Lisa: I'll count shore birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which is a once a year event, but not for Project FeederWatch which takes place weekly. First of all, I can't easily see most of the beach from the house so I'd have to go outside and stay there for a while to make the counts. Not pleasant in bad weather. It's much more pleasant to stand by the kitchen window, or sit at the computer, and gaze at the birds in my yard. Secondly, I have a great vista of the bay, but the birds are far away and I'd need to use a scope of some sort to identify them. Thirdly, I don't feed the shore birds, so I doubt if PFW would consider the site legitimate for their purposes. I do check out the birds and can identify some of them (lots of eiders, gulls and brant, mostly), but I couldn't really do the job properly without a lot more effort than I'm willing to put into it right now. Claire

Hi Azura, I have the book Birds of Denver and the Front Range that was given to me by my brother who owns a Wild Bird Supply store in Illinois, but I find I use my original book far more often. Sometimes I use the Denver book, but its more for a cross reference to compare pictures. My "main" book is A Guide to Field Identification Birds of North America by Golden Press, New York and I like the pictures and the way its set up better. That book was also given to me by my brother when I first started bird watching (now called birdingbut I still prefer bird watching!) There are other Colorado birding books available, but I dont know anything about them. Heres a list of the Most Frequently Seen Birds of the Denver Area which can be really helpful when youre first starting to identify them and trying to eliminate all the ones in the "complete" bird book that arent even a possibility. The ones youll see most often around here are House Sparrows (not really sparrows!), House Finches, Black-capped Chickadees, Pigeons & Doves, Blackbirds, Blue Jays, several different Juncos when theyre migrating thru in spring and fall (and sometimes in winter), and, especially if you put suet out, Flickers, Hairy Woodpeckers, and Downy Woodpeckers. Oh, and Robins, of courseI have them all winter. If you put out some feeders youll see a lot more birds than if you just watch for them, but I recommend staying away from millet or "all purpose" bird seed as it just attracts dozens and dozens of House Sparrows that will keep many other birds away. I recommend safflower seed, thistle seed, black oil sunflower seed and suet. That will get you at least all of the birds I mentioned above (except the House Sparrows), and many more, but just not as many of each. I love to watch the chickadees, but still havent attracted much of a following at this house, which is only a couple miles away from my last house where I had lots of them. But little by little theyre showing up. If you put the feeders near deciduous trees, thatll help even more. Heres a link to the best online bird identification site Ive found. Click on "all birds." AND, if youve never heard of it before, heres a link to Bird Cam where you can watch Eagles, Falcons, Kestrels, Ospreys, and Owls laying their eggs and raising their young. Its fascinating to check in on them every now and then. Check out the Eagle Cam. They should be laying their eggs pretty soon. Just in case all you see when you go there is an empty nest, remember that these are live cams, and the Eagles come and go! Enjoy our feathered relatives, Skybird (without the feathers!)

Roselee, I think the waxwings are all at our house, lol. Though, they've just about finished the tree off. We had a Cooper's hawk scare them away one day, but they came back to our tree two days later. I'm not familiar with that butterfly, but I'll bet it's beautiful. We've not had any butterflies at all, but we'll be down at the Butterfly farm this weekend... can't wait. (Daniel, if you're looking in, we'll be down in your neighborhood.) Here a pic of the waxwings and the hawk that chased them.

If Part I is getting slow for you (it was for me), you can start posting on Part II Link to Part II