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.

I had a bumper crop today! I could hardly believe it! I think it was at least partly because it didnÂt get above freezing all day, and I always have water available for them. I think at least 30 of your blackbirds made it over the Divide, Bonnie! I spent half the day chasing them away from my feeders! They eat all my expensive seedÂand scare away all the birds I WANT to see! In addition to the blackbirds I had: My usual 2 to 3 dozen House Finches About a half a dozen House Sparrows that show up and eat a little suet every now and then My usual 2 Northern Flickers My usual 2 Hairy Woodpeckers 2 Blue Jays that show up every now and then 2 Eurasian Collared Doves And I even saw 1 of my much-watched-for chickadees today! Some day IÂll get a good following of them at this house! AND Â I still can hardly believe this, but I had every Robin in Denver in my backyard! There were at least 14 of them, and I think there were more, but that was as many as I could count at the same time! A couple times there were up to 10 on and around my bird bath at the same time! It was incredible! It seemed like my whole backyard was filled with themÂand it WAS! Usually the most I see at one time is 4Âsometimes 6 Â but NEVER that many at the same time! IÂm convinced now that I WILL have a pair in the nest on top of my electric box again in spring. IÂll be watching again tomorrow, but I donÂt think thereÂs any chance at all that IÂll see as many as I did today. Anybody else? Skybird

So a couple of weeks ago, I move my ceramic hanging bird with bird nest to another hook on my front porch. When I did, I though "I wonder if a real bird would ever use this to make it's nest". Then yesterday, I noticed that indeed a bird had thought of that! I could see bits of the real nest poking out over the top of the fake nest!! I haven't see a bird inside of it yet, so don't know whether it abandoned the idea or will be back. It's not the most quiet spot as it's right by the front door. I thought I'd move the hook so it's a little farther into the corner so if mama bird does lay her eggs there, she won't be as disturbed. But how cute that my passing thought turned out to come true :) Marj

Final Summary for GBBC 2017 dated March 3, 2017 "Thank You For the Biggest GBBC Ever Once again participants from around the world set new records for the number of species identified during the four days of the Great Backyard Bird Count, for the number of checklists submitted, and the number of estimated participants. These numbers are based on totals taken on the afternoon of March 3 and they are impressive. The amount of increase is based on a comparison to 2016 count figures: Total checklists: 173,826 (2016 final total: 162,052) Total species: 5,940 (2016 final total: 5,689 ) Estimated participants: 214,018 (2016 final total estimate: 163,763)"