BS: Bird Count. This is it.

Subject: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Feb 17 - 06:18 PM

Today is a Friday. This is the weekend for Cornell Lab's world-wide bird count. The DH and I have counted the birds in our back yard twice today.

Of course, the interesting birds have vanished somewhere. Where is the Carolina wren, the red-tailed hawk, the downy woodpecker

Nonetheless, we have faithfully reported 7 house sparrows and 12 starlings. Well, we have till Monday...

How about you? Learn all about it here.

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Feb 17 - 06:27 PM

We did ours about three weekends ago. Still waiting for the comeback. .

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: JHW
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 06:14 AM

I did the RSPB count last month. Pick any hour on the last weekend of January.
Next morning first glance out of the kitchen window, there were more birds in one look than the whole other hour that I counted. I don't see how it works. And of course like leeneia's post neither the GS Woodpecker nor the Long Tailed Tits turned out.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: DMcG
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 06:20 AM

there were more birds in one look than the whole other hour that I counted. I don't see how it works.

Two ways, JHW. The dull and boring one is that the birds exist. So if they were in your garden the next morning they were somewhere else the day before - as like as not in someone else's garden if the times of day were the same. Add enough samples together and the unusually high and low sets tend to cancel out.

More interesting is that counting the birds is only one of the aims. It is at least as important to encourage people who would not otherwise do so to take an interest in the wildlife just beyond the door, which over the year can have a beneficial effect on all kinds of creatures, not just birds.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 06:21 AM

I think the Watch lasted until Monday. Because of the layout of my observation post (aka the kitchen window high up over the sink), it's impossible to watch for a whole hour non-stop as it involves a forward lean on semi-tiptoe (can't see the birds that are on the ground otherwise), so I spread it out over a couple of days a few minutes at a time. Don't tell the RSPB!

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 09:18 AM

I'm glad it wasn't yesterday, we had too many starlings to count, around 1000, and at least 50 fieldfares.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 11:51 AM

50 field fares! That's nice!

I just heard a woodpecker's strident call on my city street. It sounds so primitive.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: EBarnacle
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 10:50 AM

Yesterday Lady Hillary and I dropped in at the local raptor rescue and rehab center. As we were leaving, I spotted a large lump on a branch across a field next to the center. Checked it out with the 7 x 35's and ID'd it as a huge red tailed hawk. Passed the binocs to LH and pulled out the 7 x 50's. It's amazing what a difference in light gathering that extra size makes. We and the hawk sat there for half a hour until we had to leave. For all we know he's still there.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 01:56 PM

Been watching four collared doves feeling their way through the fog in the garden for most of the afternoon
Our local market town of Ennis was startled into wakefulness last year with a visit from a Muscovy Duck
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 03:25 PM

We had the fog in Cornwall this afternoon as well, Jim. We saw two coal tits at once on the feeders. Never seen more than one at a time before in thirty years.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 03:56 PM

We had great tits in the garden of our last house, and their 'song' (we use the term loosely) drove me bonkers. "Wee-ah wee-ah wee-ah" on and on and on and on.

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 04:08 PM

They're supposed to call "teacher-teacher-teacher-teacher." Its all about sex!

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Feb 17 - 04:26 PM

Maybe that's why it irritated me so much Steve. (The teacher bit, not the sex.)

Subject: RE: BS: Bird Count. This is it.
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 20 Feb 17 - 05:38 AM

The Great Garden Bird Count should have been yesterday. We had about 12 species on the day we did the count. Yesterday we had 19, more than the whole of last week. Another couple added today and some regulars haven't turned up yet.
RtS