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Great Backyard Birdcount

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hard to believe it is already February. It has been a very busy month. For many of you in the U.S., this is a holiday weekend due to President’s Day. If you have some extra time on your hands due to the holiday, consider signing up for the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada, this event invites people worldwide to take 15 minutes to count birds from wherever they are. Whether you are in your backyard, at a park or just taking a stroll, consider entering your observations this weekend. This event helps scientists and bird enthusiasts track bird populations from across the globe.

It takes about 5 minutes to sign up for a free account. After that, you just sign back in and enter your checklist of birds. The site gives you a ready made list of possible birds in your area with links to information about the various bird species in your area to help make positive identifications on birds.

There’s no need to photograph your observations, but to post photos to accompany your observations, you’ll need to upload them to a site, such as your WordPress blog.

For example, this particular sighting of this raptor has me stumped, so I’m posting it here to upload with my checklist.

The count continues through tomorrow, 2/17/14, so there is still plenty of time to participate. Just visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ to get started.

Happy Bird Watching!

Nicole

February 16, 2014

Announcements, Miscellaneous, Photography

Birding, birds, Birdwatching, Great Backyard Birdcount, nature, Photos

5 responses to “Great Backyard Birdcount”

ideflex

February 16, 2014 at 1:41 pm

“Stumped” is a good word to use – a hawk made an extremely rare and unexpected appearance in our very urban back yard in the middle of the day just last week. I wonder if they’re hungry?

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1. Nicole
  
  February 17, 2014 at 6:26 pm
  
  Definitely they are hungry. I’ve had different hawks and falcons come through my yard hoping to catch a smaller bird for a meal. I’m in a fairly urban area but let’s face it, I’m still in the middle of a desert so these types of birds are not uncommon around here. Shoot, I typically see a vulture or two whenever I visit the big mall down the street from my house. In your case, the hawk may be having issues finding prey and is trying a different location.
  
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  1. ideflex
    
    February 18, 2014 at 8:24 am
    
    That’s what I’m guessing as well – we do have a good-sized peregrine falcon population living in the high-rise office buildings downtown but I’ve never seen this type in my neighbourhood!
    
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supernova1c

February 18, 2014 at 1:25 am

Hey Nicole, how are you doing?
Do you think it could be a Coopers Hawk? Spectacular bird to have in your yard in any case 🙂
Take care my friend, regards James x

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1. Nicole
  
  February 18, 2014 at 6:53 am
  
  I am thinking it could be a Cooper’ s or Sharp Shinned hawk. It is harder for me to identify the raptors because they do move so fast. I was just lucky to snap a shot of this one. Hopefully the Audubon people will be able to tell from the photos.
  
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