (record) *Highest # counted at one time, per the GBBC rules

The new 1 foot of snow on Presidents Day brought in more good birds, including 10 Brown-headed Cowbirds and 1 male Eastern Bluebird. The birds were fighting for the feeders and I even had a male towhee try to stay on the feeder as I was trying to fill it. He made an odd squealing sound as I approached him.

Wasn't able to get all of my expected woodpeckers, but was surprised by a brief sighting of a Red-headed Woodpecker that was down the street (flew over yard, but didn't stop at feeders). Broke my all time high for the yard for Red-bellies (8 at one time).

Somehow I managed to miss my resident Red-shoulder that I had seen the day before the count. I did get feeder raids by both expected accipters though. Also had flyovers of a Red tail, 1 Turkey Vulture and 3 Black Vultures. Was able to call in an Eastern Screech-owl at dusk. The Great-horned was heard calling from the big woods across the street at dusk while filling feeders.

Complete species list for weekend:

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Eastern Towhee
American Tree Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

I had 34 species seen or heard in or from my yard for all 4 days combined.

Tweet

Winter river hopping

Tweet Had to go downtown to take care of family business today, so I didn't really have much time to do any serious birding. I was wanting to go to Armleder , but since I had family with me, that was not an option. Instead, I decided to go river hopping by stopping at various spots along the Ohio River (I have found some of my best birds this way).

First stop was at Rivertowne Marina, where there were 3 Horned Larks on the entrance road.

2 of 3 horned larks seen. Love these birds!

Decided to drive to the back of the marina. Most of the water was frozen, but did manage to find a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant flapping its wings and a Great Blue getting ready to spear a fish. I don't run into cormorants in winter around here very often.

Juv. DC Cormorant and GB Heron.

Went to another nearby marina and was only able to find a Pied-billed Grebe and a few Canada Geese. Stopped at a few other sites along the river between Cincinnati and New Richmond, but didn't come up with anything noteworthy. However, I did come across a Killdeer (in a parking lot none the less), which is not too easy to find at this time of year.

Tweet