The Great Backyard Bird Count

Hey! If you want something fun to do with your kids, or need a chance to get outside, the Great Backyard Bird Count is this coming weekend! It's a great opportunity to do some citizen science, and have a good time.

For more information you can check out their web site at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

It is really quite simple, you just find a place where you can watch birds for at least 15 minutes (ie. your yard, a park, a wildlife preserve, and count the highest number of each species that you see at one time. Keep track of your findings and then enter them before March 1 on the web site. Scientists have been using the results of these surveys for years to help them keep track of changes in various bird populations. The bird count goes from Feb. 12 to Feb. 15 and it's a fun activity for anyone.

The Grand Total

Well, band season and the holidays really got me. Sorry, I should repent and be a better blogger. But I didn't quit birding completely and I did manage to see a few more species before the year ended. I ended up with 127 species. My friend Lupe managed to get 150-something (I'll have to double check on the exact number) which is right around what we thought it was possible to get if you bird every weekend and have a decent migration. Anyway, I thought I'd finish off last year with this female Vermilion Flycatcher that has been hanging around the Bird Preserve. I haven't ventured outside today, so I haven't seen the first bird of 2010, but I'm off to the Bird Preserve in the morning. Tomorrow will be fun, everything will be new for the year! Yeah!

HBVP Birds I Saw in 2009

January 3 (38 species)
Snow Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Gambel's Quail
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Greater Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Costa's Hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Verdin
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Abert's Towhee
White-crowned Sparrow
Great-tailedGrackle
House Finch
January 10 (46 species)
Bewick's Wren
Say's Phoebe
American Pippit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Green Heron
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Ross's Goose
Dunlin
January 17 (49 species)
Canada Goose
Prairie Falcon
Northern Flicker
January 24 (55 species)
Redhead
Snowy Egret
Peregrine Falcon
Anna's Hummingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Song Sparrow
January 31 (58 species)
Common Goldeneye
Marsh Wren
Crissal Thrasher
February 7 (63 species)
Double-crested Cormorant
Killdeer
Tree Swallows
Western Sandpiper
Cassin's Kingbird
February 14 (66 species)
American Wigeon
Virginia Rail
Sora
February 21 (67 species)
Red-winged Blackbird
February 28 (73 species)
American Avocet
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Common Raven
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
March 14 (76 species)
Barn Swallow
Savannah Sparrow
Yellow-headed Blackbird
April 6 (80 species)
Long-tailed Duck
Golden Eagle
Turkey Vulture
Black-chinned Hummingbird
April 11 (84 species)
Bonaparte's Gull
Black-necked Stilt
Marbled Godwit
Cliff Swallow
April 18 (85 species)
Brown-headed Cowbird
April 25 (90 species)
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
Nashville Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
House Sparrow
May 2 (92 species)
European Starling
Bullock's Oriole
May 9 (97 species)
Rock Dove
Northern Mockingbird
Western Wood Peewee
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
May 22 (102 species)
Western Grebe
Western Kingbird
Hooded Oriole
Blue Grosbeak
Yellow-headed Chat
May 29 (106 species)
Least Bittern
White-faced Ibis
Eurasian Wigeon
Brewer's Sparrow
July 11 (107 species)
Indigo Bunting
July 17, (108 species)
Common Nighthawk
July 18 (111 species)
American Kestrel
Great Blue Heron
Cattle Egret
July 24 (112 species)
Eurasian Collared Dove
July 25 (114 species)
Long-billed Curlew
Great Horned Owl
August 1 (115 species)
Osprey
August 8 (116 species)
Solitary Sandpiper
August 22 (120 species)
Black Tern
Rufous Hummingbird
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
September (121 species)
Gray Flycatcher
October 31 (123 species)
Canvasback
Cooper's Hawk
November 7 (125 species)
American White Pelican
Summer Tanager
December 12 (127 species)
Vermilion Flycatcher
Bushtit