The Great Backyard Bird Count.

This week the annual bird count is taking place and although I am not someone who goes out specifically to “bird watch” I have been keeping a closer eye on our bird feeders this week. I also took the time to report one days visitors to Ebird where you can find list of all the birds seen in the area.

We have a steady stream of birds coming to our feeders situated within a couple of feet from our kitchen and living room windows and have come to recognize individual birds in some cases, this makes it a little easier to get an accurate count of the number of each individual species seen in some cases. Most of the birds seen this week listed below are regular visitors, most several time an hour or in the case of the Chickadees every couple of minutes.

First those little pigs the Chickadees, we have at least 8 having seen that many at or near the one feeder at any given moment but given the coming and goings at both feeders I suspect the total number is double that or more. Its imposable to tell.
We have a male & female Downy Woodpecker and last years youngster just recently identified as a male (either that or there is also a female youngster) and the same of a Hairy Woodpecker family whose youngster we watched being 'taught' to come to the feeder last summer by his parents.
We have at least two Red Breasted Nuthatches and dito White Breasted Nuthatches, its hard to identify individuals so there could be more coming and going and cant say if male or female. Our regular Red Breasted Woodpecker is clearly Male and after several years of visiting is now much more comfortable with our presence the other side of the window.

Thats all the daily visitors but this week we also had a Goldfinch or two drop in, a couple of Crows announcing an early spring from nearby tree tops. Our pair of Cardinals drop in once in a while but we have not seen them this week or the pair of Rock Doves that we often see, but the darn Red Squirrel who raids the feeder when our dog Nikki is not looking still tries to sneak in once in a while. The only surprise there is that we still have a window left given Nikki's objection to his presence when seen from in our living room!

There are no unexpected visitors on our list but you may be sure we will be looking for those early spring visitors those usually being the Sparrows and Finches. Just cant wait......... for spring AND the birds!


Visit http://ebird.org/ebird/subnational2/CA-ON-GR?yr=all for recent sightings in Grey Bruce.