I am an avid backyard birder*. My birding adventures generally look like this: wake up, make coffee, have camera set up on tripod on the kitchen table, and binocs and ID guides handy. Then, out in the yard we have suet, sunflowers, a birdbath, leaf litter to scratch in, and often a bit of fruit or nuts.
I have found that what happens when a person birds regularly, in the exact same place, is that it truly allows one to get to know their avian neighbors. I can easily recognize the 25 or so regular visitors to my backyard by their personalities and habits. After ten years of (semi-serious) backyard birding I can distinguish between many LBBs (little brown birds). For example, the differences between a song sparrow and a female finch, or a pine siskin and an American Goldfinch. This week we identified two new visitors to our hotspot: a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Chestnut-backed Chick-a-dee. We also noted male and female Northern Flickers and had a visit from a pair of Spotted Towhees.
All in all, we saw and photographed 20 species (in two days/3 hours) for our annual backyard x-mas birdcount. I am including the best shots for you here :^) By the way, this two-day count is just one of our regular data collections for Citizen Science Project FeederWatch; we count our backyard birds from November through April.
*This is in great contrast to a "serious" birder; one with a passion to get up early and drive somewhere, usually in miserable weather, to find new birds to add to their life list.
Enjoy these downloads from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Project FeederWatch:
I have found that what happens when a person birds regularly, in the exact same place, is that it truly allows one to get to know their avian neighbors. I can easily recognize the 25 or so regular visitors to my backyard by their personalities and habits. After ten years of (semi-serious) backyard birding I can distinguish between many LBBs (little brown birds). For example, the differences between a song sparrow and a female finch, or a pine siskin and an American Goldfinch. This week we identified two new visitors to our hotspot: a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Chestnut-backed Chick-a-dee. We also noted male and female Northern Flickers and had a visit from a pair of Spotted Towhees.
All in all, we saw and photographed 20 species (in two days/3 hours) for our annual backyard x-mas birdcount. I am including the best shots for you here :^) By the way, this two-day count is just one of our regular data collections for Citizen Science Project FeederWatch; we count our backyard birds from November through April.
*This is in great contrast to a "serious" birder; one with a passion to get up early and drive somewhere, usually in miserable weather, to find new birds to add to their life list.
Enjoy these downloads from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Project FeederWatch:
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