Monday, February 15, 2010

2010 Great Backyard Bird Count: A Summary

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.



10 comments:

  1. Sharpie pic is of the same bird from an earlier date. Perches in the same spot.

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  2. Impressive list of Birds!

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  3. are those sparrows? so many of them. I don;t get that many birds at backyard ...that for sure

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  4. Mostly sparrows, White-throated and American Tree. You can just barely make out the Fox Sparrow in the pic.

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  5. I had to travel to three counties to get 34 species of birds on four different counts. Great job.

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  6. Anonymous5:03 PM

    Why do I look at a North American blog? Almost every bird is a "mega" for me!
    Keep up the great work.

    P.S. Sorry about the introduced stuff e.g. Starling etc. ;)

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  7. Wow that's quite the list. My highlight was 1 bald eagle flying over my yard.

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  8. Wow! That is an impressive number of birds.

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  9. How can I attract Pileated Woodpeckers to my yard??

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  10. Jill, the best way I have found is to have a dead tree in your yard. I have even heard of people using rotten logs to attract them with success. Some people are able to attract them with suet, but I have not been able to. They come to a dead stump in the yard. I have heard that Jim's Birdacious® Bark Butter® from Wild Birds Unlimited© is good at attracting them. I have never tried it.

    P.S. - I have NO ties (financial,perks, etc.) to WBU whatsoever!

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