When I taught school, I would do this with my class and pool our results with another staff member. It was always a good excuse to be outdoors in February. One of my favorite memories is of watching a flock of over 100 crows fly over on a blustery day. The crows around here seem to enjoy playing with the wind. I could always find a few mergansers on the river as well.

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

I’m starting to think the herd of “animals” might have been females and adolescents! I definitely know what deer look like, and they’re way too big and don’t look really at all like what I saw. I don’t believe elk were ever that far east—in “modern times” at least—and they definitely weren’t elk anyway, not even females or young ones. The main thing that was so absolutely amazing about “these things” is the way the BOUNDED around—almost as if their “toes” weren’t even touching the ground! They almost looked like they were “floating up and down” they moved so easily across the ground! But because of that I think possibly they “looked smaller” than they really were! They MUST have been female/young antelope! And—Centennial didn’t exist when I lived down thataway! Parker Road was 2-lane too, and there was a stop sign at the intersection of Parker and Arapahoe! And Tagawa was the ONLY thing on the west side of Parker! ALL the rest of the land was Richlawn Turf Farm growing fields! (470 had just been opened and was still free when I was moving away from there!) I don’t even recognize the area when I occasionally get down there—get lost after living there for more than fifteen years! (Smoky Hill was built up already back then—pretty new subdivisions, but all houses already!) (I think Broncos at Dove Valley was just being built when I left!) Love your story about pointing out of a parked Wildlife Viewing Car!” He would have gotten me! [When I was a “kid” I was at the local movie with a friend—it was a horror movie called The Tingler, and we were sitting thru it a second time—theater was the only place that was cool in summer! It really was a dumb movie—the “evil thing” that was supposed to “scare” you looked like a strip of fake fur being pulled around on a piece of thread—and it wasn’t scary at all. Everybody else was screaming “at the appropriate times,” and we couldn’t figure out why! So we decided that we were both going to scream at a time when we knew nothing at all “scary” was gonna be happening! We did, and everybody else in the theater screamed too! We thought it was pretty funny—but then we got a “talking to” by the usher! It was still funny!] Another story! The first time (since 1949) that I went up to Yellowstone, 2006, I went in the east gate, and, less than a mile into the Park the cars were all stopped in the road. I was close enough to the ”front of the line” to be able to see the buffalo! Got out and started walking closer and there were a couple hundred buffalo grazing on both sides of the road—and roaming this way and that all over the road. We were parked there for a half an hour, and by then there were cars parked as far as you could see in both directions—everywhere—and just about as many people out of their cars as there were buffalo! (Yeah! Some folks were WAY too close!) We were all talking—the one couple I was talking to was from New York! I have NEVER seen so many people that were SO happy to be in a Traffic Jam! (And I think maybe putting a few buffalo here and there along the Interstates might be the perfect cure for Road Rage!) I went back in ’12—to see the buffalo again, and to see the “terraces” by the north entrance which had had way too many people in ’06! In 2012 there were virtually NO buffalo (near the roads), and the Terraces had “dried up” during the intervening years—but the people were still there! Yeah, I know you don’t see all those birds/animals in your yard—but you are SO lucky, first, to “work” somewhere where you have so much opportunity for wildlife viewing, and then to live where there’s still so much “open land” left—and closer to the foothills! The few birds I named above are pretty much all I EVER get up here—in my yard! And, instead of increasing in summer, for me I pretty much see the same ones! Usually get a few goldfinches in summer, plus some hummers, but then I normally lose most/all of the flickers and downies over summer—and rarely see a Junco in summer! Right now I’m trying to figure out a—possibly—new one I’m seeing! Maybe 6 weeks ago I saw small birds hanging onto the suet cages. My first impression, because of the basic shape, was that they were Juncos, but Juncos aren’t usually “clingers,” and after the first couple brief times I saw them I realized that they looked smaller than Juncos, and not as “roly-poly.” One time I had at least a dozen of them on the two cages! Some were back again today, and now I’m considering the possibility that they’re peewees! The head doesn’t look as “square” as peewees look in most of the pics, but I think that might be what they are! Boy! The illustrations/pics in my (FOUR) bird books sure do make them look different! Googled them and some of what I found look like what I have—and some don’t! Final decision still pending! By the way, on the “log” that I re-drilled to hang horizontally, I filled two little “dishes” on top with broken up nuts and the mealworms I bought, and also filled some of the holes on the sides with peanut butter. I HAVE seen a downy eating the peanut butter a few times, and this morning I saw a chickadee eating some of the nuts! The nuts and worms ARE getting gone, but I’m not seeing who’s eating them—could be blackbirds (which came back today!), so I’m not putting much out till I know for sure if some of the “good” birds (pardon my prejudice!) are getting the nuts and worms or not! With the mealworms I’m pretty surprised I haven’t seen any of the flickers or downies getting some of them! Did you see the recent (month ago?) PBS program about coywolves! Really interesting—I thought! Skybird

Dee: Your robin or blue jay may be common for you but they're a rarity in other countries. Also it's important to keep track of our common birds. The numbers say a lot about what's happening in our bird world. Climate change is also affecting the species we can see. I used to get way more blue jays than I do now - I think there was a West Nile virus outbreak at one point that really decimated them. floral-UK: Tradition matters. Your people aren't about to change the date just because GBBC is now happening. GBBC just went global a few years ago and has always been tied to our President's Day holiday. I looked at your Big Garden Bird Watch site and that format looks awfully familiar. I wonder if GBBC will incorporate the data from the BGBW event. Claire