More Great Backyard Birdcount-- and Beyond!

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a lot of fun on this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. Since I first wrote about it from the road, without the ability to include pictures, I thought I'd follow up with  photos of a few favorite sightings.

One of our first stops was at Disney World, where we spotted this Palm Warbler searching the waterline for tasty bugs.

We spotted this Snowy Egret at our next stop, St. Petersburg. I love the bird's yellow feet, or "golden slippers" as my field guide calls them!

St. Petersburg turned out to be very good for birding, with lots of small parks and canals. Crescent Lake held a lot of domestic-type ducks that were clearly well-fed by locals, but also this American Coot, White Ibis, and Wood Stork (left to right).

St. Pete also has a colony of Eurasian Collared-doves, not native to the U.S. but still fun to see. We also spotted another non-native, the Monk Parakeet I mentioned last post, but couldn't get good photos of it. Cool to see, though!

As we continued to explore the city, we stumbled onto a park whose mudflats held several kinds of gulls and sandpipers, but most excitingly, hundreds of Black Skimmers! Their weird-looking beaks let them skim food right from the water as they glide just above the surface. I think they were my favorite sighting from the trip.

The GBBC is over for this year, but you can still log your project data at eBird.org through March 1, if you haven't gotten around to it yet! Non-GBBC sightings are important to enter too, to help scientists understand long-term patterns or changes. How will birds' migration paths and timing change as our climate changes? Those are just a few of the issues ornithologists are studying with the help of eBirders. 

Ebirders can help document shifts as they happen by logging bird sightings all year round. That's what I'm trying to do by entering at least one checklist every day. Bonus: I've already added several new species to my life list, including the above-mentioned Monk Parakeet, Black Skimmer, and this fussy little Orange-Crowned Warbler we saw in Jackson Square in New Orleans!

The warbler was very active and rarely stayed still for very long. Eventually I got good enough looks at it for identification, and for Victor to get this adorable photo.

If you want to join eBird too, it's super easy to get started. Go to eBird.org and create a free account. Next, identify birds you see in your yard, from your office, or wherever you like, and report them. That's it! If you don't have a bird field guide already, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology even created a great app to help you identify birds, called Merlin. As I mentioned above, I used it this trip to help me identify that Orange-Crowned Warbler! I highly recommend checking it out.

Happy birding! I'd love to hear in the comments what you all are seeing in your area.

Two Days Left in 2018's Great Backyard Bird Count-- Still Time to Join In!

This weekend is one of my favorite Citizen Science projects: the Great Backyard Bird Count, or GBBC for short. This is a four-day event that takes place on President’s Day weekend every year (or the second full weekend in February, for those of you not in the United States). If you haven’t already joined in, you should! I’ve included basic instructions at the end of this post.

[I should note, I'm posting this from the road (literally-- as we drive through Georgia), so will post a second part with photos in a few days when I have a better internet connection.]

Anyway, the GBBC began in 1998 and is run by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. To participate, you count birds for at least 15 minutes on at least one of the four days (February 16 to 19 in 2018). Then you enter your data at birdcount.org or directly at ebird.org. You’ll need to set up a free eBird account if you don’t already have one, since the eBird tool and app are what make the online count possible..

The great part about GBBC is that it’s a global snapshot of the birds, and takes place everywhere at the same time. I like knowing that all over the world tons of other birders and bird watchers are counting along with me!

Although the count refers to backyards, you don’t need a yard or garden to participate. Count anywhere you like. This year, the GBBC coincided with the weekend after we planned to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. So we made a trip out of it.

Mardi Gras itself was February 13. After we finished up in New Orleans, we swung through central Florida for a few days. We did this the last time Mardi Gras coincided with the GBBC too.

However, because we were in tropical Florida this year, I definitely got more species than I did for last year’s GBBC. My favorite sightings so far have been:

·      My first-ever Monk Parakeet, in St. Petersburg

·      Tons of Black Skimmers, also in St. Petersburg

·      An American Kestrel spotted by my husband as we drove back north on Sunday (no photo of that one, of course)

·      Palm Warblers at Disney World, constantly bobbing their tails as they hunted for gnats and other tasty insects.

·      Yellow-rumped Warblers, which were nearly ubiquitous in some of the resort areas of Disney World

·      Roseate Spoonbills along the road as we drove north, as well as flying overhead in St. Petersburg

·      Sandhill Cranes by the side of the road in Florida as we headed north

·      A non-bird sighting, but still exciting nonetheless: a manatee in a bayou in St. Petersburg! That was definitely unexpected since we didn’t go specifically looking for manatees. This one found us, though.

