Low Count and Reality Check

Hope everyone in the U.S. enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. I was out of town for a few days and didn't return until late Saturday afternoon. My Project FeederWatch count days are Saturday and Sunday so I only had a couple of hours of daylight to count Saturday. The number of birds was way down despite the beautiful weather. The highlight Saturday was this White-breasted Nuthatch.


The only other birds I saw were a couple of House Finches, a lone Mourning Dove and an unidentified Hawk species. It flew into the "birdy" magnolia tree in the neighbor's yard. Wonder if that kept the birds away?

Today there was only a one hour period where the birds showed up in numbers, but I only saw an additional eight more species bringing the total number to 12 for the weekend. A picture of one of the Carolina Wrens that visited, then the total count list for the weekend.




Checklist for FeederWatch Missouri Birds

• hawk sp. 1 Confirmed
• Mourning Dove 4
• Downy Woodpecker 2
• Northern Flicker 1
• Blue Jay 4
• Carolina Chickadee 2
• Tufted Titmouse 4
• White-breasted Nuthatch 1
• Carolina Wren 2
• Northern Cardinal 6
• Common Grackle 15
• House Finch 4 (0 with eye disease)

• TOTAL 12 species / 46 individuals

Last week I "celebrated" a milestone birthday: 50. I have no problem with it. It's just a number, you know. But when I visited my Mom, she presented me with the mailing from AARP. I'm not a senior citizen; I am no where near retiring. So why do they have to send these to 50 year olds? Guess, like every other organization, they need the money.


What baffles me up is that they mailed it to my Mom's house. 300 miles away. I've never lived there. My name has never been linked to that address in any way. I think the AARP mail administrators must be senile.

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Grackle Mornings

Second week of PFW wasn't as active as the first, but still a pretty good showing with 15 species and 58 individuals. The total individuals count was boosted by the 20 (or so) Common Grackles that showed up early Sunday morning.

Apparently there is a place about a mile from my house where the Grackles roost every night. When the sun starts to rise at about 6:30 you can hear them waking up and their calls start getting louder and louder. Eventually they take off and fly in the direction of my house. The noise they create is amazing as they disperse to wherever they go for the day. Sunday morning, they made a stop across the street at a neighbor's house. They were behind a tall fence so I couldn't gauge how many were there, but it had to be at least a couple hundred.

But about 20 of them stopped in my oak tree so I was able to count them for Project FeederWatch. I knew they were up there when the acorns started raining down! Good thing my patio is covered or it would have felt like a hail storm on my noggin.

Here's the total count for the weekend.

Project FeederWatch Count for Nov 21 & 22

• Mourning Dove 5
• Downy Woodpecker 1
• Blue Jay 5
• Carolina Chickadee 1
• Tufted Titmouse 3
• White-breasted Nuthatch 1
• Carolina Wren 1
• American Robin 3
• Northern Mockingbird 1
• Dark-eyed Junco 3
• Northern Cardinal 6
• Common Grackle 20
• House Finch 6 (0 with eye disease)
• American Goldfinch 1 (0 with eye disease)
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow 1

• Totals 15 Species / 58 Individuals

I didn't take any bird pictures, but it's been a while since I posted photos of the Lucy & Topaz. Not the best photo, but it sure shows how much Topaz (on the left) has grown over the past few months.



And she's not nearly as ornery as she appears here.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!!

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Great Start to Project FeederWatch

Yesterday started my sixth season to count birds for Project FeederWatch and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There were a total of 18 species to visit my feeder area at the new house. This is significantly more than seen at the apartment last year when I was lucky to see double digit species and the average was maybe six. The 18 species this weekend is even higher than seen during the last season at the old house.

What is even more amazing is the lack of birds that tend to commandeer the feeders such as house sparrows, grackles, starlings and house finches. I hope this continues throughout the winter, but I don't dare tempt fate. I'm sure it could change at a moment's notice as the weather changes.

The first day, Saturday, was beautiful with sun all day and temps in the upper 60's (F). Early there was a flurry of Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice coming to the feeders and taking seeds to stash around the yard.

Carolina Wren

Today was overcast and colder. Bird activity was very low in the morning but picked up in mid-afternoon. The larger birds noisily and furiously dominated the scene as the American Robins appeared to be defending their territory in the neighbor's magnolia tree from Blue Jays, a Mockingbird and Grackles.

Carolina Chickadee

The total count this weekend:

• Mourning Dove 3
• Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
• Downy Woodpecker 2
• Northern Flicker 1
• Blue Jay 2
• Carolina Chickadee 3
• Tufted Titmouse 5
• Carolina Wren 2
• American Robin 12
• Northern Mockingbird 1
• White-throated Sparrow 4
• Dark-eyed Junco 4
• Northern Cardinal 9
• Common Grackle 2
• House Finch 4 (0 with eye disease)
• American Goldfinch 1 (0 with eye disease)
• House Sparrow 2
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow 3

• TOTAL: 18 Species & 61 Individuals
  

Tufted Titmouse

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