Great Backyard Bird Count

Michigan students practicing for the GBBC.

My students did an all-school assembly PowerPoint presentation, modified from the one at the GBBC site. One of my student's parents came to our class and gave a presentation on birding. They are avid birders! We went to practice for our GBBC by going out into our wetlands area and observing birds. And when we came back in they had a great recipe for bell bird feeders and each child made one. We went over GBBC results for our class, our city, and state as well as the overall results. The boys and girls have learned a lot from all we've done and my hope is that they will continue their interest in the birds and the natural world around them.

--Zsuzsanna Mahon, Michigan

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This is the third year our grandchildren have come to help us participate in the GBBC. It’s perfect timing to give their parents a Valentine’s weekend alone and spend some great time with the little ones. The first year it was the two oldest…now four of them participate. We counted all four days, which included a field trip to see Bald Eagles hosted by Rick Read, our local Audubon member. We saw a Bald Eagle in its nest and were part of a large group that enthusiastically braved the cold to see this amazing spectacle. Now we know where they are and can revisit on our own.

We also spent many hours watching our feeders at home. It was rewarding to see their growing enthusiasm for identifying the birds they knew and looking up ones they didn’t. I actually learned a few things myself and now am a better bird watcher. We refilled feeders and kept our heated bird baths full…it was good for them to be a part of it and they loved it.

We also saw sparrows, cardinals, juncos, hawks, starlings and that beautiful Bald Eagle for a total of 27 different species and 308 birds over the four days.

--Barb Del Carlo, Monticello, Indiana

A field trip for the 2010 GBBC in Indiana. Photos by Rick Read

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This winter, we've been seeing an unusually large number of Northern Cardinals foraging together in our backyard. When we decided to participate in the 2010 GBBC, we were hoping that the flock would all show up together for the "official" bird count. We counted birds on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and still hadn't seen the number we were hoping for.
 
Imagine our surprise when, just before sunset on Monday--literally the "11th hour" of GBBC weekend--we counted 11 males and 8 females! It was the largest number we've ever seen together. We like to think that they are the children and grandchildren of all those babies that have been raised in our backyard during the past several years. It was one of the most satisfying moments we've ever had, knowing that we have provided a safe place for them in the heart of a busy city.
 
--Kathy Tenorio, St. Louis, Missouri

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This is "Stanley." He arrived late in November and is still around. This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker shares the peanuts with Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches as well as Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers and the occasional Carolina Wren. This is the first year that we have seen a "Stanley" at the feeder (not to mention in the birdbath). We live in Dundas, Ontario and normally sapsuckers are like many Canadians--they go south for the winter.

--Barrie Boatman, Ontario  

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How Winter Birds Survive

The hummers come to my house and drink from my feeders.
The little birds sleep in my trees and breakfast at the shed where I fill dishes with seed every morning.
They all take baths in my waterfall, the fish don't seem to mind.
This is where they winter when your weather gets cold and if I can manage it,
This is where they summer as well, keeping cool in the sprinklers I turn on whenever it gets hot.
Be as good to your birds as you can, I'm on a personal campaign to keep them all with me!

--Adrienne Paradis, Southern California

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We have two little wrens, one I call “Chipper.” They both love the peanut butter mix we put out and usually come to get it as I'm putting it out. I put cat food out on the back porch for the opossums that visit at night (especially Gail). It seems that lately there has been some left and “Chipper,” the wren, loves to come to the dish and eat the cat food. He watches me watch him from the sunroom window. I have learned many things from watching these little creatures.

--Tom, Arkansas

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Bird feeders made for the GBBC. Photo by Gillian Robertson

My name is Mike Schwindt, and I am a teacher on a native reserve in northwestern Ontario. You can find me on last year's map by finding one lonely dot just south and east of the angle in the border between Manitoba and Ontario.

Last year was my first time participating, and the first time participating for my grade three class as well! We made birdfeeders in class from old pop bottles and peanut butter jar lids, filled them with sunflower seeds, put them out, and went to check them the next day (Friday of last year's weekend).

I had a challenging class last year, with a number of students who struggled to focus in class and who struggled to keep up with the assigned work. I had one boy in particular who I really wanted to see succeed, mainly because of how badly he wanted to succeed himself, but who just couldn't seem to stay focused on any task for longer than a minute or two. While we were making the feeders in class, he paid a lot more attention than normal to what he was doing, and when we went to hang them up, he paid extra attention to where he put his, trying three or four spots before finding just the right spot.

