The Nature of Things

Presidents Day weekend is quickly approaching and that means, yes, it's time to count the birds again! This year will mark the 22nd annual count that is held in February and I have participated in most of them. It is a fun, free, and interesting way to learn about the birds that populate your part of the world in mid-winter (for some - late winter here) and to provide scientists with valuable data which helps them to evaluate the status of bird populations and changes in birds' winter movements.  Anyone can do it. Counting and reporting take no particular expertise. One takes at little as 15 minutes to observe and tabulate the birds in a particular area and then goes to the website, birdcount.org , registers the site, and reports. The website is user-friendly and walks you through the steps. The count takes place over four days, Friday through Monday. You can choose to report on any of those days or on every day and, as I said, you can count for as little as 15 minutes o...

The annual late winter count of birds is over. I spent a part of every day of the four-day weekend counting the birds in my own backyard.  I did my count while working in the yard, so I can't say that I was entirely focused on birds. Still, the count was pretty successful, with a total of twenty-eight species turning out to be counted. Unfortunately, as always, there were some species that show up regularly in the yard but didn't make an appearance during the weekend and so don't appear on my census. The first birds to appear on my count were, not surprisingly, the ever-present White-winged Doves . And the last one, recorded late yesterday, was a particularly colorful Pine Warbler . Looks like he's about ready for spring. In between, here's a list of everything that I saw in, around, or flying over my yard. Black Vulture Turkey Vulture  Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk White-winged Dove Mourning Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker East...

The weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count concluded on Monday, Presidents' Day. The count had participants from around the world. You can check out the reports from any area that interests you by visiting the GBBC website . My personal count was a bit hit or miss, not my most successful GBBC experience. I was busy gardening on three of the days, so I combined gardening with bird counting and I'm sure I missed some. On the last day of the count, we had heavy rains so that put a bit of a damper ( sorry! ) on my counting. Overall, I managed to find 24 species around my yard. In my best years of counting, I've had more than 30 and there were probably that many or more here this year, but they didn't show themselves to be counted. So, here's what I saw. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk White-winged Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Eastern Phoebe Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted ...

Mrs. Cardinal says, "The Great Backyard Bird Count is underway. Why aren't you out counting birds?" Yes, this is the weekend of the big count. It starts today and runs through Presidents' Day on Monday. Participating couldn't be easier. Just note the birds in your yard or in some other public or private space which you designate and then go to the website and report what you've seen. You don't have to be an ornithologist or even an expert birder. Just be able to recognize the birds in your area by sight or by referring to a bird field guide. And if there are some you can't identify, well, you can report that, too. This is important, because the information collected by citizen scientists, when collated, helps ornithologists to determine the winter movements of birds and the health of bird populations. Are populations declining or booming? This count will help to tell the tale. So, get off the sofa, grab you binoculars and go out and count! You might s...

This year's four-day Great Backyard Bird Count wrapped up on President's Day, February 15, but if you haven't reported your count yet, you can still do it until March 1.  I mentioned here in an earlier post about a bird walk at Brazos Bend State Park that I took on Saturday of the count. I counted 18 species of birds during that jaunt. But I also spent time on the other days observing the birds in my own yard. My designated observation area includes my one-half acre yard plus my next door neighbors' backyard. Their backyard has several large pine trees that attract many woodland birds, such as woodpeckers, so I like to include it in my observations in order to increase my number of species. I ended my weekend count with a total of thirty-two species. This includes birds that were present in my designated area or were flying over the area. There was no lack of Northern Cardinals in my count. They are regular visitors to my feeders. The female cardinal, with her softer...

There's a big weekend coming up. No, not just President's Day with all the stores trying to lure you in with their giant, once-in-a-lifetime sales. It's even bigger than that, at least for us birders. It's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count .  This will be the 19th such annual count of birds, a citizen science project that aims to find out just where the birds are and how they are doing in mid-winter. The count used to take place only in North America, but a couple of years ago, it went worldwide and now helps to track bird distribution all around the globe. There are participants on every continent - except perhaps Antarctica. And who knows? Maybe this year someone will chime in from there as well. There is special interest this year because of the big El  Niño  event in the Pacific. It has disrupted weather patterns, heating up the ocean, and warming many areas that are normally cold at this time of year, and scientists are predicting that there may be a fe...

A disappointing 2015 Great Backyard Bird Count has come to an end for me. While the first three days of the count featured fair to excellent weather and birding conditions, this last day was a bit of a wash - literally. It was wet and cold which resulted in my being able to spend only about thirty minutes actually looking at birds. I doubt if it would have mattered much if I'd been able to spend more time. There just weren't that many birds to see. My weekend of birding in my yard ended with a total of 28 species. I also spent an hour or so on Saturday at Brazos Bend State Park and found 21 species. Even at the park, which is usually a very birdy place, there were not a lot of birds to be seen. As of 6:00 P.M. this afternoon, my yard ranked 187th overall among the sites that had reported, but counts are still being entered and tabulated so that is almost sure to change. Birders will still be sending in their reports until the end of the month when data collection is closed. Of...

