Friday, February 12, 2010

Bird Week: Start of the Great Backyard Bird Count

This is our entry for the Outdoor Hour Challenge-Winter Series #7 Winter Birds.


Our official count for Friday, February 12th:
3 Western scrub jays
12 Juncos
2 Spotted towhees
4 White-crowned sparrows
1 Titmouse
6 House finches
1 California towhee (unusual since we always see them in pairs except for today)
5 House sparrows
1 Anna's hummingbird
1 American robin
1 White-breasted nuthatch

White-breasted nuthatch 2
The white-breasted nuthatch is my favorite little bird right now. He is so acrobatic and he creeps up and down the trunks of trees. If you follow the link to All About Birds for the nuthatch, listen to the Pacific song and that is exactly what this bird sings to me just about every time I head outdoors.

We really enjoyed our counting of birds today since the sun was out and the air was warm. We have new binoculars for this year's count and we all took a turn at scoping out the backyard feeders from the window. We were surprised to see the hummingbird, but it has not been totally unusual to see one or two at the feeder off and on all winter.

For the most part, all of these birds are permanent residents. The robin was singing so perhaps this is his home territory. We did not see our Nuttall's woodpecker that comes to our feeder just about every day which is disappointing that we can't count him in our tally. We will be counting again tomorrow so perhaps he will make an appearance then.

When were out for our walk today, Mr. A saw a red-tailed hawk. I saw two Canadian geese. They both are year round residents in our neighborhood.

Here is a short video that has our resident titmouse singing us a song from the top of a tree. He has so much sound for such a little guy. We call any titmouse "Speedy" because they are such fast little creatures.


This was a good bird day.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom