OK, Jean, I think it's time you 'fess up and tell us just WHICH ornithilogical publication you do professional photography for... Your photos ALWAYS look like they came right out of a book, or should be in one! I'm humbled by your skill and aspire to attain anything close to it with my own bird pictures! As for the Carolina wren, I got a picture of one just outside my dining room window a couple years ago, perched on one of those cage feeders... picture's through a dirty window, but it's an otherwise pretty clear picture of a wren and I think I posted it here before at one point, so let me go see if it's in my Photobucket... Well, I THOUGHT it was, but maybe I deleted it. It's late, and I'm not gonna hunt it down right now, but maybe you'll figure out if that was a Carolina wren or not by looking at online sources, FTM. Happy Birding, all! Jeff

No snow here on the far east coast - that big Valentine's Day storm was sleet, frreezing rain and then just a deluge of rain with strong winds off the bay. I'm counting today and just waiting to see if more mourning doves sneak in as it gets dark. It's very windy and a few of my regulars have not appeared (tufted titmice and the robin). I'll probably count again one day this weekend to try to get all the species I know are out there. Maybe even the Cooper's Hawk. Claire

Oh, I'll be counting for the GBBC this weekend. And Project FeederWatch too, which is count you can participate in all winter long, from November-March. Also counted for Focus on Feeders last weekend (Mass Audubon). And the Christmas Bird Count the beginning of January. Yeah, I enjoy counting the birds. :) If it weren't for bird counts and fooling around with seeds, this winter would have sheer drudgery. Here are a couple of my favorite "countees".

I've submitted three counts so far - one of my yard for Friday, Feb. 12, one for the local marsh on Saturday, Feb. 13, and one more of my yard for Saturday, Feb. 13. These reports are as submitted (emailed back from GBBC) First Report Locality: 02360, Plymouth, Plymouth County, MA Observation Date: FEB 12, 2010 Start Time: 6:45 AM Total Birding Time: 1 hour Party Size: 1 Skill: good Weather: excellent Snow Depth: Less than 2 in (5.1 cm) Habitat(s): deciduous woods coniferous woods scrub rural freshwater salt water Number of Species: 17 All Reported: yes Checklist: Wild Turkey - 15 Mourning Dove - 23 Downy Woodpecker - 1 Blue Jay - 5 American Crow - 4 Black-capped Chickadee - 1 Tufted Titmouse - 1 European Starling - 3 Song Sparrow - 2 White-throated Sparrow - 4 Dark-eyed Junco - 6 Northern Cardinal - 9 Red-winged Blackbird - 13 Purple Finch - 1 House Finch - 3 American Goldfinch - 15 House Sparrow - 20 Second Report Locality: 02360, Plymouth, Plymouth County, MA Observation Date: FEB 13, 2010 Start Time: 2:30 AM Total Birding Time: 15 minutes Party Size: 1 Skill: good Weather: excellent Snow Depth: Less than 2 in (5.1 cm) Habitat(s): deciduous woods coniferous woods scrub rural salt water Number of Species: 5 All Reported: no Checklist: Canada Goose - 125 American Black Duck - 3 Mallard - 2 Green-winged Teal - 3 Hooded Merganser - 1 Comments ---------------------------------------- Drive by sightings at Shifting Lots Preserve (adjacent to Ellisville Harbor State Park) ------------------------------------------------- Third Report Locality: 02360, Plymouth, Plymouth County, MA Observation Date: FEB 13, 2010 Start Time: 7:15 AM Total Birding Time: 1 hour Party Size: 1 Skill: good Weather: excellent Snow Depth: Less than 2 in (5.1 cm) Habitat(s): deciduous woods coniferous woods scrub rural freshwater salt water Number of Species: 17 All Reported: no Checklist: Wild Turkey - 13 Mourning Dove - 17 Downy Woodpecker - 1 Blue Jay - 13 American Crow - 3 Black-capped Chickadee - 3 Tufted Titmouse - 1 Hermit Thrush - 1 European Starling - 5 American Tree Sparrow - 1 Song Sparrow - 3 White-throated Sparrow - 6 Dark-eyed Junco - 12 Northern Cardinal - 7 Red-winged Blackbird - 5 American Goldfinch - 16 House Sparrow - 25 ***************************************************************************** I have another neighborhood count almost ready to submit for today, but I've emailed a few photos to a local guru for identification. There are some birds I've never seen before and I'm not sure if I've identified them correctly. Claire