Christmastime and the GBBC

Christmas is coming fast and with that comes the inaugural Seth and Michelle's "Drive Around for a Couple of Hours on Roads That We Don't Know and Look for a Christmas Tree Farm Day"!! WoooHoooo! Actually, we had a great time and we ended up only making 5 U-turns. We ended up at Zurbrugg Farms up on Germantown Rd. They were extremely warm and friendly and we found the perfect tree (with pics to come)! We use Christmas as reason #1,612 to spoil our pups!

Onto other matters....

The 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up Feb. 13th-16th, 2009! This is another joint citizen science project by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society! This is similar to Project FeederWatch, only the Great Backyard Bird Count lasts only 4 days. It's completely free and the only thing thing that the program asks of you is that you spend at least 15 minutes during one of those four days counting the birds in your backyard. But, you can count as long as you like! Let's see, 24 hours a day x 4 days = 96 total hours that you could count. Just think! But seriously, 15 minutes is all they ask over four days. Not too bad.

I could ramble on and on (which I have already done), but instead I'll post some links to different parts of the GBBC website and let you see for yourself. It really is a neat site to visit.

onto the photos...


At the Christmas tree farm we saw quite a few Juncos. This little guy sat and posed for a few minutes.

After getting our tree home (again, the PERFECT tree), our eldest dog Lilly stood underneath the tree and slowly walked around in circles.

Our only guess is that she likes the way the branches scratch her back. Whatever the reason, it's extremely funny to watch!

Look! We had a Cardinal in our living room!! Well, we can pretend can't we?

Here is the link to the home page of the GBBC http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ This is a great starting point and should answer most of your questions.

Follow this link http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/results and explore the results from previous years. You can do everything from an overall search to a very detailed report. Kinda fun!

Or you can visit http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery and take a look at the participant's photo galleries from over the years. This is also great fun, especially to see how much better the photos have gotten over the last decade.

Here's the link for this one http://www.audubonportland.org/about/newsletter/dec08/at_download/file (Thanks to our friend Rural Chatter at http://ruralchatter.blogspot.com/ ) but it's an article about the Great Backyard Bird Count that is in the Dec/Jan edition of the (Portland, OR) Warbler. It is actually my first published article! It's not exactly going to win me The Pulitzer, but I was very excited that the Audubon included it in their newsletter. You can pick up the Warbler at many local bird stores or at the Portland Audubon Society. There is also an accompanying article about the Christmas Bird Count (starting later this month). If any one is interested in taking part of the Christmas Bird Count this year, please go here http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc/

First FeederWatching Weekend

Happy Monday to all! Well, the first weekend of Project FeederWatch was fairly good. The weather wasn't that great but the birds still came in to see us! We had quite a few visitors and went through a ton a of seed.

It's been great to hear about all the people who have signed up for Project FeederWatch for the first time! We can never have enough birders!

So, here are a few photos from the yard. Hope you enjoy and remember, it's never too late to sign up for Project FeederWatch!




The Northern Flicker is one of our most reliable visitors!


A Bewick's Wren. They don't come into the yard on a regular basis but they are always a welcome sight! He was hanging around with a Spotted Towhee. It's the first time we have seen the Towhee this season!


Ummmm...Excuse me, sir...but you seem to have something on your lip. Juncos are always entertaining.


The House Finches came in flocks this weekend! Not nearly as big of flocks as the Pine Siskins but still quite numerous!

Project FeederWatch!!

It's almost time for another season of Project FeederWatch! November 8, 2008 is the start of the winter-long survey. Being a Citizen Scientist is a lot easier and more rewarding than you might think. This is a joint venture of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Bird Studies Canada, the National Audubon Society and the Canadian Nature Federation and it's a great way to contribute to the birds that you love and enjoy so much!

All that you have to do is sign up here:https://secure.birds.cornell.edu/eCommerce/FeederWatch/Start.do, wait for the packet to come to you in the mail and then start counting and reporting! There is a $15 dollar participation fee, but you not only get membership into the program but you also get a Research Kit, which contains instructions, a bird identification poster, a wall calendar, a resource guide to bird feeding, and data forms! Not only do you get these items but you are TRULY helping with the conservation and protection efforts that go on year round! You just need to sit back, relax and count some of your backyard friends.

It really is a great program and I would love to see a bunch of new participants this year! Here is a good page to start on: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/Overview/over_index.html It will answer a lot of the questions you have, but the entire site is full of other information and a ton of photos.


Here's a neat link. You can explore all sorts of data that has been collected over the years.
http://watch.birds.cornell.edu/PFW/ExploreData?cmd=stateReport


With this link you can look at all the Rare Bird reports (and accompanying photos) from over the project's lifetime. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/DataRetrieval/rare_index.html


This link will show you the Top 25 Feeder Birds (with ranking number) from over the years. You can see how some birds have become much more popular while others have declined over time. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/DataRetrieval/top25_index.html


This link will take you to all of the photos from birders around the Continent!
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/Members/FeaturedPhotos/FeaturedPhotoIndex.htm


And here is the link to their Home Page
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/index.html