I just got a reminder email about the GBBC: "Project FeederWatch Electronic Newsletter February 12, 2007 The tenth annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is coming up February 16-19. Help create a mid-winter snapshot of where the birds are by counting birds at any location for at least 15 minutes on one or more of the count days. Last year, participants recorded more than 7.5 million birds of 622 species across the United States and Canada and submitted 60,503 checklists, just a few hundred shy of an all-time record! Help put your birds and your community on the map. Enter your tallies on the Great Backyard Bird Count web site to share your results and to be automatically entered in a prize drawing for binoculars, bird books, bird feeders, and more. Visit http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc to see the results, view the photo gallery, or enter your counts. If your Project FeederWatch (PFW) count days fall during the GBBC, you must send your tallies to the GBBC web site in addition to PFW if you want to see your numbers to appear in the GBBC results for your locality and state. The rules for counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count are a little different than for FeederWatch. For the Great Backyard Bird Count you can report any birds you see, even those birds flying overhead that don't count for FeederWatch. You can also submit a separate checklist for each locale on every day that you count. Thanks for your help in letting us know where the birds are during the GBBC weekend! ********************************************************** " Claire

I just figured out the dearth of birds in my yard---for today at least! Just went out to cover my WS stuff and tuck it back into its corner, and then took a walk around the yard to pet some of my spring bulbs and toasted perennials, and, lo and behold: a pile of feathers! Not sure how I missed it, but at some point today a hawk or falcon came for a visit---and a meal! I even found a foot with a bloody leg attached where it had been ripped off of the body! It was a house finch that "it" got, but I really wonder what IT was! Apparently even if I didn't see it, the birds did! Overall I had a very "slow" day. Never saw more than one robin at a time, but I did see both the male and female hairy woodpeckers, and I did see ONE goldfinch! Really hoping for better luck tomorrow---for me AND the birds! Bonnie, when I first moved up to this end of town 120th was the "end" of the city, and it was wild and wooly up here with big old cottonwoods over the fields of prairie dogs along 120th. At the time I was working at the garden center in Westminster where I was before Paulino's, and I took 120th all the way down to Federal, and then Federal south to 92nd. It was common for me to count a dozen bald eagles along the way between home and work! WAY cool! Now, of course, it's all citified and there are no more big, old trees or empty fields---and no more eagles! I'm guessin' they've all moved over to Rocky Mountain Arsenal! The Birds! The Birds! Skybird

Oh, lisa11310, that's exasperating! I had my usual feeder birds plus turkeys, with a surprise appearance of two Common Grackles and a Northern Mockingbird on Friday. They must have been migrating through because I haven't seen them since. I submitted those feeder counts but also made a few forays to local watery spots to see what was around. This is the fifth year in a row I've reported Green-winged Teal in the Ellisville Harbor State Park. It's near the upper limit of their winter range and I've learned where and when to find them slurping mud on the mudflats. Eighteen teal this year. My other main project was seeing if I could find a large flock of Common Eiders that might be floating with the current on the Cape Cod Canal. On my second stop along the Canal (at the Rail Road Bridge) I found a few Common Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loons. Common Eiders Red-breasted Merganser Common Loon I hit the jackpot on my third stop at the Mass Maritime Academy where there were around 250 Common Eiders floating around. There may have been a few other species of birds in there but I didn't see any. I couldn't really photograph the scene but I tried. Believe me, there were a lot of Common Eiders there - maybe that's why they're named "common". Today is my usual Project FeederWatch count so I'll submit those counts to GBBC too. I'm still hoping for the first Red-winged Blackbirds to arrive, but time is running out. Claire

Hi Claire and Jud, Yeah, you both are right about the redpolls being around a lot- been having a flock of about 20 come by frequently everyday. I have to give an update now because I've uploaded some videos on youtube since the last time I posted here. Can you believe I'm having problems once again now with this Sony camera. Like the other two cameras, the focus has issues, it wants to work when it wants to. Here is a recent video i did on the redpolls and you wil see what I'm talking about (otherwise it's a good camera)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klb44uKe6Z0 Here is two redpolls that stay together all the time, away from the flock, I named them 'Sue and 'Lou'. They are a funny pair- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UelrTOoY0U Here is the red breasted nuthatch, I named him 'Zippy" ê - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVYPQ5FpBDw Remember I mentioned about the flock of dark birds with the long beak coming around a whole bunch? Well, I found out they are European Starlings. I have one in particular that comes by many times a day and talks- I named it 'Centra'- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-j6gXSQ9FM I still see the ones with the black top and black going down the chest, just haven't caught a clear photo on camera yet. I ended up naming the raven too- I named him 'Rav'. He comes by too and talks a lot. He is one cool raven and funny too- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyaWHIN_lM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2R7k7tjle0. I'll be posting a short video of Crooked Beak, Squeaker and baby soon. Ed