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Great Backyard Bird Count

10 years ago

Four days in February, 14 - 17, that's the date of the 2014 GBBC. Hope you guys are planning to keep an eye out for some feathered signs of spring?

And I'll include here the winning photos of the 2013 contests. As good a photographer most of you are, limber up the old trigger finger for hosta pips by catching some peepers coming to your backyard, or nearby.

Oh, I do hope I can catch the pair of bluebirds who were testing out their nest box last week...but disappeared when the weather turned frigid again. For the count, I really want to include them, and the seeming thousands of goldfinches growing fat on black oil sunflower seeds in my garden.

It is going to be a lovely spring in the garden, I just know it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winning photos GBBC 2013

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Comments (5)

hosta_freak
10 years ago
I see native birds at my feeders even now,after the snowstorm ,so what are you talkng about ?Phil
User
Original Author
10 years ago
Phil, I hope you can participate in the GBBC this year, or try to catch a picture of the natives around your garden. This is like the Avian Winter Olympics.

You might wind up submitting a great photo to the 2014 photos for the GBBC that is a winner. I'd love to see a cardinal sitting on the rim of your jade ginger jar..... They are all getting calories to keep warm during these final weeks of winter. If you see any really FAT birds in the next couple of weeks, they'll be from my backyard! I'll be sending them your way before long.
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The GBBC started today and this screenshot of a map shows the checklists submitted as of about 7:20 PM: There are even some checklists submitted from Antartica. Claire
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Usually I count at a few local spots as well as from my windows, but I thought twice about it this year. When I thought third, though, I realized I need to start up my car anyway and drive when it gets really cold (I don't have a garage) so I decided to check one of those spots by car (in warmer winters I walk there). I drove to the marsh and took pictures from the side of the road. This is my local marsh where I saw about thirty Mallards and thirty-five Dunlins today in a very cold setting. The mallards did not look happy. Dunlins very far away: Claire
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The count is continuing - this is the status as of about 6:15 PM Sunday, with one day to go. Black dots are checklists submitted worldwide. Yellow dots are new submissions as they're recorded. You can access the data from any checklist submitted globally; be it from your own state or some faraway country. Claire
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I just want to second what Claire posted here! I just posted info about the GBBC on the forum where I "normally" post, the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum, and I'll add it here since it has a couple links with additional info! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just want to let you all know that it's time for another Great Backyard Bird Count! It starts this Friday, Feb 15 and goes for four days, thru Monday, Feb 18. If you want to participate, all you need to do is keep track of what birds you see for at least 15 minutes on any one of those days--or for 10 hours a day on all of those days!--it's up to you--and then report what you've seen on the GBBC site to have them included in the worldwide bird count. You can count in your own backyard--which is what I do--or you can go to any location you want to to do your counting--it might be a nice day for a hike around your nearest reservoir or a walk at your local park! It helps the birds by showing which birds are where, how migration patterns change over time, and which species might be increasing--or declining. In this age of global warming it helps the people who help the birds to know what's going on! Below are links to the email I got about this year's count, and the FAQs page about the bird count. If you don't "normally" watch and identify birds, you can print out a list of the birds most likely to be seen in your area, and there's plenty of identification info to help you! I hope some of you will decide to participate this year, Skybird https://mailchi.mp/cornell/ngu4k6sy7x?e=cb6f4a5944 http://gbbc.birdcount.org/help-faqs/
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jan_on zone 5b
10 years ago
Mocc -thanks for sharing these. There are some amazing photos here. A lot of those birds are rather exotic for us, but some of them will be in our town come spring, and we may see some of the others while on our road trip to Arizona and California later this month.
Jan
hostanista
10 years ago
I'm in for the count. Did it last year, it was fun! Details here:

Here is a link that might be useful: http://gbbc.birdcount.org/
ryseryse_2004
10 years ago
There is nothing more amazing than seeing a bald eagle fly right across your living room windows. I have 'prow windows' south facing ---- each section is 6'. The eagles that fly close to the windows take up the whole section. Unbelievable. The dogs go nuts.

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