(Cross-posted from Backyard Birder .) How did you spend your Presidents' Day weekend? I spent mine counting birds. Yes, this was the weekend for the annual  Great Backyard Bird Count , an activity that has now gone global. Beginning last year, the Count started accepting reports not just from North America but from all around the world. When I last checked the website, reports had been received this year from every continent except Antarctica. Participants count birds in their own yards or other designated places. This year, I counted birds in my yard as I always do, and on Saturday I also did a count at Brazos Bend State Park. We had a family cookout there to celebrate our older daughter's birthday, and, of course, I insisted that we go on a bird walk after lunch. In fact, the highlight of my weekend counting came on that walk. It was around 3:00 in the afternoon and we were walking around Forty-Acre Lake when we heard two  Barred Owls  calling to each other in the woods...

Yes, it is just a few days now until the annual  Great Backyard Bird Count   begins. Are you ready to count? It's easy - and free - to participate. You just go to the website and sign on. Then count the birds in a specific area - it can be your yard or a public area like a park - and report them on the site. Then watch the map fill up with reports from around the country, and, this year, from around the world. In the past, the bird count only included the United States and Canada, but this year it is going global. I am really excited to be able to see those counts from all over the world. But really the ones that excite me most are the ones from my neighborhood and state. It's always interesting to see what other birders in my area are reporting. Scientists can determine much about the health of various bird populations by analyzing the data from the bird count from year to year. Even a layperson like myself learns about the movement of birds in her area by looking at those nu...

This weekend marks the fifteenth annual Great Backyard Bird Count . This event is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. Thousands of people with an interest in birds from all over North America and the State of Hawaii go into their yards or to some public space over the four day weekend and watch and count birds and then report what they have seen on the GBBC website. Participation is free and is open to anyone, regardless of their level of expertise about birds. This is one of several citizen science projects related to birds or butterflies that take place throughout the year and in which I participate. I have to admit, though, that this is probably my favorite of all. This is my ninth year to participate since 2003. (I've only missed one year, 2004, due a death in my family.) My designated count area is my suburban garden and I count on all four days of the event. I try to spend as much time as possible outside observing ...

We interrupt this blog for this important event: Yes, it's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count and I'll be picking up my binoculars to count the birds in my yard. Why don't you join me by counting the birds in your area and entering your information on the website? It's fun, it's free, and the information provided can help ornithologists determine how to best assist our birds. If you enjoy birds, here's a way you can help them. (You can follow my weekend bird counts at Backyard Birder .)

For many birders in Canada and the United States, this is the week we have been anticipating for months now. In just a few days, we will begin one of our favorite citizen science projects, the Great Backyard Bird Count . Every year on Presidents' Day weekend, thousands of birders across the continent, and across the ocean in Hawaii, take part in this four-day-long census of birds. It is a survey to find out just where the birds are at mid-winter and how they are faring. By this time, the migrants have settled in their winter homes but have not yet started their spring flight north, so this count can give a very good idea of numbers as well as the health of the bird population before it disperses to its breeding grounds. This will be the thirteenth year that the count has taken place. It has grown substantially in the number of participants each year and ranks with the Christmas Bird Count in its popularity and importance in the birding community. The GBBC is a joint project of...

This year's Great Backyard Bird Count is history, but we will have to wait until after March 1 for all the data reports to be finalized. Participants can still report their counts up until that date, so until then we won't know whether this will be another record-breaking year for the popular mid-winter bird survey. If I had to guess, I would say that this probably will not be a record-breaker. The severe weather in many places probably limited some counters' efforts, so we may fall a little short of the record of 634 species that were reported in the 2008 count. As for my own personal count, I ended the weekend with a total of 28 species, not a record-breaking year for me, either. There were several species that are regularly seen in my yard that did not show up during the weekend - birds like the little Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the Eastern Bluebird . I didn't even see a Black Vulture or a Red-tailed Hawk flying over my yard, even though in the usual course of events,...

As a certified bird geek myself, one who is never happier than when outside, binoculars in hand, gazing at some feathered phenomenon, this is absolutely one of my favorite weekends of the year. It is Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July all wrapped up together. Yes, this is Great Backyard Bird Count weekend. The count starts today, Friday, and continues all the way through Monday, Presidents' Day. It takes place every year on this weekend, and I have been looking forward to it now since Christmas. In the event that you are among the uninitiated, here's a little background. The GBBC is a joint project of the National Audubon Society , Bird Studies Canada , and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology . It is a citizen science project. People with all levels of skills in birding, from beginners to experts, participate. There is no charge for participating. All you have to do is observe and count the birds in your yard or at some alternate site and then report what you s...