The Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are.

And for the first time, this year participants from all over the world will be able to submit checklists, so my dad in England will be able to join in too.

The following is taken from the GBBC website:

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Everyone is welcome--from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.

Participants tally the number of individual birds of each species they see during their count period and enter these numbers on the GBBC website.

All you have to do is set up a free GBBC account to submit your checklists or use login information from an existing account if you've taken part before. Visit the How to Participate page for more details.

As the count progresses, anyone with Internet access can explore what is being reported from their own towns or, for the first time this year,  from anywhere in the world.

Participants may also send in photographs of the birds they see for the GBBC photo contest. A selection of images is posted in the online photo gallery.

Why count birds?

Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

Scientists use the GBBC information, along with observations from other citizen-science projects, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and eBird, to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations.

The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping scientists investigate far-reaching questions, like these:
• How will the weather influence bird populations?

• Where are winter finches and other “irruptive” species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?

• How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?

• How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

• What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

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I know in our particular garden, our bird population has been greatly affected by the loss of habitat around us.  Thankfully, there's still a hedgerow on the other side of the road behind our house.  If that goes, I'm sure the rest of the birds will be gone too :-(

It will be interesting to see how this year's numbers stack up against the previous three years that I have participated.




Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Share and Share Alike

Quite often, when I look outside, I'll see a squirrel on the wall or fence, sitting on his haunches, chowing down on the seeds I put out for the birds.  My husband jokes that they are just ignoring the "No Squirrels Allowed" sign.

I really don't mind, I find them quite entertaining.  I could sit and watch them for hours -- well, I do, sometimes.

I was even more amused yesterday, when I happened to see something I hadn't seen before --  a Mourning Dove standing on the squirrel feeder, helping himself.

A little while later, there was a Blue Jay out there, also pecking over the remains of the morning's squirrel breakfast.

But the squirrels had the last laugh. I couldn't believe my eyes when I was heading outdoors with my coffee and saw this young lady IN the birdfeeder!

Life is never dull around here.  I hope that doesn't change when our subdivision, as yet less than one quarter built out, gets filled in.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Buffet for the Birds

I had to work last weekend, uploading some content to a website I help produce, and as I was sitting a my desk, the birds outside kept me entertained with their antics.

I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and taking some photos out the window.  Not the best quality ( I really need to follow the Backyard Bird Photography Tips I found at Robin's Nesting Place) but I wanted to share them anyway.



This red-bellied woodpecker got me out of bed this morning!  I woke up when I heard him outside and realized there were probably a lot of cold and hungry birds out there.



This Northern Cardinal was quite happy to share breakfast with the Chipping Sparrows.




I didn't count as many Chipping Sparrows today as I did yesterday, but there were still plenty of them.




This Mourning Dove was grateful that I had melted the solid block of ice that had been in the birdbath.



Every now and then, among all the Chipping Sparrows, I caught sight of other birds -- Carolina Chickadees, that I can never get a photo of, House Wrens, etc.  I thought this little guy, that I hadn't seen before, might be a goldfinch in winter plumage, but my fellow garden bloggers on HoustonGrows told me it's a Pine Warbler.