Great Backyard Bird Count
Bird Watchers are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), Friday 
February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers of all levels of birding experience to count birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.
Taking part in the GBBC is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun and help count birds – all at the same time. Anyone who can identify even a few species can provide important information.
Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sighting on at www.birdcount.org.
Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2009 GBBC date highlighted a huge southern invasion of Pine Siskins across much of the eastern United States. Participants counted 279,469 Pine Siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared to a the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops father north caused the Siskins to move south to find their favorite food.
On the www.birdcount.org website, participants can get more information and explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special material for educators. Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC website’s photo gallery. All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CD’s, and many other great birding projects.
Why Count Birds?
Blackburnian Warbler
Scientist and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.
The Great Backyard Bird Count needs your help. Make sure that birds from your area are well represented in the count. It doesn’t matter whether you report the 5 species coming to your backyard feeder or the 75 species you see during a day’s outing to as wildlife refuge. Your counts can help to answer many questions.
Bird Information and Facts, bird watching. | Comment (0)Bird’s Yearly Track Averages 44,000 Miles!
I just read a MSNBC posting about the yearly migration of the Arctic Tern. This bird flies from the North Pole to the South Pole as the season change at each pole. When it is winter at the North Pole the Arctic Tern files to the South Pole and when winter is returning to the South Pole it flies back to the North Pole. Just amazing!
The shortest journey was 36,900 miles and the longest was 50,700 miles. The study confirmed what researchers suspected for decades, the Arctic Tern has the longest annual migration of any animal in the world. Over its life time the Arctic Tern files the equivalent of three trips from the Earth to the Moon and back.
The birds do not just fly south. They spend about a month in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They spend this time feeding to “fuel up” before they continue to fly into the waters of the South Atlantic which have less food sources for them.
After this pause, the birds continued their long journey south down the coast of northwest Africa. However, around the Cape Verde Islands — islands off the west coast of Africa, close to Senegal — the birds’ behavior surprised the research team again. About half of the birds continued down the coast of Africa, while the other half crossed the Atlantic Ocean to follow a parallel route south down the east coast of South America. All of the birds went to the Antarctic waters, none of them stayed at any location along the their route.
After spending the summer at the South Pole on their return trip to the North Pole they did not follow the most direct route back to their breeding grounds in Iceland. Instead they flew a gigantic “S” pattern through the Atlantic Ocean. This route added several thousand miles to the birds flight back to their breeding grounds. This indirect route allowed the birds to take advantage of the global wind system and to reduce the amount of energy they need to use on their return journey.
Bird Information and Facts | Comment (0)‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (Bird Count That Is)
Twas the Night Before Christmas
(Bird Count that is)
by Henry Lappen, Amherst, Massachusetts
‘Twas the night before Christmas (count that is)
when all through the dark
not a creature was stirring
not even a lark.
The stockings were hung
on their feet with care
in hopes that real frostbite
would not settle there.
The birders were quiet
listening for owls
filled up with coffee
which gurgled their bowels.
And Jan in her kerchief
and Scott in his cap
were straining their ears
to hear any yap.
When out in the field
there arose such a clatter
we sprang from the forest
to see what was aflutter.
When what to our wondering
eyes should appear
but a miniature flock
of eight tiny Killdeer.
I got out my camera
lively and quick,
I knew in a moment
I must have a pic.
More rapid than eagles
the birders all came
and they whistled and shouted
each calling a name.
They’re buntings. No, warblers.
They’re swallows. No, grouse.
They’re Mallards. No, nightjars.
Or maybe titmouse.
To the tops of the trees
the birds flew away all.
Oh dash it! Oh darn it!
Did you hear a call?
As varied opinions that before
no proof will fly
the arguments of birders
will mount to the sky.
They’re sparrows. No, bobwhites.
No, alcids. You dolt:
They were Black-headed Gulls
in second-year molt.
And then in a twinkle
we heard from the air
a trilling or chirping
or something unclear.
As we drew in our heads
and were turning around
down to the clearing
they came with a sound.
They were all dressed in feathers
from head to their foot,
they were dark as if tarnished
with ashes and soot.
A bundle of speckles
they had on their breast
their belly and shoulders
but not on the rest.
Their eyes-how they twinkled,
their mandibles-how pale.
Their cheek patches brownish,
not much of a tail.
Their dull little coverts
were brown like the wing
and their backs and their heads.
They had no eye ring.
They were chubby and plump
all filled up with berries
and also from composted
maraschino cherries.
A wink of an eye
and a twist of a head
soon gave us to know
we had something to dread.
They sprang to the air
to our team gave a whistle
that sounded as raucous
as an incoming missile.
But we heard them exclaim
e’er they flew out of sight
many starlings to all
and to all a good flight!
This poem is from an email that was forwarded to me. Mr. Lappen Thank You for writing this poem. To all I wish you a Merry Christmas and an Happy New Year.
Bird Information and Facts | Comment (0)What makes bird identity difficult?
Most people watch the birds in their own yard and surrounding bushes and trees, at least in the beginning. Although, a trip to Costa Rica with a qualified bird guide to the Rain Forest would be a welcome, never to be forgotten experience!
When you see an unusual bird in your yard, review these three points. If you are still convinced you have a rare bird, get a clear picture and send it to the Cornell University of Ornathology. I know you will be describing it in your annual Bird Count . They have helped me several times as I progressed in my ability to identify birds. They are a great resource, and its free!