After school that day, I went around to check all of the feeders; we hadn't had enough seeds to fill all of them, and I wanted to make sure that other kids hadn't come along and knocked them down. I got to Nathaniel's feeder, and who should I meet but Nathaniel! He couldn't wait until the next day to see birds at his feeder, so he had gotten off his bus at home after school, turned around, and walked back to check! I told him how happy I was to see how keen he was, but that it would probably be a day or two before birds found our feeders, and that he shouldn't get his hopes up...and watched his eyes widen as a chickadee landed on the feeder less than a metre behind my head! While he didn't get the ultimate treat of feeding a chickadee from his hand, he did get an extreme close-up of one, as it stopped at his feeder while he was pouring seeds in, and my student who had so much trouble focusing spent a solid 10 minutes crouching perfectly still, hand outstretched, to see if just maybe his new friend would land in his hand to eat some seeds.

--Mike Schwindt, Pikangikum, Ontario

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While counting birds one morning for the GBBC, I had a surprise visitor at my birdbath. May I append my count to add one "Fox Sparrow"? (lol) This is only the third sighting of a fox in my yard in 23 years. It certainly added excitement to my bird counting!
 
--Glenda Simmons, Tallahassee, Florida

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Last spring as I brought my handful of no-waste bird feed for scattering on top of my backyard wall, I observed a female Black-throated Sparrow come very close to me and, in fact, start to eat before I had spread out all the food. The next day again she was there as I came out to do my daily feeding. This time I decided to keep the feed in hand to see what she would do. I was quite thrilled when she at first pecked feed from my opened hand, moved away, but then hopped onto my fingers and perched there as she continued to eat.

This continued almost daily for another few weeks when another behavioral antic happened, much to my delight. My bird friend, now a mother, brought three juveniles to the wall to teach them to also feed from my hand. The clumsy ones flitted and darted as she allowed them to take seed from my hand.

What was surprising to me was that after a week or less of this behavior, one day, followed by her young ones, she came to feed out of my hand but would not allow them to feed; she scolded and chased them away. It took about three days for her brood to learn and then she and I were back to our twosome activity which has continued until today.

Gosh I hope she introduces me to her offspring again this year!

--Gary Zellinger, Arizona

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A nice assortment! Photo by CJ Bolton, Texas 2010 GBBC

I was sitting at our office computer around lunch today (Feb. 12). It looks out over a park within our housing development. Suddenly, hundreds of Cedar Waxwings and robins came. They came to feast on our Nellie R. Stevens Holly. They were soon joined by maybe a dozen bluebirds that winter here. It was amazing to see the bluebirds sitting on a branch beside the robins. We had many wonderful birds show up at our feeders today, but I've never seen such flocks of birds right outside our windows.

--CJ Bolton, Texas

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A special experience happened for us in the early winter of 2008: It was a few weeks after the GBBC when we looked out in our yard one morning, and we spotted one lonely, exhausted-looking McKay's Bunting among our local, visiting neighborhood birds! We had had a huge rain and windstorm in the night, with winds so bad that they blew over many huge trees along the northern half of the West Coast. Apparently that poor little, straggly bird had been blown into our area during the height of the storm (we live approximately two driving hours inland from the Oregon coast.) We were glad he ended up in our yard, where we have feeders and water. He stayed around our yard for a week or ten days, and finally, one day he flew away, and we never saw him again. Apparently, the stop-over in our yard gave him the nourishment and rest he needed to go where he belonged. We felt privileged to have hosted the little fellow during his recuperation period! 

--Sandra and Darrell Blankenship, Oregon

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Mink hoping for a trout dinner. Photo by Murray Brown, British Columbia. 2010 GBBC

On Feb. 12, the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, my friend Gary and I were fly-fishing for native coastal cutthroat trout along a side channel of the Fraser River. This is between the communities of Chilliwack and Hope in the upper Fraser Valley.

We were having limited success wading and casting in the decidedly cool water, when suddenly, we each had one on! In fishing parlance this is referred to as a "double header" and it doesn't happen very often. As we each released our prize to swim another day, we looked up and saw that we had an audience! A beautiful wild mink and a mature Bald Eagle had been attracted by the commotion and had moved in for a closer look. No doubt either of them would have appreciated those trout for themselves. I think that's why I like birding and fishing in beautiful B.C.

--Murray Brown, Agassiz, British Columbia

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The bird living in my dead beech tree, which I thought of as a Red-headed Woodpecker since there is red on his head, comes to feed on sunflower seeds which I put on a mat on the ground. I was looking more closely on the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend--and for positive identification, consulting the excellent All About Birds website.

Brief excitement as I wonder about habitat pressures, birds' adaptability, and the general climate of rapid change, and then, looking further, even to the "unlikely" photo of the Red-bellied Woodpecker, reminding myself that the belly was not red, but white. Voila. I find this is indeed a "Red-bellied Woodpecker, common to North Carolina.

The closer I attend to the crows, cardinals, juncos, blackbirds, hawks, owls, sparrows, titmice, and Blue Jays, the more life itself sparkles.

--Anne Whitefield, North Carolina