We’ll get home to Maryland tonight, and collapse into our beds. Tomorrow I hope to bulk up my list if I can squeeze a decent birding trip in between unpacking and laundry. I hope you try your hand at the Great Backyard Bird Count this year too. Let me know in the comments what you think!

If you want to participate, here’s what to do:

• Go to ebird.org and set up an account if you don’t already have one.
•  Count birds anywhere you like. Out your office window is fine, out your kitchen window, anywhere is fine. The most urban city neighborhood to the most remote wilderness, or anywhere in between—all locations can help scientists see how birds are doing right now.
•  If you want to use the eBird app, you can tally your birds instantly without having to do an extra step of logging into the main website. Download the free eBird Mobile app, then start a new checklist each time you do a count. Recent updates to the mobile app even track your path and calculate your distance for you, so you won’t have to guess when eBird asks you how far you traveled. Pretty cool!
• If you prefer to keep track of your checklists on paper, you can still enter them through the eBird website.
• If you don’t feel confident about your bird identifications, another free app can help, called Merlin, also from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It will ask you questions about the bird’s size, what colors it has, and show you photos of birds that match your description. Then you select which photo matches your bird, and voila! You have your identification. I used Merlin frequently in Florida this trip, and usually it helped me figure out the right bird pretty much immediately.
• Complete as many checklists as you want, from as many different locations as you want, from the 16^th through the 19^th. All of the checklists will be gathered to make this year’s snapshot.
• Since 2018 has been declared the Year of the Bird, why not make this the year you try birding in a different way than you have before? Enter your sightings online at eBird if you never have, or include photographs or even sound recordings. The GBBC weekend is a great time to practice your skills, and maybe bring some non-birding friends along.
•  There’s also an annual photograph contest for GBBC, so don’t forget your camera! Have fun birding, and let me know what you find, in the comments below.

Valentines for Wildlife: Five Ways to Give Nature Some Love

A belated happy Valentine’s Day to you all! I hope you had a good time showing some love to your human sweetheart, if you have one. Perhaps you gave each other chocolates or flowers, or maybe shared a romantic candlelight dinner. But did you think to show affection to the backyard wildlife that give you so much enjoyment? Never fear, it’s not too late! Here are five easy ways you can help the wild creatures large and small that live right in your own neighborhood.

1.     If you don't already have bird feeders, you can easily make your own! Tie some string to the top of a pine cone. Then smear the cone with peanut butter and roll it in birdseed. You can add some dried fruit too if you like, such as raisins. Use the string to tie the pine cone treat to a branch and enjoy watching the birds devour this tasty treat. In my area, February is often the coldest part of the winter, and much of the natural sources of food may be used up by now. This means the birds will be especially appreciative of your generosity. Make sure to identify and report all the birds you see this weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count! See my next post LINK for more information on the GBBC as well.

Female House Finch and male Cardinal enjoying my sunflower seed feeder

2.     Build a brush shelter for wildlife to hide in and perch on. If you haven’t gotten around to discarding your Christmas tree or wreath yet, these are excellent starts for a brush pile. If you want to go big, see LINK for my description of building a brush pile. You  can also just start with a smaller one. Lean sticks up against your discarded Christmas tree or against a fallen log to create a little lean-to, add some pine branches or fallen leaves inside and on top, and there you go. If you put this near your bird feeder you may see birds perching on or in the shelter while they eat. Chipmunks, mice, and other small mammals may shelter there as well. 

I built a pile of logs, brush, and leaves to provide winter shelter in my yard.

3.     Since birds and other animals get thirsty too, try putting out pans of water for your wildlife. If you live in a cold area, a fresh pan of hot water each morning will provide much-needed drinks and bathing opportunities. If you already own a birdbath, you may think it’s useless in the wintertime since it freezes over. Not so! You can buy a specially-made birdbath heater to keep the water from freeing completely, thus preventing you having to go out into the cold every morning to refresh it. This is a great way to attract unusual birds to your yard, or birds who don’t normally come to seed or suet feeders.

Robin splashing happily in my concrete birdbath last summer.

4.     If you have room to garden, you have many choices for creating valentines for your favorite wildlife. Now would be a great time to consider adding some native plants to your yard in order to support local bees and butterflies. If the plants also have tasty berries or seeds for birds and small mammals later, so much the better. I’ll be posting some helpful tips next week for starting a wildlife garden, so stay tuned!

A Monarch butterfly used my New York asters to fuel up for last fall's migration.

5.     Finally, even if you don’t have a yard or garden of your own, you can do other kind things for wildlife. Take the family to a nearby park or stream and spend some time picking up litter. Not only the wildlife will appreciate it, but other people who enjoy the park will too! 

I really enjoy showing some love to the wildlife all around me, and I hope you do too. Let me know in the comments what birds and other animals you see in your yard!