- Molting is a transition stage from season to season when their old feathers are replaced with new ones. Yet not all breeds and sexes experience it at the same intensity. The duration of the molt process varies by species as well.
- Juveniles in your back yard keep their plumage for only a short time, so they are hard to get to know. Often, the best giveaway is that you see a recognizable parent feeding the cryptic young. Often juveniles are more spotted or streaked than their parents while others are just dull and nondescript. Youngsters are seldom colorful.
- Unfamiliarity can be a challenge in the beginning and yet you can and will get better. Get a good pair of binoculars and observe the different markings of feathers, eyes, size, and mannerism. Get a good field guide and keep it handy.
Welcome to our world of exciting and rewarding birding!
Bird Information and Facts | Comment (0)Where Have All the Birds Gone?
Each fall and winter Massachusetts Audubon Society receives a number of calls from concerned citizens asking, in essence: “Where have all the birds gone?” Where there were once a lot of birds in the yard or at feeders, now there are almost none. How come? Unless there has been a significant change in the immediate area of a feeder, or in the local habitat, the answer will usually be explained by population dynamics. Populations of all songbirds are subject to natural fluctuations from year to year. These are usually associated with widespread success or failure during the breeding season, which in turn is related to weather, food supply, predators, and other conditions.
BIRD POPULATIONS VARY WITH THE SEASONS
Many people are under the impression that the birds they see in their yards from day to day are, like the trees and shrubs, constant elements. In fact, however, bird populations are extremely dynamic. For instance, there are some years when most, if not all, of the summering chickadees, Blue Jays, and other “resident” birds are replaced by a different wintering population. Because individuals of a species look pretty much the same, shifts in feeding birds usually go unnoticed except when concentrations become unusually large or when the out-going visitors are not immediately replaced by a new group of hungry customers.
When struck by a worrisome disappearance of birds in the early fall, people may start searching nearby woodlots and their fears are confirmed. Where recently the woods were full of songful birds there is now a pall of silence and inactivity. This too is completely normal. Except for unusually loquacious species such as mockingbirds, bird song essentially ceases by late summer. Because bird song is such an integral part of our outdoor experience, on a nice day in September we often fail to notice its absence unless we’re listening for it. Once they have left their breeding territories, birds tend to coalesce into feeding flocks, and it is not unusual for extensive sections of the landscape to be birdless when such a flock or flocks are elsewhere. There is nothing alarming about a prolonged silence in the depths of an autumn forest.
BIRDS FIND FOOD IN THE WILD
Wild foods include berries, weed seeds, mast (acorns and other nuts), and invertebrate sources such as lace bug larvae. These foods are subject to fluctuating availability both seasonally and from year to year. Birds will concentrate in regions where wild foods are particularly plentiful, thus leaving areas where there is less bounty. The availability of food in the wild will affect the number of winter residents, for example, if there is a poor mast crop in Massachusetts, Blue Jays will migrate farther south to where natural foods are more abundant. When Massachusetts experiences an unusually open winter in the early part of the season, the fields remain open, and the weed seeds are available to seedeaters, especially Dark-eyed Juncos and Tree Sparrows.
FALL WEATHER INFLUENCES WINTER POPULATIONS
Weather during the fall migration period is another factor that determines which birds will winter in Massachusetts. Some understanding of the mechanics of bird migration helps explain this relationship. Although we all recognize that the general trend of bird migration in the fall is southward, it is probably less well known that there is a significant movement of mostly immature birds that fly north in the fall. Apparently birds take their directional cues from the weather, and when a strong spring-like flow of warm southwest wind is the dominant weather pattern, they fly north. Most of these misguided waifs eventually move south, but if the northward movement has taken place late in the season and the internal drive to migrate has lessened, then they may spend the winter in the inhospitable northland, some to perish, some to survive. The number of Brown Thrashers and Northern Orioles, etc., that linger is almost solely dependent upon the weather influences of the late fall.
FEEDER FRUSTRATIONS
Many who ask “where are the birds?” have just put up their feeders for the season or for the first time ever. No flocks have descended. The feeders remain full of seed. Even the cardinals that nested in the yard haven’t come. The worried birdwatcher becomes suspicious that the bird seed is at fault, undertakes a thorough cleaning of the feeders, replacing the seed or even buying brand new. It is normal for weeks or even months to elapse before birds recognize and frequent a new feeding station. There are some considerations in the placement of a feeder which will affect the number of birds which will use it. Proximity to a sheltered staging area such as a bush provides for quick escape from predators and increases feeder visitation.
Finally, day to day visitation at a feeder may be influenced by neighborhood predators. Birds make themselves scarce when threatened by predators such as cats and hawks. It is not uncommon for a sharp-shinned hawk to frequent a feeding station while there are abundant birds there as easy prey. This is usually a temporary situation, if the birds are scared away the hawk will soon move on to other territory. For more information on feeders refer to the Massachusetts Audubon Society publication “Attracting Birds with Food.” Feeding birds is an increasingly popular winter activity, therefore it is possible that there is local competition for birds at backyard bird feeding stations. We encourage people to persist in their efforts and, as always, patience will be rewarded.
Bird Information and Facts | Comment (1)