A Frigid Weekend for The Great Backyard Bird Count

February 13 - One word describes the weather this weekend - COLD. This probably explains why there were not many birds to record during my first day participating in the 2016 Backyard Bird Count. The event runs for four days and started Friday, February 12. Although not high in numbers, I still spotted  eleven different species: Mourning Dove, Tufted Titmouse, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, and Cardinal. Usually Juncos are ground feeders, but the one in the picture below preferred being up on the feeder.

Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker (f)

Dark-eyed Junco

Female Cardinal

The weather forecast for Sunday is only supposed to be a high of 8 degrees, so we'll see weather the birds brave the cold. I will edit this blog, with updates from Sunday and Monday. If you have fifteen minutes to spare, find a comfortable spot to watch birds and then log your sightings at http://gbbc.birdcount.org/. It's fun and you'll be contributing to scientific research as well.

February 14 - Well the cold weather did not dissuade the birds from coming to the feeder this morning when it was a negative ten degrees. I thought that they might have stayed huddled in the woods, but perhaps they needed the extra calories to stay warm. I did not see any new species, but the number spotted of each species was more than yesterday. At one point there were 18 house sparrows.

House Sparrow with feathers fluffed to stay warm.

Chickadees

Tufted Titmouse

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Goldfinches

I know he's not a bird, but it seems like this guy should count for something.