Thanks, Bonnie!

I've never heard of this and am having a great time going over the checklist. There have been a lot of "oh, so That is what that bird is called" and "I saw that one over by the ranch" kind of exclamations going on over here.

I haven't bird-watched since me and my best friend Melissa used to back in...the sixth and seventh grades!!

Such a great thing to post.

Jennifer

Thanks for the heads up, Bonnie. I didn't know they were going to do this every year! I'll need to get ready to count!

Skybird

The big Audubon Christmas bird count is a major social event on the local calendar - they have hundreds of people now doing it here. I didn't do it this year, what with guests over the holidays, but I've done so in the past.

And, we now have an annual spring birding festival. This is a whole lot of fun.

Here is a link that might be useful: our local bird festival

Bumping this to the top, in case anyone has forgotten about it.

Realize also that amateurs are critical in certain scientific disciplines, including astronomy and birding.

The Rocky Mountain News, for example, reported on a finding that we birders and gardeners know - birds are wintering farther north these days. Of course, the Rocky doesn't like to report on Global Warming, so I must link to the Post for the story.

Dan

Well, I took the boys out for some bird watching today. They were bundled up like eskimos, since it was snowing lightly, but they had their binoculars ready. The little princess stayed home with Daddy : )

We counted a total of 36 Canadian Geese
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2 Bald Eagles, one male, and the other was either a juvenile or a female. I was only able to get a shot of the male, but by the time my camera was ready, he had landed on the other side of the river, so I couldn't get a close up of him. I sure wish my camera took clearer long shots!
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We also saw close to 70 blackbirds
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One Magpie, and a couple of other birds that we couldn't get close enough to identify.

Last year, we were walking through 8" - 10" of snow, and this year, there were just a few patches left on the ground.

Anyone else see anything cool this weekend?

Bonnie

I had a bumper crop today! I could hardly believe it! I think it was at least partly because it didnÂt get above freezing all day, and I always have water available for them.

I think at least 30 of your blackbirds made it over the Divide, Bonnie! I spent half the day chasing them away from my feeders! They eat all my expensive seedÂand scare away all the birds I WANT to see!

In addition to the blackbirds I had:

My usual 2 to 3 dozen House Finches

About a half a dozen House Sparrows that show up and eat a little suet every now and then

My usual 2 Northern Flickers

My usual 2 Hairy Woodpeckers

2 Blue Jays that show up every now and then

2 Eurasian Collared Doves

And I even saw 1 of my much-watched-for chickadees today! Some day IÂll get a good following of them at this house!

AND Â I still can hardly believe this, but I had every Robin in Denver in my backyard! There were at least 14 of them, and I think there were more, but that was as many as I could count at the same time! A couple times there were up to 10 on and around my bird bath at the same time! It was incredible! It seemed like my whole backyard was filled with themÂand it WAS! Usually the most I see at one time is 4Âsometimes 6 Â but NEVER that many at the same time! IÂm convinced now that I WILL have a pair in the nest on top of my electric box again in spring.

IÂll be watching again tomorrow, but I donÂt think thereÂs any chance at all that IÂll see as many as I did today.

Anybody else?

Skybird

Skybird, you didn't get all the robins, I had two. I also had a make kestrel and a male flicker of interest. I don't consider Canadas or pigeons interesting. We don't have enough tree canopy out here yet for the synanthropics to come in, and humans have chased many of the prairies out... :o(

Oh, we also saw a bunch of crazy birds and lucky duckies at the Mammoth game last night...

Dan

Gonna bump this back up one more time to remind anybody who counted that your count(s) need to be reported by March 1!

Happy birding,
Skybird